[REQ] GPS track made with a Nexus S - Nexus S General

I want to compare Nexus S's GPS to Galaxy S's. So could anyone there make a simple track with Nexus S walking and driving for atleast 2km. If possible do the tracking with a Galaxy S tracking at the same time as well.
Thanks

I actually have both a Nexus S and Vibrant, so I could do this for you. Is there any particular app you have in mind to do it with?

I guess you can use MyTracks.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I did a 14km mountain bike ride with Runkeeper on, yesterday. Was my first try with the app (normally use MyTracks but this was my first ride since switching to the Nexus S). Not sure how to share it but this link is a start.
One thing I did notice is that the beginning of my ride included a 28 mile 'warp' from where I'd been using Google Maps the day before! I guess in future I need to give it a little more time establishing that initial fix before I press start. Luckily I was able to edit out that point to get the real route.

Please someone make a Mytracks tracking With a Nexus S and another phone (preferably HTC cause those have very good GPS units) and upload the results.

There you go.
I just made this one with my Nexus S:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U....555383,-44.264713&spn=0.002128,0.003484&z=19
Keep in mind that the sky was full of heavy clouds so I can't guarantee that the GPS was operating on its full accuracy.
A couple of months ago I made a track recording with my Motorola Milestone, here's the link:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...900089483924351110.0004990b6c3698b559c65&z=14
When I first saw the Nexus S track i was like "holy sh*t this looks bad". But then I went to my old milestone track and it was almost the same. You can only see how bad it is once you zoom in a lot.

nicholasbgr said:
There you go.
I just made this one with my Nexus S:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U....555383,-44.264713&spn=0.002128,0.003484&z=19
Keep in mind that the sky was full of heavy clouds so I can't guarantee that the GPS was operating on its full accuracy.
A couple of months ago I made a track recording with my Motorola Milestone, here's the link:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...900089483924351110.0004990b6c3698b559c65&z=14
When I first saw the Nexus S track i was like "holy sh*t this looks bad". But then I went to my old milestone track and it was almost the same. You can only see how bad it is once you zoom in a lot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Based on these two I would say that the Nexus S GPS is still not good enough or its just the weather. I hope the latter.

I'll try to post one of my old tracks from the same location made with HTC Hero (custom ROM though) and Google MyTracks. I'd do it now but the interface is impossible on this netbook screen!
Anyway - for me the Nexus S gets a fix much faster and seems generally at least as accurate, possibly more so.

You will only get at best about 3.5m accuracy from a regular gps device without dgps (waas/egnos). No phones that I know of, support dgps. With dgps you can get accurate to about 0.9m
If you need more accuracy then there are external gps/bluetooth modules that have dgps and fast refresh rates, for about $80.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Worse GPS than N1
Anecdotally and without any quantifiable experimentation, but based on using mytracks with GPS extremely regularly for running, I can say the GPS in the Nexus S seems a bit worse thanin the Nexus One. I didn't have both in my possession simultaneously for long enough to do the same track with both but I have loads of old Nexus One tracked routes I could re-run with the Nexus S to compare. The N1 gave me trouble every once in a while too though and the clouds have been rowdy lately, possibly contributing, so I'm optimistic. It's bearable in any case other than seeming to take more of a battery drain (again, anecdotally).

OK, here's a bunch of tracks from my HTC Hero if you're interested in trying to compare them.
http://goo.gl/maps/XSG4
(For convenience, the Nexus S link from earlier is this)
As I say, based purely on my observation the Nexus S gets the fix faster. Having a zoomed-in look at the two maps would say to me they're both as accurate as I could wish for.

from what I understand, the gps chip in the ns is good in terms of performance, locks faster, keeps lock longer under low signal conditions etc but isn't necessarily any more accurate than any of the previous models wear. gps accuracy is purposely limited for civilian use and I believe most chips out there can achieve that accuracy as long as they are able to track the required number of satellites.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

eahiv said:
Anecdotally and without any quantifiable experimentation, but based on using mytracks with GPS extremely regularly for running, I can say the GPS in the Nexus S seems a bit worse thanin the Nexus One.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with this. I use my gps and navigation all the time to drive around and the nexus s gps is typically 30 - 50ft behind the positioning marker. With my N1 it felt like the marker was about 10ft within my location.
Also I notice that the gps sometimes misplaces my postioning marker on the map and the compass points in the wrong direction. These arent problems I had with my N1 but perhaps because its cloudier now than when I had my N1.
I'd give the N1 gps a 9, and the NS gps a 6. What makes up for the weird accuracy issues is the bigger screen.

Thank you for all the replies. If at all possible, could someone still make one comparison with an external bluetooth gps, for example the nokia LD-3W. Also the higher update rate GPS's would be nice to compare.
As of the results, I'd conclude that Nexus S definitely has the same GPS chip and almost the same firmware as the SGS's, but antennas have definitely been improved. Atleast now the GPS on all SGS series devices, including the Nexus S, are capable of running a "satnav" properly. Now if I only could get my compass and accelerometer working on my SGS / JPX

I'm planning on getting an external bt GPS module for autocross, I'll report back then.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Related

very short gps test with My Tracks

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=U...372,0.018947&z=16&iwloc=00048f225d8da9a32da25
on a very very clear day with the Vibrant in my cycling jersey pocket on my back.
supl.google.com
sky hook on
MS Based
a few blips but its fairly close. but should be better. It's not unusable like some say.
It is unusable for some people, you happened to be able to use skyhook. If you were in the middle of nowhere that wouldnt help you.
Yea I used it also and it seems to be a bit off on the track
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Never been unusable for me either. Actually fairly accurate ill have to do a my tracks later....
Lol you guys sound like some of the customers I deal with everyday. These are consumer grade devices. If you want something accurate go buy a Trimble GPS device and spend the thousands of dollars it takes to acquire one. I think even with the hiccups, your tracks are pretty decent. This is a cellphone, not a true GPS device.
BTW I work for Garmin so with my background of GPS and how it works this is probably why the inaccuracies in your track do not bother me. One thing you have to understand there are so many factors that can play into why you might of had these spikes....Heavy tree coverage, cloud over cast, power lines, tall buildings etc...Signal multi-path can also play into these types of spikes. Not bashing, but I think it does a pretty good job for what it is.
Steeltippin said:
Lol you guys sound like some of the customers I deal with everyday. These are consumer grade devices. If you want something accurate go buy a Trimble GPS device and spend the thousands of dollars it takes to acquire one. I think even with the hiccups, your tracks are pretty decent. This is a cellphone, not a true GPS device.
BTW I work for Garmin so with my background of GPS and how it works this is probably why the inaccuracies in your track do not bother me. One thing you have to understand there are so many factors that can play into why you might of had these spikes....Heavy tree coverage, cloud over cast, power lines, tall buildings etc...Signal multi-path can also play into these types of spikes. Not bashing, but I think it does a pretty good job for what it is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Um I am sorry I disagree with you, with my first smart phone, the G1 took seconds to lock on to 4+ birds ... and my vibrant .. see's 10 and locks on to 1 .. and its not even the one with the strongest signal ... then there is an issue. I think that is what people are complaining about.
I agree .. if the true purpose of getting something is for GPS alone, then a Garmin etc .. is great.
aohmer said:
Um I am sorry I disagree with you, with my first smart phone, the G1 took seconds to lock on to 4+ birds ... and my vibrant .. see's 10 and locks on to 1 .. and its not even the one with the strongest signal ... then there is an issue. I think that is what people are complaining about.
I agree .. if the true purpose of getting something is for GPS alone, then a Garmin etc .. is great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The G1 had almost the same exact problem with the GPS when it was first released in October of 08. In the beginning of December, it was updated OTA and it was fixed completely. The update for the Vibrant is coming this month, have faith.
scooterman said:
supl.google.com
sky hook on
MS Based
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Skyhook is not GPS. Period.
scooterman said:
a few blips but its fairly close. ...ore it a 7/10, usable, but far from the best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The release notes for the new Obsidian 2.2 ROM from TW says the GPS is "very accurate". I'm assuming it's got the real 2.2 drivers and SW.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of the JI6 and 2.2 GPS accuracy.
I've definitely had issues with significant inaccuracy using the Vibrant GPS for driving. It's usually fine, but sometimes it goes into rapid recalculations due to miscalculating my location on nearby streets. It's can be quite annoying if you're depending on it. I've used several standalone GPS units over the years and haven't seen this behavior before. In some ways the Vibrant GPS is better than my current standalone unit, but this inconsistent accuracy is a significant flaw.
I'm hoping 2.2 will include some improvements.
samnada said:
The release notes for the new Obsidian 2.2 ROM from TW says the GPS is "very accurate". I'm assuming it's got the real 2.2 drivers and SW.
It would be interesting to see a comparison of the JI6 and 2.2 GPS accuracy.
I've definitely had issues with significant inaccuracy using the Vibrant GPS for driving. It's usually fine, but sometimes it goes into rapid recalculations due to miscalculating my location on nearby streets. It's can be quite annoying if you're depending on it. I've used several standalone GPS units over the years and haven't seen this behavior before. In some ways the Vibrant GPS is better than my current standalone unit, but this inconsistent accuracy is a significant flaw.
I'm hoping 2.2 will include some improvements.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although GPS test reports an accuracy of 6-10 yards roughly, once I start Maps, the accuracy varies on a much wider range. Driving in big city is not much fun when you could be anywhere within a 200 yard range.

JI6 GPS vs other smartphones

I just got the JI6 update and the GPS is definitely much better. However, I was wondering how it matches up to the GPS on other smartphones.
Does anyone have a Nexus One or another android phone to compare it to? Could you please post some results. Only post results from the official OTA JI6 update.
I just got my OTA update this morning.
I am comparing my Vibrant with my BF's Nexus One (running Froyo 2.21) using GPS test.
The result:
Nexus views fewer satellites and locks them much faster than my vibrant on the other hand Vibrant views more satellites locks them a bit slower (Nexus : in view : 8 in use 8 instantly, VIbrant in view : 13 in use 7)
Nexus has better accuracy 9.9 feet VS. 22ish feet on vibrant.
I definitely like the gps on my vibrant much better after the OTA.
I am curious about the GPS performance test among other samsung galaxy s brethren (Captivate, Epic 4G, and Fascinate)
yea my nexus had much better GPS
and got instant lock when any app required gps location
but vibrant works perfectly fine just takes little longer
Just tested against N1 in a real life situation using C:Geo on both phones and the N1 had me rock solid on a Geocache and the Vibrant had me 15 feet off of it plus after trying to get my bearings it decided to start wondering off and I ended up in another county in 3 minutes. The N1 GPS just works and work rock solid, the Vibrants GPS is obviously not a hardware issue but a software issue. The reason I say that is because when I got the Vibrant Geocaching was a no go at all, wouldn't even lock onto enough sat's to be useful. Now at least it has me within 15 feet of my caches.
So all in all it has improved, but it is still not as good as my old N1.
Gps on the vibrant sucks. I honestly believe it's a hardware issue. JI6 update addressed a stupid software issue that prevented the gps to lock onto satellites probably due to wrong time information, but even after that, performance is really lacking.
I have a nexus one, and it gets a fix in less than 5 seconds with an accuracy of 2 m (6 feet). Once it gets a fix, it doesn't wander all over the map. It stays put.
The vabrant ( before and after JI6) doesn't get an accuracy better than 6 meters (20 ft). That's not to bad, but in google maps, it starts jumping all over the map until it settles -usually- at the farthest place from the actual location.
After JI6, the gps locks very quickly, definitely an improvement, but it it's more important the accuracy than the TTF.
In google navigation, when you stop at a red light, the inaccuracies og the gps and its constant jumping from place to place, triggers re-route after re-route. This is uncomfortable and dangerous when you are driving in an unfamiliar area.
The phone is great, but could have been better had some minimal QA been done.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
reddragon72 said:
Just tested against N1 in a real life situation using C:Geo on both phones and the N1 had me rock solid on a Geocache and the Vibrant had me 15 feet off of it plus after trying to get my bearings it decided to start wondering off and I ended up in another county in 3 minutes. The N1 GPS just works and work rock solid, the Vibrants GPS is obviously not a hardware issue but a software issue. The reason I say that is because when I got the Vibrant Geocaching was a no go at all, wouldn't even lock onto enough sat's to be useful. Now at least it has me within 15 feet of my caches.
So all in all it has improved, but it is still not as good as my old N1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This saddens me. I used to be able to cache almost exclusively off of my G1, unless under heavy cover.
studing
After manually flashing the updated (the OTA bricked my phone), I tested the GPS on its own, as well as side by side with my wife's G2. While JI6 allows the Vibrant to get a satellite lock in seconds, the accuracy of the GPS is virtually nonexistent, with the location bouncing all over the place. Forget about stopping at a red light - the cursor will start jumping around, sometimes placing me 2-3 blocks away from my actual location. While driving on a local highway (with a clear view of the sky), the GPS would frequently lose signal, although it would lock on again in a few seconds. Although the Vibrant can now get a satellite lock, the accuracy has not been fixed. The G2 does not suffer from these issues, reporting accuracy of 4-6 feet and getting a much quicker satellite lock than the Vibrant.
I am starting to think it is definitely a hardware issue. With GPS test I am getting locks on 9 of 10 or 10 of 12 satellites, but the bar is not very high for the signal on any satellite. Driving down the road it losses signal randomly. My G1 and HD2 had much better GPS performance.
I guess I will live with this until it is time to get another upgrade phone for the cheap price. Maybe the new Mytouch when it comes out. I have extra lines on my account just so I can get early upgrades. An extra line using the same minutes is $5 a month. It is worth it to me to keep getting new phones and selling the other phone on ebay.
Just did a side by side test with my Vibrant running Bionix 1.7 with the JI6 modem.bin vs. my wife’s brand new G2. My Vibrant instantly saw 13 satellites and took around 10 seconds to lock 11 of those 13. Initially it showed 90 ft. accuracy and after around 20-30 seconds it was bouncing between 18-25 ft. on accuracy. On my wife’s G2 as soon as I opened up GPS Test it saw 11 satellites and locked all 11. It initially showed 20 ft. on accuracy and then after 2-3 seconds it showed 12 ft. on accuracy. I watched it for about 2-3 minutes and it didn't really move as far as how many satellites it had locked or its accuracy.
Gps will never be as good as other phones lets face it, but it does the job, it haven't failed me yet since ji2 and up..... Not perfect but usable... I'd rather have a not so great gps that still works vs a n1s multi touch bug that don't get real mt......
Take the good with the bad
I just flashed the ji6 and although the GPS is improved it is far from being fixed. With my Nexus One and G2 I get a fix within 5 seconds and usually locks on all birds. With the Vibrant it takes much longer and the best it can do is 5 out of 12 birds. This GPS is a real shame as it takes a marvelous phone and makes it less than stellar IMO. I would love to use the Vibrant as my Main Phone but with the GPS still not quite right it is not happening as I use GPS everyday throughout the day/.
For those that have gotten the update, what are your GPS settings now? Is it a different server?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Agreed with most comments already posted. The update helped to lock faster, but accuracy really sucks. Google navigation only works about 70% of the time. I find my location drifting to side streets quite often which keeps triggering re-routes all the time. I lose lock randomly (although it does regain lock fairly quickly).
Overall, compared to all other android smart phones I've used, the accuracy/reliability of gps is horrible.
I've also lost all hope in a software fix. With all the press it got and the two plus months to release a fix with marginal improvement...means one of two things.
1-samsung software engineers suck or
2-its a hardware issue and they've done the best they can with software to optimize the broken hardware.
Although both may be true to some degree ... I think we are dealing with case #2...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Roomates Nexus one sees 7 satellites, 10 seconds lock.
My vibrant JI6 sees 9 satellites, 4.5 minute lock
GPS is no worse than the other phones I currently have access to.
Google Maps doesn't jump around like Google Navigation. Google needs to implement smoothing software into their navigation program. Copliot works great with JI6 and Google Navigation gets Parkinson's disease at stop lights. Like I said, same place and Google Maps shows me as stationary while Google Navigation is all over the place
heygrl said:
GPS is no worse than the other phones I currently have access to.
Google Maps doesn't jump around like Google Navigation. Google needs to implement smoothing software into their navigation program. Copliot works great with JI6 and Google Navigation gets Parkinson's disease at stop lights. Like I said, same place and Google Maps shows me as stationary while Google Navigation is all over the place
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. With CoPilot it works perfect. I havnt noticed any jumping around at all. The only problem I have had with the GPS since JI6 is that it sometimes takes 3-5 minutes to get a lock on my location.
Try to delete your GPS Data and make sure it's all stock under lbstestmode. I get locks fairly quickly.
kgbkny said:
While JI6 allows the Vibrant to get a satellite lock in seconds, the accuracy of the GPS is virtually nonexistent, with the location bouncing all over the place. Forget about stopping at a red light - the cursor will start jumping around, sometimes placing me 2-3 blocks away from my actual location. While driving on a local highway (with a clear view of the sky), the GPS would frequently lose signal, although it would lock on again in a few seconds. Although the Vibrant can now get a satellite lock, the accuracy has not been fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got the identical behavior last night. Is the GPS that flawed that it thinks it's moving when it's not? If they could at least have the software not move the pointer when you're standing still that would likely make a huge difference. Instead it moves you onto another street and starts speaking out "corrections".

Samsung changed the GPS antenna in vibrant

Hi today I bough a Samsung vibrant from T-Mobile an the date on the box is 10/26/10 and it came already updated software and I truer the GPS and its perfect locked in 8 seconds and while I was driving it kept on the road spot on. I had vibrants before maybe 4 of them and the back cover is smooth I think the ones I had before I fulfilled feel the dots now its smooth. I think they changed the phone internals becouse even the vibrants I had before after update the GPS was crap. Anyone had any experiance?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Mine locks pretty quick too, I never had any GPS problems since I got the phone two weeks ago.
So does that mean the rest of us that got our phone, few months back are screwed?
That's what owning a samsung phone is like always getting screwed. The days are numberd
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
What?! Does this mean we wont get a fix for the other people? I'm always travelling and GPS is one of the most useful things I need... my old blackberry has a perfect GPS isn't this meant to be a smartphone
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
The thing is that all the phones have something wrong or screwed IP there is no phone that is perfect its just us we are beeping to perfectionists.
My wife and I got ours on the buy 1 get 1 free deal. Ours are both dated 09/26/2010. The SIM Serial # on hers ends in 22288F and mine end in 22296F.
It takes me about 45 second to a minute to get a lock running Axura 2.0.4 and I got a lock using 6 of 7 satellites with accuracy of about 70 feet.
My brother-in-law standing right next to me with a HTC Dream G1 locked on 12 of 14 satellites in about 9 -10 seconds and a accuracy of 10 feet running stock.
My wife running stock saw 2 satellites and never got a lock.
EDIT: This thread is now depreciated. Please visit http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=878970 for a fix. I thought I would put the edit here so you don't have to read to page 7 to see the link to the fix.
they didnt change the antenna..give it a few days and i gurantee u it wont work as good
My gps has worked since day one
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
You did not buy a GPS Receiver, you bought a phone with a GPS antenna which is used to track your movement. It just also happens to receive signals from GPS satellites that you are able to use. If you require dead on GPS location then you should go buy a GPS Receiver.
Think of all the things this phone does. It doesn't do any of them better than a device designed to do just that. All-in-one devices are never as good as the devices they are designed to combine.
Zylograth said:
You did not buy a GPS Receiver, you bought a phone with a GPS antenna which is used to track your movement. It just also happens to receive signals from GPS satellites that you are able to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is correct, BUT when pretty much EVERY other Android phone on the market out performs it in this aspect, there is a flaw in the system. As stated, the G1 locks on faster & stays locked on much better than this phone.
With that said, I tell the GPS where I want to go, and by the time I've left my neighborhood, it's working great. The fact that it takes 10 times longer to lock on doesn't really matter to me.
Using all of the Bionix ROMs and now using the Axura 2.0.5 ROMs, I've been happy with my GPS. When I was using complete stock, it was crap. IIRC, JI6 wasn't bad though.
I'm currently playing with a friends Galaxy Tab and inside nowhere near a window, it locked on and showed my location without the wireless network assist or verizon location assist being turned on (but that could just be because the phone is bigger and would therefore use a larger antenna).
It's just sad what has happened to businesses, they really just don't care about consumers. I really doubt we'll ever see a fix and if we do, i doubt it'll work for more than 50% of people. I've never been so disappointed with a company. The only thing we can do is just never buy samsung again. Just so disappointing all around.
Microwave frequencies antenna design is fraught with both peril and magic
tjhart85 said:
I'm currently playing with a friends Galaxy Tab and inside nowhere near a window, it locked on and showed my location without the wireless network assist or verizon location assist being turned on (but that could just be because the phone is bigger and would therefore use a larger antenna).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NOPE! All antennas must be designed with a physical length that matches the frequency they are designed to operate at. For GPS this is 1575.42 Mhz and therefore due to the physics of radio frequency ALL GPS antennas are about 7.5 inches long, they have to be to work. Antennas typically work better if they are designed with some type of coil (wrapped around something) so by the time you take 7.5 inches of wire and coil it the resulting antenna is quite small. You can also make a panel antenna by creating a trace of conductive line on a flat surface, but the length still has to be the same to work. Regardless of the size of the device it is going into, if you want the antenna to work at a specific frequency it must be a specific length - end of discussion.
So if the GPS issue varies from phone to phone so much, assuming the antenna is the problem, but it can be affected by software, what is likely the problem? Logic would say that it might be either poor quality control in manufacturing causing slight variances in length (at 1575.42 Mhz a small difference in length can make a big difference) or a design that partially obstructs the antenna. Software can not fix the physical antenna issue, but it can compensate by attempting to filter noise better thus increasing the receiver sensitivity, boosting transmit power, or by shifting phase of the signal to make minor adjustments to the effective conductive length of the antenna.
Another possible issue (but less likely because I see no way for software to effect this) is that Samsung did not get a good impedance match between their antenna and their radio. If this was the case you would lose a great deal of signal to and create a lot of noise because of reflective power. Transmitting at a lower power would reduce over all signal, and boosting power would just create a greater reflective power problem.
lolcopter said:
My gps has worked since day one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ditto
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I too am a replacement Vibrant GPS lover now. Both phones were stock. It has been a week with the new phone and I have not seen any decrease in the GPS performance yet. The old phone had mic issues
I have read many of the GPS posts, but will admit I have not read them all so I don't know if this was talked about yet. While outside tonight as I was doing my daily test I turned the phone upside down so screen is facing the ground and my signal improved from the mid 30's of the "in use" sats to the low to mid 40's. It was nice to see a lot of green for a change. Accuracy improved too. Not sure how the GPS gear is mounted in the phone, but it sure looks like there is a lot stronger signal coming in the the back side then the screen side.
My "use wireless networks" is off
I did this test a number of times while keeping the phone the same distance from the ground. Same results. If there is any other questions or other tests I would be happy to do what I can.
So there you go, the GPS works great, we all just need to hold the phone above our heads..
Zylograth said:
You did not buy a GPS Receiver, you bought a phone with a GPS antenna which is used to track your movement. It just also happens to receive signals from GPS satellites that you are able to use. If you require dead on GPS location then you should go buy a GPS Receiver.
Think of all the things this phone does. It doesn't do any of them better than a device designed to do just that. All-in-one devices are never as good as the devices they are designed to combine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My g1 and mytouch 3g and nexus all had great GPS. The sgs is advertised as the premier device. We have every reason to expect GPS to work and we have absolutely no reason to think one of the advertised features will be broken. GPS is a huge part of smartphones, and since its proven to work on thousands of handsets for years it should work on our vibrants. Maybe new technology gets flexibility but this is GPS we are talking about, its been done and been done perfectly a thousand times over. The phone has plenty of small bugs which is acceptable. Its not acceptable for GPS to be f****d. I think even Samsung would say its unacceptable that I have to carry around my nexus one for its GPS. My vibrant works until I'm about 2/3 of the way to my destination. So basically my screen starts spinning when I'm about as lost as possible. Thank God for my nexus one
GPS on the Vibrant is not a hardware issue. If they have change the hardware, which I doubt, it wouldn't have fixed anything unless they also changed the software. And if they've fixed the software -- which they did in JI2 and JI6 for most people -- then we'll get that fix with the official 2.2 release. OR you could just flash a custom wrong and get good GPS now.
Hi this is the software I have on the phone.
Firmware version. 2.1-update1
Baseband version. T959UVJI6
Karnel version. 2.6.29
Build number. ECLAIR.UVJI6
I don't know if anything diferrent.
Sent from my SCH-I800 using XDA App
I don't understand the comparison to other devices and talk of "I'll never buy another Samsung device."
Since the Galaxy's screen demolishes the competition, I guess the rest of the manufacturers out the are just junk. They are supposed to be top of the line devices so their screen should be as good as this subpar samsung.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
My GPS has worked since day one.
raverj said:
Ditto
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
But certainly Samsung should be better at fixes and T-mobile couldn't be any slower.
Still by far the best device I've ever had, and I had a lot. Axura
And Froyo pull it all together.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

gps precision

Hello,
Got a gs2 and still have my incredible s so I tested GPS precision: got 4 meters for the HTC and not stable and lower precision 18/20 meters on gs2.
Is something adjustable with new kernels?
Another two questions : about voice low quality ( someone said that it depends from noise reduction filet) and low volume during a call are these issues already addressed by some roms?
Low volume and quality with earphones is addressed too?
Thanks!
GPS is a disappointment. On my old pda asus a696 precision is much better. I wish gps was working better for me, I use it with sport tracking software. I changed ntp server, played with all kinds of gps apps, updated AGPS data, helped a bit but fix is still slow and precision is almost always more then 30m.
If anybody saw an improvement on some ROM or kernel, please let me know.
Attached my device info.
bzpwhx2 said:
Hello,
Got a gs2 and still have my incredible s so I tested GPS precision: got 4 meters for the HTC and not stable and lower precision 18/20 meters on gs2.
Is something adjustable with new kernels?
No as no reported flaw in GPS so nothing with GPS altered that i have seen.
jje
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i am honestly very disappointed with the sgs2's gps precision. tested it side by side with the HTC Chacha...rebooted, cleared gps data and redownloaded it (Gps status app), then run test on both devices for abt 2-3 mins.
SGS2 7/7 satelites, error 40m!!!
HTC Chacha 10/10 satelites, error 6-10m!!!
frm both rooted 2.3.4 and stock firmware ...
I agree that the precision (error) is bad on the S2. However, in my experience, when I open maps and look at the location, it seems to be just about dead on. Meaning, even though there is often a blue circle, the center of the circle is extremely close to my actual position. So, I think the issue may be with how the phone calculates the "error" and not with any real inaccuracy. It feels like the reported error value is double what it should really be based on my position on google maps. This is just my experience, ymmv.
TheSopranos16 said:
I agree that the precision (error) is bad on the S2. However, in my experience, when I open maps and look at the location, it seems to be just about dead on. Meaning, even though there is often a blue circle, the center of the circle is extremely close to my actual position. So, I think the issue may be with how the phone calculates the "error" and not with any real inaccuracy. It feels like the reported error value is double what it should really be based on my position on google maps. This is just my experience, ymmv.
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I agree with this. I was puzzled at first too when I looked at the accuracy reading, but then I realized that the actual positioning was much better than the reported 'error margin'.
The GPS itself is fine, but whatever algorithm they use to report accuracy is flawed..or should I say, could be better.
TheSopranos16 said:
However, in my experience, when I open maps and look at the location, it seems to be just about dead on.
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Same here.
jimbiye said:
I agree with this. I was puzzled at first too when I looked at the accuracy reading, but then I realized that the actual positioning was much better than the reported 'error margin'.
The GPS itself is fine, but whatever algorithm they use to report accuracy is flawed..or should I say, could be better.
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GPS accuracy is a statistical estimate of the maximum error and many assumptions must be made when calculating this, and I don't think different manufactureres does this in the same way.
So a HTC could very well report better accuracy than SGS2 but provide worse position (or vice versa).
Here is an interesting article about GPS accuracy, it mainly concerns static accuracy (reported accuracy in specifications), but the problems are basically the same for dynamic accuracy.
http://www.romdas.com/technical/gps/gps-acc.htm
When I've logged driving on a highway with SGS2 (with my tracks, i e no map matching or other filtering) the position is often within the correct lane but still SGS2 reports 10 meter accuracy (good GPS reception). But once in a while the position drifts a bit further away, mabe 5-10 meters. I would guess I get similar results with other modern smart phones with good GPS even if they report 4 meter accuracy. What phone is wrong in this case? The one reporting 4 meter accuracy that often is correct or the one reporting 10 meters that is even more often correct?
So please compare the phones by logging routes simultanously with "my tracks" instead. I've seen very few tests doing this, and SGS2 seems to do very well in the few tests I've seen
But not only the accuracy is an issue but initial fix is very slow compared to other phones. Even in hotstart mode when it had fix ten minutes ago it still most times takes over a minute to get a fix vs 7 to 10 secs on my Sgs 1
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk
I had this problem and found that disabling wifi with data enabled led to much faster first fixes - I assume because the a-GPS data could be obtained more quickly direct from the carrier rather than over the wifi?
Also my UK phone shipped with a US NTP time server. I have since rooted and used GPS Aids to change this and refresh the other GPS data and now have no problems getting a first fix, usually in under 10 seconds.
Last week i traveled to Bosnia and used GPS on my SGS2 for the first time. I have only good words for it as with IGo it was very accurate (in a meter).But as i see with Google maps app GPS is wrong up to 20m.
I was also concerned about the gps first cause it seemed to show very inaccurate results and I have used gps with running a lot. However after using it to track my tracks I have to say that its 98% perfect. Also used it to navigate while driving and its also perfect. Samsung has just done something which makes it look like it would be more inaccurate but reality it is not.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
same here. I tested GPS performance a few times when i was walking (relatively static), the error was never under 10 meters, however it did not have a problem tracking my position.
In the other hand, I did have some long long GPS locks from time to time, once in a while the GPS just cannot seem to find my position, despite the fact that I am standing outdoors with no tall buildings around.
Overall experience, just acceptable.

[VIDEO DEMO] Note GPS performance - update: article up now too

Video demo of the GPS, couple of picture-in-picture screencasts to show GPSinfo and the Navigation screen on the same route too (different trips, immediately following each other):
Detailed blog post to accompany all this @ AndroidNZ.net including lots of raw MyTracks KML files for people to pore over should they feel the need - up now.
Thanks.
Great technical information.
It backs up my feeling from using the note for GPS.
Xaddict said:
Thanks.
Great technical information.
It backs up my feeling from using the note for GPS.
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Thanks man, I'm just putting the finishing touches on the blog piece that goes with this now for anyone who feels like reading more about it (unadulterated MyTracks tracks available there too).
Thanks for the video. How long does it take to get a lock from a cold start?
Sent from my Nexus S using xda premium
My first ever lock with each of the Note's I had (A-GPS enabled) was like 6-8 seconds or something, I was beyond surprised. Virtually all locks since then 2-4s range.
gps on note is amazing
right on target. 16 feet accurracy. didn't lose track even going to the worse curse ever. i am so happy the gps works good on this phone. My captivate worked only on certain mod with several tweeks. The note works out of the box with very good lock and accuracy.
The accompanying review part is up now.

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