I was completely convinced I would absolutely love this app when I first downloaded it. What RunKeeper Does (is supposed to do) is use the built-in GPS in your phone to track your fitness activities, including duration, distance, pace, speed, elevation, calories burned, and path traveled on a map. If you create a RunKeeper account, you can even store all of your historical activities on the RunKeeper website. It can chart activities like running, cycling, walking, hiking, skiing, wheelchair, and more.
Ultimately, I found this App to be more promise than performance. But lets take a closer look at some of the features and how it works. After installing RunKeeper from the Android Market, you'll probably want to create a RunKeeper account so that all your data can be saved on their website.
When you are ready to start your exercise, open Runkeeper and select your Activity Type. A real key point here is to ensure that the GPS signal is available otherwise you're aren't going to pull any info other than time elapsed. Look to see that the GPS Strength is green.
Tap to select your activity and then tap the large Start Activity button on the next page.
RunKeeper will start tracking your data as you exercise.
After my first run, I was bummed to see that RunKeeper recorded only my time. No distance. No info on calories burned. Apparently the GPS signal had not been working. I started running, assumed everything was working as promised only to find out at the end most of the expected data wasn't recorded.
Even after the initial GPS glitch, I remained confident that this app would be a big winner.For my next run, I made sure it was all working properly before I got into my full run. And, in fact it was. The timer was moving, along with the distance display, calories, and pace.
When I got home, I pulled up the data on the website and was thoroughly impressed. A Google map image displayed not only the path I took while running, but even details such as elevation and the speed I was running at various points. Take a look at the image below. It's really impressive.
In subsequent runs, however, I continued to have problems getting the GPS to work. I would start and stop the app several times and I even tried turning the phone off and on. Sometimes it worked and I would eventually pick up a GPS signal in the App. On many occasions, I just gave up after several minutes of trying.
Overview
When it actually works, RunKeeper is fantastic. However, it rarely actually worked for me. From what I can tell, the GPS just seems to be lousy. If it doesn't find a GPS signal the app is essentially worthless because without GPS it can only track time. I don't need an App for that.... I already have a watch. Most of the time, it couldn't find a GPS signal. This was especially odd since I certainly was not in rural location. I was testing this in a park right outside the city next to a major mall. I even tested Google navigation here in the park just to make sure it wasn't just a bad location. And, it's not. Other GPS apps work perfectly here.
Rating
I'm dropping a rating of 2 cups of coffee out of 5 on this one. If it happens to work for you every time, it's a 5. For me, It worked as advertised maybe 2 or 3 out of the 10 times I tried to use it. Overall, I found it more trouble than it was worth. That being said, I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying it, who knows, it might actually work wonderfully for you. There is also an iPhone app, so those of you who are Apple people can also give it a shot. The iPhone App comes in both a free and Pro version that runs $9.99.
Note: I reviewed RunKeeper Free App for Android. Version 2.0.0.5
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