Which phone do you have and how well does the GPS perform on it?
How long does it take to lock?
Is it accurate?
Does it lose its lock?
How does it perform while travelling at speed or around tall buildings, indoors, in a train, etc?
MediaTek phones seem to have a bad reputation for GPS performance, is this warranted?
Are there different types of GPS systems in phones?
http://www.mediatek.com/en/products/connectivity/gps/
and some propaganda promotion from Qualcomm boasting about how their GPS is much better than their rivals
https://www.qualcomm.com/videos/snapdragon-400-gps-performan…
Nowadays, If a phone manufacturer can create new phone with guaranteed super fast accurate stable gps locking, that phone will become best seller beating iPhone, for sure.
Hint, Pokémon go
On the other hand some players might be looking for phones with unstable GPS so they are moving all over the place to make incubating eggs faster.
Mine just loses signal and refuses to work. 😠
I need a new phone but the samsung edge design is more about form and hinders function.
Couldn't you just fudge the GPS signal?
Like a lot of players did with Ingress? Yes, but risky… You can easily get banned from the game if you are detected using mock locations.
I also discovered a hacking site where you can add currency into the game through an unpatched exploit. Will not link to it though because it might contain malware.
I have a tablet with a A33 Allwinner chip and the GPS only picks up two satellites at most when inside (GPS Status).
It does work outside where there is a clear view of the sky but only picks up around 6 whichfor some reason it not enough by itself to get a GPS fix without turning on "High Accuracy Mode". I think there needs to be 4 but they need to be in different positions.
Phones are crap at GPS.
Along with most other things :D
The one time I ever tried using my now unused iphone it wanted to take me the scenic route to get to where I was going. Then when it told me to turn left off the highway, instead of right, I decided I was never using it again.
Route and navigation are not a function of the GPS They are part of the mapping or navigation program you are using, such as Google Maps, Here Maps, Sygic maps, etc.
The question is about the GPS receiver itself. The one on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro is the best I have seen on a phone, able to see 31 satellites at any time and usually lock to 15 or more of them. It even works reasonably weel indoors when in sight of a window, which is a big ask for any GPS, which really need to have a view of the sky.
able to see 31 satellites at any time
How does it see them through the Earth? o_0
My Samsung Galaxy S3's GPS works just fine, I used to use a dedicated GPS stuck to the windscreen but now just use the phone. Speech input with Google maps is perfect and the online maps always up to date, never loses lock and always accurate. Only time it fails is when there is no data connection, then I use Sygic with downloaded maps, no speech input or output but good enough for when I'm off the black-top!😊
Can play Pokemon 👍
On which device? ¬_¬
Ahaha, Nexus 4
The quality of location capture will vary somewhat, device to device, but I think the issue for phones over dedicated GPS is the matter of pre-installed maps. Though the location is provided by satellite and in some cases, telecom tower data while out on the road phones generally use 3G/4G data plans to continually update the map for the nearby location to provide the screen geo data. If the connection is poor, slow or not working - and has not been preloaded earlier when in net coverage, you will not be able to see your location displayed. A good solution is Sygic maps which as mentioned in a previous post provides pre-downloaded map graphics. (It is a paid app I might add). Sygic does not rely on an Internet connection during your journey and therefore may suit some users. If you are concerned about data usage also consider Sygic.
No doubt there are differences in GPS performance between handsets but probably the bigger issue is differences between handsets and dedicated GPS set which do not rely on internet connections.
A big advantage of a phone/tablet based GPS is integration with Intenet based services from Google to just about anything imaginable by way of third party programs and speech commands many of which features are unavailable on dedicated GPS. Hope this clarifies.
You're conflating GPS with GPS navigation apps. This thread is about GPS.
If your GPS navigation app tells you that it can't find your location or that you are on a street which you aren't, that is the fault of the GPS not the navigation app.
I recently got an iPhone 3. Yes I know, it came third hand from family members with a pre-cracked screen. [Incidentally, I'm using this with Aldimobile prepaid which gives me phone calls as well as emails and internet when on the move. I'm not a big data user - most things will wait till I get home - and the cost is 2 or 3 dollars a month].
But it's got a surprising good GPS built in, which I've been using with a free/paid app called Runmeter for tracking my walks with the dog. It gives results as good as my Garmin Forerunner 15 GPS watch and is more convenient as it shows maps of where I am and the track of where I've been. As I'm using it for walking, I would say it's accurate to around +- 5 metres or less.
The only drawback is that when the GPS is being used, it chews up the battery pretty fast, it will maybe last 2 or 3 hours. Haven't flattened it yet.
The GPS lock seems pretty quick and stable. On the last walk, it said that it lost GPS signal for 6 minutes, but it's normally solid.
I haven't tried it for driving - I've got a perfectly good Garmin nuvi 52.
Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Pro - No issues with obtaining lock from my experiences with it. Has worked well with Pokemon Go (probably the reason you are asking). Worked well in car and have also played on the train (once) with no real issues. Can obtain lock inside near window easily.
I have mediatek phone and it was picking up like 20 satellites during my recent Japan trip. I was trying to measure bullet train speed with speedometer gps app.
I have never had an issue with GPS on my iPhone 5 and 5S. I use it multiple times per week. Locks within a second and seems to be accurate within a couple of metres. But I think iPhones/Google Maps also use wi-fi signals of known base stations (from the Google cars mapping wi-fi base station names/signal strength) to add further accuracy. So it's possible that the GPS could be slightly less accurate and wi-fi base station names/signals are making it look even more accurate. Hard to tell really how accurate GPS is on a phone when using standard map/fitness/running apps that are using more than just GPS to track your position. But regardless of exactly what it uses to track position, the result on my iPhone 5 and 5S is excellent.
On Android devices the location data source can usually be set to GPS only.
Terrible. It's forever jumping everywhere.
Sorry, Galaxy S4.
Haven't faced any issues using Google Maps or other GPS apps using my LG G4 yet.
E72 on agps locks on pretty quick. With out assistance it could take up to a couple of mins when in motion to lock on.
S3/note 2 agps is pretty darn good but without assistance again takes time.
S5 again good and acurate like all other handsets ut without assistance there is a bit if a delay in locking on.
Coupled with the here maps i have given up on a dedicated system as these do enough for me anyway.
Well it's hard to review it without being able to compare to other GPS services.
Overall I am impressed by the tech and couldn't ask for more.
I think to get any decent reviews you'd need to compare a few phones. Are there different types of GPS systems in phones?