Not All Phone Pedometers Count The Same

Most probably this can be said about pedometers in general. It's up to the user to program in the length of our stride, but recently I've discovered a discrepancy even as to the distance different phones claim people walk.

As you know, if you're a reader of this blog, I have a Galaxy II and use the WalkLogger app. Twice I've been walking with people who have iphones, which has its own pedometer app, and each time we discovered that the iphone credits the walker with lots more steps and distance than mine. A couple of weeks ago I was with my friend for dinner, and afterwards we both checked our phone pedometers and amazingly they both said 4,300. I had taken a couple of nice walks and she had been pretty sedentary that day, which did seem either strange or that we incorrectly perceived our exercise and walking.

We then walked around Cinema City, Jerusalem where the restaurant was. And then we compared numbers again. She had reached an impressive 5,000, while my app only gave me 4,500. We had been together and walked the exact same distance and have the same basic height and stride. I've held my phone while walking to check that it counts my paces correctly, which it does.

Have others noticed such discrepancies?

At least it's good to know that I take many more steps than are registered on the phone.