Database Users

Thoughts on my Vibrant (Long)

Here's my review of the Vibrant which I've had for almost a week.
I'm conflicted on this phone so I'll break it into Pro's and Con's
Pro's
Very Nice Screen
Responsive touchscreen
powerful CPU and GPU
Cons
Compass functionality is abysmal
GPS is weak, can't lock on indoors and loses satellite signal while driving
Marketplace lags for 2-3 seconds going in between pages, even on wifi
Touchwiz UI
3G Mobile Data speeds are extremely slow
To give it context, I'm coming from a Blackberry 8100 -> G1 -> Samsung Vibrant, all on t-mobile. My friend has his new Droid X from Verizon so we ran some tests on them, both after fresh factory resets.
The results were:
Neocore (GPU Benchmark):
Vibrant: 55.6 fps
Droid X: 44.3 fps
Linpack
Vibrant: 8.14
Droid X: gave us a value between 5.6 - 8.2 seemingly at random each time we ran the test.
The Vibrant also had much better viewing angles than the Droid X, but I'm not sure how useful that will ever be.
I also prefer the screen size and form factor of my Vibrant because I'm average height and don't have gorilla hands. Now on to the negatives..
The Compass is an absolute joke, I'm sure you are all aware of this but it updates painfully slow and takes 2-3 seconds to point the correct direction, often spinning sporadically to get there.
COMPARISON: The Droid X Compass works extremely well, updates quickly and is very responsive. The G1 compass is also vastly superior to the Vibrant.
The GPS can't seem to find my location anywhere indoors, and sometimes when I'm in my car using google navigation it will lose signal for several minutes.
COMPARISON: GPS on the G1 is far superior to those on the Vibrant. It's not even close. I didn't get to fully test the Droid X GPS.
Market Lag is a serious issue on this phone. This is not a network speed issue, it's a phone issue. When on 3G OR Wifi, while going through pages of the market there's a 2-3 second delay.
COMPARISON: No such delay on the G1 or Droid X. Browsing the Market is instant.
TouchWiz UI - I'll admit this comes down to personal preference, but I greatly dislike the UI, and not allowing me to cleanly disable it without rooting the phone doesn't sit well with me.
COMPARISON: Droid X has motoblur which looks nicer, but still we should be able to completely disable the manufacturer UI and run the phone on vanilla android without rooting.
Mobile Network Speed: the data speeds I'm getting on 3G are horrible. To put it into KB/s terms, I'm pulling between 2KB/s - 30KB/s. My friends Droid X in the same room as me was pulling between 150-300KB/s. This is obviously a massive difference.
Mileage may vary and I'd love to hear of people who get faster speeds elsewhere.
I'm still on the fence about keeping this phone - I know there's some progress on the GPS issue, but the broken compass/GPS + the slow marketplace really leave a bad taste in my mouth. I knew the reputation of Samsung phones going into this - I just hoped that since they put so much into this Galaxy S line that they would make sure that everything is working properly. I was wrong.

Still the best android phone out there imo. The major issues like compass and gps will get fixed sooner than later. And what do you mean you can't disable touch wiz? Do you dislike the contacts app and stuff? Bc they're pretty awesome to me. The launcher can be changed.
I get awesome 3g speeds but I guess it depends on your location. Don't think that's an issue with the phone. There's a thread for speeds and most people have great speeds
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using XDA App

I'm on my second Vibrant and the first one was unresponsive in regards to the market, beautiful widgets, and zedge. But the second one I have doesnt lag at all in any of those. My first vibrant took several minutes to load all the skins for beautiful widgets but the second one loads them in a couple seconds.
TouchWiz has grown on me. I like having the music player on the lock screen, the smart dialer is convenient, love the radio controls in the pull down.
GPS is working ok. I'll be going on a trip this weekend and will use the phone for GPS so I'll see how it goes then.
Do agree with the compass, it's all screwed up.

hollabax said:
Here's my review of the Vibrant which I've had for almost a week.
I'm conflicted on this phone so I'll break it into Pro's and Con's
Pro's
Very Nice Screen... I Agree!
Responsive touchscreen...Very much so
powerful CPU and GPU... Agree
Cons
Compass functionality is abysmal... Can be fixed with an Update
GPS is weak, can't lock on indoors and loses satellite signal while driving... I have the same issues, but again, it can be fixed with an update
Marketplace lags for 2-3 seconds going in between pages, even on wifi... I know they've been working on this, so again I can be fixed.
Touchwiz UI... I find TW to be great, and many will agree, so I find this to just be an opinion. Plus, you can always switch launcher via Market.
3G Mobile Data speeds are extremely slow... Sounds like you're not an a great area. I live in Miami with no issues here.
To give it context, I'm coming from a Blackberry 8100 -> G1 -> Samsung Vibrant, all on t-mobile. My friend has his new Droid X from Verizon so we ran some tests on them, both after fresh factory resets.
The results were:
Neocore (GPU Benchmark):
Vibrant: 55.6 fps
Droid X: 44.3 fps
Linpack
Vibrant: 8.14
Droid X: gave us a value between 5.6 - 8.2 seemingly at random each time we ran the test.
The Vibrant also had much better viewing angles than the Droid X, but I'm not sure how useful that will ever be.
I also prefer the screen size and form factor of my Vibrant because I'm average height and don't have gorilla hands. Now on to the negatives..
The Compass is an absolute joke, I'm sure you are all aware of this but it updates painfully slow and takes 2-3 seconds to point the correct direction, often spinning sporadically to get there.
COMPARISON: The Droid X Compass works extremely well, updates quickly and is very responsive. The G1 compass is also vastly superior to the Vibrant.
The GPS can't seem to find my location anywhere indoors, and sometimes when I'm in my car using google navigation it will lose signal for several minutes.
COMPARISON: GPS on the G1 is far superior to those on the Vibrant. It's not even close. I didn't get to fully test the Droid X GPS.
Market Lag is a serious issue on this phone. This is not a network speed issue, it's a phone issue. When on 3G OR Wifi, while going through pages of the market there's a 2-3 second delay.
COMPARISON: No such delay on the G1 or Droid X. Browsing the Market is instant.
TouchWiz UI - I'll admit this comes down to personal preference, but I greatly dislike the UI, and not allowing me to cleanly disable it without rooting the phone doesn't sit well with me.
COMPARISON: Droid X has motoblur which looks nicer, but still we should be able to completely disable the manufacturer UI and run the phone on vanilla android without rooting.
Mobile Network Speed: the data speeds I'm getting on 3G are horrible. To put it into KB/s terms, I'm pulling between 2KB/s - 30KB/s. My friends Droid X in the same room as me was pulling between 150-300KB/s. This is obviously a massive difference.
Mileage may vary and I'd love to hear of people who get faster speeds elsewhere.
I'm still on the fence about keeping this phone - I know there's some progress on the GPS issue, but the broken compass/GPS + the slow marketplace really leave a bad taste in my mouth. I knew the reputation of Samsung phones going into this - I just hoped that since they put so much into this Galaxy S line that they would make sure that everything is working properly. I was wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The way I look at it is... you've got a bad taste in your mouth due to some minor issues that can, and will be fixed. Samsung is working on an update to fix these issues very soon.
If you don't like the phone, or can't deal with these issues, I say return it. I would recommand to just hand tight for a bit. It's a new phone, and minor issues are common with released into the wild.
I come from many great phones/providers, and hands down can say that the Vibrant is one of the best phones I've ever owend.

WilliamStern said:
The way I look at it is... you've got a bad taste in your mouth due to some minor issues that can, and will be fixed. Samsung is working on an update to fix these issues very soon.
If you don't like the phone, or can't deal with these issues, I say return it. I would recommand to just hand tight for a bit. It's a new phone, and minor issues are common with released into the wild.
I come from many great phones/providers, and hands down can say that the Vibrant is one of the best phones I've ever owend.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anyone got a link where Samsung says there gonna release a fix for this?

DROID X's MOTOBLUR looks nicer.. yeah riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Why do we have to have one of these threads every other day? Are you really telling us something we don't already know or that hasn't already been a confirmed SOFTWARE fault?

For the market lag, you should try the fix to move application data from sdcard to NAND flash. I don't feel the lag now.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

The problem is neither t mobile nor samsung have official response on these issues. Looks like they are still busy on marketing these *EXCITING* gadgets...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

neasoon said:
For the market lag, you should try the fix to move application data from sdcard to NAND flash. I don't feel the lag now.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
will that limit my app storage? going to try it right now either way, thank you!
WilliamStern said:
The way I look at it is... you've got a bad taste in your mouth due to some minor issues that can, and will be fixed. Samsung is working on an update to fix these issues very soon.
If you don't like the phone, or can't deal with these issues, I say return it. I would recommand to just hand tight for a bit. It's a new phone, and minor issues are common with released into the wild.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope you're right but I wouldn't be surprised if the community ends up fixing most of these issues. As far as the compass I don't know if it's software or hardware at fault, but could you link me to where it has been determined to be a software issue? Does someone have a rooted Vibrant running a custom rom with a compass that works perfectly?

neasoon said:
The problem is neither t mobile nor samsung have official response on these issues. Looks like they are still busy on marketing these *EXCITING* gadgets...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the phone was released 12 days ago. everyone knows that the first 2 weeks to sometimes 3 months after the release of a new piece of tech gear as sophisticated as our phones are becoming are the roughest. this is the time where all of the software bugs are worked out. as much as the manufacturers can try they cant account for each and every scenario that the device and software may face when released into a real world environment. especially one in which the operating system is on an open plan like android is. our phones could just about do anything given the right coding. given that, its almost impossible to plan for every contingency.
being virtual beta testers is kind of the risk we all take as being early adopters.
aside from that we already have confirmation of an update to 2.2 in the coming couple of weeks.. verified by T-mobile. i count that as an "official response" to the software issues at hand.
if having a "2 or 3 second" delay when loading new app information in the market is really a "serious issue" for you, then you probably would do better going to a platform that has been out for several months or a year and has all the kinks worked out. look at WinMo 6.5.. its been out for.. oh.. like a billion years.. and they are finally making it work right thanks to outside dev support. at least our manufacturers are making our android phones work.. well.. most of them..
i wont name any names motorola.

neasoon said:
For the market lag, you should try the fix to move application data from sdcard to NAND flash. I don't feel the lag now.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you do that?

Look up mimocan's ext4 lag fix.

Exchange galaxy s for gps performance, should i take it?

So i called orange uk again last night, waited and talked for around 2 hours, i was told that the gps problem on galaxy s was due to manufacturer's fault (samsung). They told me they couldn't do anything about it. Optionally, they offered me htc desire to exchange my current galaxy s. They also told me that's the only option i have. I'm tired of arguing my consumer right and i'm asking here, is htc desire a better phone? Should i take it? Should i change my mind and stay with crappy gps galaxy s? Or should i write to complain orange and ask to cancel the contract because they are unable to provide a fully functional phone?
Any suggestions?

Depends what you do the most on your phone. Gaming? Stick to Galaxy S. Lots n lots of GPS usage? Change. Although are they only offering the old Desire and not the Desire HD or Z?
Other things to take note of is how long your contract is and what you're going to do with the phone afterwards. Sell? Then also check resell value. Keep at home as a little browsing device, a portable media playing device etc. I mean the Galaxy S has a really nice screen, there is no need to re-encode movies and with its GPU it will be able to handle upcoming games for quite a while.

If u cant live without functional gps...i think u should take the offer.
For me myself..sgs gps is functional enough and is not the main reason i bought this phone, so i can live with it
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Schmich said:
Depends what you do the most on your phone. Gaming? Stick to Galaxy S. Lots n lots of GPS usage? Change. Although are they only offering the old Desire and not the Desire HD or Z?
Other things to take note of is how long your contract is and what you're going to do with the phone afterwards. Sell? Then also check resell value. Keep at home as a little browsing device, a portable media playing device etc. I mean the Galaxy S has a really nice screen, there is no need to re-encode movies and with its GPU it will be able to handle upcoming games for quite a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, I was gonna get an ipad for movies and web browsing. I don't use a lot of GPS, I also have 2-3 other phones with great GPS. Just don't wanna bring more than 1 device when I'm out and need to use GPS...
Orange doesn't provide desire Z, also they don't give me the option of HD...

Are you running froyo?
With froyo JK3 there is no gps issues here,
My Nexus and Galaxy S take around the same time to lock on, and while driving around the galaxy never looses the lock

I dont know what problems do you
Have with your galaxy but I have no problems with stock eclair. I don't think that five second better gps lock time is a reason to change a phone.
I am pretty satisfied with gps performance, and think that out is enough for normal usage, and if you need better performance use pro equipment.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Personally i own a sgs, and the mrs a desire.
Out of the two i prefer mine in loads of ways:
1) My sgs battery lasts twice as long, if not longer than the desire
2) The screen on the sgs is far superior to the desire screen
(the desire in queston has amoled and not slcd)
3) I prefer the extra width of the sgs for holding it
4) The desire is quite easy to scrathc, chip, whereas my sgs is still pristine
5) Some may not believe it but froyo feels far faster on the sgs
6) Some may not believe this either but i found rooting, flashing, etc far easier on sgs.
I could go on, but u get the general idea. If i needed gps a lot and used it everyday i'd just buy a bluetooth gps mouse, they are cheap enough. I think the pros of the sgs far outweigh the cons of having to carry a bluetooth gps mouse in my pocket.

i would miss my sgs but i think when the nexus s comes out and it works perfect every body will start complaining more about the gps and bugs they still have with froyo maybe some thing might start to happen

SkinBobUk said:
Personally i own a sgs, and the mrs a desire.
Out of the two i prefer mine in loads of ways:
1) My sgs battery lasts twice as long, if not longer than the desire
2) The screen on the sgs is far superior to the desire screen
(the desire in queston has amoled and not slcd)
3) I prefer the extra width of the sgs for holding it
4) The desire is quite easy to scrathc, chip, whereas my sgs is still pristine
5) Some may not believe it but froyo feels far faster on the sgs
6) Some may not believe this either but i found rooting, flashing, etc far easier on sgs.
I could go on, but u get the general idea. If i needed gps a lot and used it everyday i'd just buy a bluetooth gps mouse, they are cheap enough. I think the pros of the sgs far outweigh the cons of having to carry a bluetooth gps mouse in my pocket.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have only one thing: GPS on SGS is really crappy. I think that builds up all my points.

If you think that a phone's GPS capability is the most important, go ahead and change. No phone is perfect. But be aware that by changing, you are accepting Orange's offer and can be construed as waiving your future rights to complain/cancel your contract with regards to a phone issue..

I too have no issues with GPS though in 2.2 my first ever fix in copilot took a stupid ammount of time but now its less than 30 seconds and accuracy is similar to others.
My bother in law owns a Desire and though it does feel a little more robust then the Glaxy it also feels a little too small.

The GPS ain't perfect. But I wouldn't say it's unusable or something like that.
i've perfectly nice tracks made with it. It's just not the best feature of the phone.
The reasons why it's not perfect have been debated 1000 times so I don't need to write them again.
Bottom line is, for occasional tracks, drivings etc the SGS GPS feels just as good as any other (In the released Froyo at least). If you need higher reliability and precision many other phones are better, but to be honest i'd recommend an external gps any day, if the GPS is critical.
The GPS antenna in phones, and it's close proximity with the rest of the hardware makes it nearly impossible to reach the reliability and precision of external GPS's. (beside theyre MUCH easier to position properly in the car .. )

bilboa1 said:
The GPS ain't perfect. But I wouldn't say it's unusable or something like that.
i've perfectly nice tracks made with it. It's just not the best feature of the phone.
The reasons why it's not perfect have been debated 1000 times so I don't need to write them again.
Bottom line is, for occasional tracks, drivings etc the SGS GPS feels just as good as any other (In the released Froyo at least). If you need higher reliability and precision many other phones are better, but to be honest i'd recommend an external gps any day, if the GPS is critical.
The GPS antenna in phones, and it's close proximity with the rest of the hardware makes it nearly impossible to reach the reliability and precision of external GPS's. (beside theyre MUCH easier to position properly in the car .. )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am sorry but this is not the case. Both Nexus One and iPhone 4 have really good GPS easily as good as TomTom external devices. It is fair to say that the GPS in Galaxy is worse than most other comparable smartphones.

darkoroje said:
I am sorry but this is not the case. Both Nexus One and iPhone 4 have really good GPS easily as good as TomTom external devices. It is fair to say that the GPS in Galaxy is worse than most other comparable smartphones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. I can always trust my Hero for GPS navigation. If my Galaxy S tell me to turn right, I have to check first that it does not think that I am 2-3 streets off.

darkoroje said:
I am sorry but this is not the case. Both Nexus One and iPhone 4 have really good GPS easily as good as TomTom external devices. It is fair to say that the GPS in Galaxy is worse than most other comparable smartphones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
maybe you've just been lucky. I happen to have an iphone4.
Well no dice compared to my "real" GPS. The difference in tracking accuracy and update speed is huge.
(that's my GPS: http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=367)
And for the record, it's only slightly better than the SGS GPS in my occasional uses (mostly running biking and sometimes car) mostly because it doesnt lose track of the signal as easily
Then again forums are plagued by people pushing their brands blindly. Please note also that I'm not comparing to the wrongly configured or really fault SGS GPS's.
Mine's not perfect but it does the job well enough. No such thing as being 2 streets off. But it's often not exactly aligned or loses track of GPS for 2s for no reason. Which isn't exactly good but not a huge issue.

ehe12 said:
I have only one thing: GPS on SGS is really crappy. I think that builds up all my points.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So why did u bother asking in the first place?

Demand the htc desire hd and not the standard old desire. Hardware wise the old desire is below sgs while the newer desire hd is on par or just a little better then sgs with a bigger but not better screen. I would love a desire hd
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

bilboa1 said:
maybe you've just been lucky. I happen to have an iphone4.
Well no dice compared to my "real" GPS. The difference in tracking accuracy and update speed is huge.
(that's my GPS: http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=367)
And for the record, it's only slightly better than the SGS GPS in my occasional uses (mostly running biking and sometimes car) mostly because it doesnt lose track of the signal as easily
Then again forums are plagued by people pushing their brands blindly. Please note also that I'm not comparing to the wrongly configured or really fault SGS GPS's.
Mine's not perfect but it does the job well enough. No such thing as being 2 streets off. But it's often not exactly aligned or loses track of GPS for 2s for no reason. Which isn't exactly good but not a huge issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have both an Iphone 4 and SGS
and the GPS is substantially worse on the SGS. I would say that the number of GPS threads on this and other SGS forums are a good indication that many SGS owners are not satisfied with GPS performance
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

darkoroje said:
I have both an Iphone 4 and SGS
and the GPS is substantially worse on the SGS. I would say that the number of GPS threads on this and other SGS forums are a good indication that many SGS owners are not satisfied with GPS performance
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i did write it's problems and that it's worse. but it's not unuseable either, very far from it - sry. and the ip4 gps ain't all that great either (but yes it's certainly better)

Do you have problem with your GPS?

I got the phone at 8 am today, it's a great phone ( till now) . I tried to use the GPS many times ( I turned off assisted location and just kept the GPS). At my window where I used to get around 6-7 satellite with MT4G , I am getting 0 , nothing in the view. When I got out and tried in the street, while standing I got 2 sat only. So I think there is a problem with the antenna. Any tips to verify if it's really defected or something else, I read about some folks getting locking in few seconds and with 7-11 Sats.
Update: After few hours, GPS started to work just fine. I don't know why but now it's very fast and pretty accurate.

I opened Google Maps 5 and it instantly was locked on me. No complaints there!
Oh ****. I realized I voted "no" because I thought the poll question was the topic title. D'oh.

Ok... My GPS wasn't working for like. Since I got it. But now suddenly, 5 hours later, after I pulled the battery multiple times, and then ran the GPS Test app for 5 minutes, I'm getting locks.
-_-

Works like a champ for me. In fact back to back my Evo and NS seem to be getting a lock at about the same speed, fast.

Anderdroid said:
Ok... My GPS wasn't working for like. Since I got it. But now suddenly, 5 hours later, after I pulled the battery multiple times, and then ran the GPS Test app for 5 minutes, I'm getting locks.
-_-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will try any crazy steps :d But I don't want to return it, so I hope it works. I like the phone but I love GPS

Now this is weird. It started working now I will test it more and see what happens.

raeef said:
Now this is weird. It started working now I will test it more and see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. I thought mine was borked for good for sure. But no. After quite a few reboots and battery pulls it's working epicly... As is Acquiring Location (wireless location).
Sigh!

Anderdroid said:
Exactly. I thought mine was borked for good for sure. But no. After quite a few reboots and battery pulls it's working epicly... As is Acquiring Location (wireless location).
Sigh!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried now , it locks very very fast and accuracy reached 5 m while walking. This strange, maybe it had to do with the antennas and the back cover? I don't know but now I am happy

It looks like the small handful of people who reported issues with the GPS are no longer having anymore issues. Very good news. If the GPS really is fixed, then I'll definitely be buying a Nexus S when the 2nd shipment comes in.
I'll basically be trading my AT&T 3G for a working GPS. Hopefully I won't regret that decision.

Yea I used my GPS too get home and it locked in with in about 5 to 7 seconds.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I could have sworn there was another thread for this that disappeared. Oh well..
Mine locked to 5m on first try.

Did some heavy testing on the GPS today, and I've gotta say not once was it not able to find me. Only tooks seconds too. I came from the MyTouch 4G, which has a great GPS, but for some reason the one on the NS out performs it.
Very happy with it.

Whats up Will, I was the guy at BestBuy who bought the Nexus S at the same time as you. I agree, the GPS was dead on all the time i fired it up. Found me in seconds. did not have a single problem with the GPS.

I had problems with gps at first try but then after getting the satellites I've managed to get the satellites almost instantly.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

The GPS on my Nexus was able to find me just fine a few seconds ago. It took about a minute for it to lock on.
However, this isn't due to any issue with the phone as much as the construction of the building I'm in. Whatever this building is made of seems to make cell phone signals it's *****. I imagine my phone's signal being something like the Gimp from Pulp Fiction every time I walk in here.
That being said, I'm not sure what issue other folks are having, but my GPS was able to find me just fine in a building notorious for dropped calls(to the point where I actually have to go outside if it's a really important phone call), drops everyone to EDGE regardless of carrier, and even butchers WiFi signals 30ft away so I am very satisfied with it.

Mine is working perfect so far. Used it after class to locate a Panda Express. Enabled GPS, opened maps and it locked on to me in a few seconds.

I shall watch this thread closely... I am ready to blow nearly $600 on a Nexus S, but if the GPS works as well as on the Vibrant flavor of Galaxy S phones, I will pass. Because it sucks. Really.
G1: reasonable GPS performance, great wireless signal capture, big bulky and slow.
N1: fantastic GPS performance, horrible wireless signal capture. One day it began dropping calls at home and at my GF's I'd be lucky to get ANY signal at all. Not good for a job hunter like me.
Vibrant: wonderful wireless signal capture, the worst GPS performance I've ever seen.
Nexus S: gonna have to verify, really verify, that people don't have the same Galaxy S GPS problem before I blow a ton of cash since I re-upped my T-Mo contract with the Vibrant and am not eligible for discount.
As for the camera LED flash: I have found it to be most useful when I need a flashlight.

numindast said:
I shall watch this thread closely... I am ready to blow nearly $600 on a Nexus S, but if the GPS works as well as on the Vibrant flavor of Galaxy S phones, I will pass. Because it sucks. Really.
G1: reasonable GPS performance, great wireless signal capture, big bulky and slow.
N1: fantastic GPS performance, horrible wireless signal capture. One day it began dropping calls at home and at my GF's I'd be lucky to get ANY signal at all. Not good for a job hunter like me.
Vibrant: wonderful wireless signal capture, the worst GPS performance I've ever seen.
Nexus S: gonna have to verify, really verify, that people don't have the same Galaxy S GPS problem before I blow a ton of cash since I re-upped my T-Mo contract with the Vibrant and am not eligible for discount.
As for the camera LED flash: I have found it to be most useful when I need a flashlight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would assume that the GPS performance is much better than on the vibrant, since they changed the location of the GPS antenna at the very least. It also does sound like most people are not having any issues whatsoever. I was holding off buying one for this reason as well, but I think samsung may have fixed it.

Just so you all know, the first time you use the GPS on an Android phone tends to take longer than it usually would. After that, it should perform properly.

It usually takes the GPS about 15 seconds for it to lock on to me

For the Vibrant GPS Haters!

One is the Vibrant closest to the building literally a few feet from where i was standing by the entrance to the breeze way, im running the latest Malice no mods other than i run the Bullit Kernel.
The other is the G2 Running the latest CM7 release on the newest Radio with correct libs, you can see how much farther away..
Even walking around the Vibrants GPS stayed a closer lock. Now i will say it did take the Vibrant did take a few more seconds to lock.. but only seconds...
EDIT: i will say that it wasn't untill we started into 2.2 that this got better.. but this is the first time i made a side by side comparison with the G2..

I've had good luck with my gps, I've gotten down to 14.4 feet accuracy with GPS Test in my front yard, and Tracking on Google maps is almost dead nuts. But if its a cloudy day, which its more often then not these last few months in Washington, my gps doesn't work for crap, Locks take like 30 seconds, tracking is Horrible, accuracy of 200 feet.

Say what you want, but the fact is that the GPS on the G1 (a phone that is two years older) completely destroys any GPS+fix on the Vibrant.
Its a well known, and rarely disputed weakness for the Vibrant. Shame on Samsung for not doing more rigorous testing of the chipset or not taking the chipset manufacturer to task.

Just because another phone's GPS sucks more than the Vibrant doesn't mean the Vibrant has good GPS.

Tarzanman said:
Say what you want, but the fact is that the GPS on the G1 (a phone that is two years older) completely destroys any GPS+fix on the Vibrant.
Its a well known, and rarely disputed weakness for the Vibrant. Shame on Samsung for not doing more rigorous testing of the chipset or not taking the chipset manufacturer to task.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
speak for yourself. when i compared them my vibrant was better than my g1. the vibrant was also better than my wife's cliq and mt slide (granted, these two aren't amazing phones, i've never heard of gps complaints with them).
my only complaint about gps is mine doesn't currently work on my vibrant (cm7).

funeralthirst said:
speak for yourself. when i compared them my vibrant was better than my g1. the vibrant was also better than my wife's cliq and mt slide (granted, these two aren't amazing phones, i've never heard of gps complaints with them).
my only complaint about gps is mine doesn't currently work on my vibrant (cm7).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange. I have a MT3G Slide as well, and its GPS destroys my Vibrant's.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

inconceeeivable said:
Strange. I have a MT3G Slide as well, and its GPS destroys my Vibrant's.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, based on xda posts, i'm a minority to begin with cause i've never really had problems with my gps on my vibrant.
and how exactly does it 'destroy' the vibrant's gps?

funeralthirst said:
well, based on xda posts, i'm a minority to begin with cause i've never really had problems with my gps on my vibrant.
and how exactly does it 'destroy' the vibrant's gps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is significantly faster and more accurate than my particular Vibrant. I have a July 2010 model though...that may be why.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

My GPS is good too. Granted it does take a up to a few minutes to lock, when it does, its dead accurate and consistent.

Tarzanman said:
Say what you want, but the fact is that the GPS on the G1 (a phone that is two years older) completely destroys any GPS+fix on the Vibrant.
Its a well known, and rarely disputed weakness for the Vibrant. Shame on Samsung for not doing more rigorous testing of the chipset or not taking the chipset manufacturer to task.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've proven otherwise. I don't feel like sifting through my posts, but I have pictures of the two side-by-side with wifi off running GPSTest and in Google Maps. The Vibrant was closer.

}{Alienz}{ said:
My GPS is good too. Granted it does take a up to a few minutes to lock, when it does, its dead accurate and consistent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish. I'm on my third and they have all suffered from long lock, inability to maintain lock (losing signal all together) lastly, while locked and navigating it will jump locations.
I don't think any GPS has zero issues but the amount of issues I have had with all three Vibrants leads me to think it's hardware and broken.
I do find it amazing that there are such varying views on the Vibrants GPS, but after three units I gave up trying to get a good one.

SykesAT said:
I wish. I'm on my third and they have all suffered from long lock, inability to maintain lock (losing signal all together) lastly, while locked and navigating it will jump locations.
I don't think any GPS has zero issues but the amount of issues I have had with all three Vibrants leads me to think it's hardware and broken.
I do find it amazing that there are such varying views on the Vibrants GPS, but after three units I gave up trying to get a good one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i find the varying experience strange as well. but i've had mine since release and the gps has always worked (though, it improved after flashing from stock 2.1).

inconceeeivable said:
It is significantly faster and more accurate than my particular Vibrant. I have a July 2010 model though...that may be why.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Samsung Jack, HTC Aria, HTC HD2, and HTC HD7 destroy both of our Vibrants here when it comes to the GPS. The HTC HD# phones especially... They embarass it in Accuracy and Lock Speeds. It isn't even comparable.
I've been through 3 Vibrants and there is another in use here, so I'm pretty sure it's not a lemon device issue. The GPS is just very bad on these phones.
But who cares... The phone is almost old now and many people with it are already eying an upgrade. I think most of us have learned to accept it and moved on from complaining about it - months ago...

}{Alienz}{ said:
My GPS is good too. Granted it does take a up to a few minutes to lock, when it does, its dead accurate and consistent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That means your GPS is terrible.
When you turn it on and want to use a Location App that relies on GPS data, you have to wait a few minutes for it to lock and get an accurate location? 3 minutes to do a Foursquare/Facebook checkin? Lol...
That is "good" to you?

reuthermonkey said:
I've proven otherwise. I don't feel like sifting through my posts, but I have pictures of the two side-by-side with wifi off running GPSTest and in Google Maps. The Vibrant was closer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Accuracy has never been that big of an issue for me, it's the lock speeds. But the Vibrant has never been as accurate as my other phones.
At stop lights the GPS goes crazy more than occasionally, and it loses its lock.
When it loses it's lock, that means you have to wait forever for it to lock again.
The slow lock speeds also means every task that depends on GPS data is ridiculously slow to accomplish compared to phones with a good GPS in them.
Most people who need a good GPS in their phone don't necessarily need the phone to just sit there giving them directions. They need it for apps like Foursquare, Loopt, Layer, Facebook Checkin, Localized Tweets, sharing location data in messaging applications, and embedding location data in photos.
With the Vibrant's lock speeds, it's almost useless for much of that.
I've also owned Blackberries (9300, 9780 Curve/Bold) and the GPS outperformed the Vibrant.
Another thing I noticed is that the Vibrant battery life with GPS on is significantly worse than other phones. I've never thought to turn my phone's GPS off, ever, until I got this phone...

My GPS has worked fine since, since, well I can't remember when. I just know it's been working great since I stopped obsessing over it's 3 meter accuracy. The compass could be better but whatever. Who gives a flying flip if it takes 5 seconds longer to lock than my Droid X? I'd still choose this over any current motorola, and HTC phone currently on the market. It's not a GPS device; It's a smartphone.

Unfortunately a lot of smartphone apps rely on GPS and an extra 5 seconds to lock everytime you check in, take a picture, want to get accurate location-guided results, etc. is a pain in the ass.
It may not seem like a lot at first (it's more than 5 seconds, factorably more, but I don't wanna deal with that right now), but at the end of a day it has done nothing more than degrade the user experience and waste a factorable amount of cumulative time.
You have to alter all of your usage patterns to account for the faulty GPS.
It's an issue, but I can care less. That's why I got another phone: so I didn't have to sweat it

WOW, it is crazy how much variety there is in not only accuracy but lock times as well.. I just pulled out my G1 and my MT3G and neither of them locked faster than the vibrant, but those showed me standing in the same spot as the vibrant.. LOL the G2 is still way off...
As for jumping at red lights.. i just figured that was normal since even my G1 and MT3G where the same (i mean by a few feet when stopped)... lol guess i was wrong ha..
So what do you guys think? Do you think the SGS II will have GPS issues? or has Sammy learned?
I am fyi a Samsung supporter, i honestly watched and laughed so hard about people crying over updates when other phones from more popular companies did it as-well.. Every one should know it is totally up to your provider.. ok enough on a tangent..

Just for comparisions sake, I have both a Vibrant and a MT4G. The vibrant running Trigger 3.2 gets an average 15 foot lock which is the best of any rom. The MT4G gets a 3 foot lock. Yes 3 foot. Simply amazing.
BTW dont ever rely on any phones gps when traveling. When you are out of cell reception you also lose your gps. You could end up hopelessly lost or worse. If you need gps that bad, I recommend a real gps device. While gps is good for around town don't risk yours and your families lives. Most of the horror stories you read about in the news with people getting lost using gps are usually phone gps.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

billwinkle said:
Just for comparisions sake, I have both a Vibrant and a MT4G. The vibrant running Trigger 3.2 gets an average 15 foot lock which is the best of any rom. The MT4G gets a 3 foot lock. Yes 3 foot. Simply amazing.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats good stuff.. Question, arnt the MT4G and the G2 almost the same phone? If so whys it so much better than my G2.. LoL

Vibrant GPS - did samsung ever straigthen

the issues out? is it working as well as could be expected?
i had a vibrant, the gps was worthless, i waited for about 6 months but they never got it right - so i dumped it. curious if sammy did manage to fix it with software updates
tks in advance

It is fixed yes, I get locks very quickly now, 15-30 seconds from dead to lock.... never fails me anymore. The GPS fixes that have been developed work well.

try this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=878970&highlight=gps+fix
if step number one didnt work, number two WILL do it.

The Original Ralph said:
the issues out? is it working as well as could be expected?
i had a vibrant, the gps was worthless, i waited for about 6 months but they never got it right - so i dumped it. curious if sammy did manage to fix it with software updates
tks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. I've done all the supposed fixes. Do not believe the reports that the Vibrant GPS is "fine". I've had a Vibrant for a year, and just got a Sensation. I now get typical lock times under 10sec with 3m accuracy. Using Google Nav or My Tracks there's no comparison. Try another phone with a properly working GPS and you'll know why the Vibrant is a disgrace to the term GPS.

samnada said:
No. I've done all the supposed fixes. Do not believe the reports that the Vibrant GPS is "fine". I've had a Vibrant for a year, and just got a Sensation. I now get typical lock times under 10sec with 3m accuracy. Using Google Nav or My Tracks there's no comparison. Try another phone with a properly working GPS and you'll know why the Vibrant is a disgrace to the term GPS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then go troll the Sensation forum - no need for the nastiness here.

JWhipple said:
Then go troll the Sensation forum - no need for the nastiness here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What "nastiness"? Accurately pointing out an actual flaw isn't nasty, unless you're hyper-defensive. Not a troll. I own the Vibrant. He asked, I answered.

JWhipple said:
Then go troll the Sensation forum - no need for the nastiness here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get over yourself. The Galaxy S has a well known GPS flaw. If your butt is too hurt to be reminded of it then stay off the forums.

wow - like Yogi Berra used to say
"this is like deja vu, all over again"
tks for the responses -
i missed the display on the vibrant and was looking at one of the newer sammy models, but figured i'd check to see if they corrected the issues on the model they pumped 10 million units out onto the market, before pulling the trigger.

Yawn, I can safely say on all 11 vibrant i've done the GPS locks in under 30 seconds everytime, all the time...
So you enjoy your sensation, i'll enjoy my galaxy that now locks like yours but has a sexy ass screen that even your sister creams over.

jwleonhart said:
Yawn, I can safely say on all 11 vibrant i've done the GPS locks in under 30 seconds everytime, all the time...
So you enjoy your sensation, i'll enjoy my galaxy that now locks like yours but has a sexy ass screen that even your sister creams over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lock time is useless if the accuracy is bad. My Vibrant locks in 30 sec or so consistently as well. But it also randomly jumps to some other block when using Google Nav and starts blurting out bogus recalculating instructions. Sometimes it's fine, then the next day it will just blow up for no apparent reason.
I was in NYC for a week a month ago trying to use it for walking navigation. It was virtually useless. Consistently had me at least a block from my actual location, and the compass would either continuously spin or flip 180 degrees every 10 seconds.
I walk daily and often use My Tracks. I've seen many samples to compare the Vibrant to the Sensation and the difference is a revelation. The Vibrant often just drops the track part way through, and even when it holds it wanders around the actual path like a drunk. The Sensation tracks me nearly perfectly.
This has nothing to do with signal strength or the number of sats seen. After doing the HW fix my Vibrant SNR is at least as good if not slightly better than the Sensation. But the basic location accuracy is just flaky as h#ll. The Sensation locks and just sticks to my location.
If reports like mine were rare, I'd consider it's my phone, or some small percentage. But I've seen reports like this 100 times. Once you see what phone GPS is capable of you'll know how bad the Vibrant really is.
Regarding the screen, unless you own both you have no idea what you're talking about. Higher resolution, qHD, and more accurate, natural colors. I'd never go back. But love the one you're with, even if she is your sister...

samnada said:
Lock time is useless if the accuracy is bad. My Vibrant locks in 30 sec or so consistently as well. But it also randomly jumps to some other block when using Google Nav and starts blurting out bogus recalculating instructions. Sometimes it's fine, then the next day it will just blow up for no apparent reason.
I was in NYC for a week a month ago trying to use it for walking navigation. It was virtually useless. Consistently had me at least a block from my actual location, and the compass would either continuously spin or flip 180 degrees every 10 seconds.
I walk daily and often use My Tracks. I've seen many samples to compare the Vibrant to the Sensation and the difference is a revelation. The Vibrant often just drops the track part way through, and even when it holds it wanders around the actual path like a drunk. The Sensation tracks me nearly perfectly.
This has nothing to do with signal strength or the number of sats seen. After doing the HW fix my Vibrant SNR is at least as good if not slightly better than the Sensation. But the basic location accuracy is just flaky as h#ll. The Sensation locks and just sticks to my location.
If reports like mine were rare, I'd consider it's my phone, or some small percentage. But I've seen reports like this 100 times. Once you see what phone GPS is capable of you'll know how bad the Vibrant really is.
Regarding the screen, unless you own both you have no idea what you're talking about. Higher resolution, qHD, and more accurate, natural colors. I'd never go back. But love the one you're with, even if she is your sister...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My accuracy is within 25ft indoors. I'll tell you what it's damn close enough. My navigation once in a blue moon will stray, but will pop right back on course in a few seconds.
Im not saying the vibrants GPS is perfect, but it's been fixed. I don't think it'll get much better than it is now either. I have one of the first vibrants, which supposedly they had fixed the hardware GPS or something later on (after november builds I believe???) but it still has problems.
Once I applied the GPS fix on CM7 man it's sexy as hell.

I'm sorry for the people that have issues. Is it perfect? No, it isn't. As someone that has owned a Vibrant from release date and that had ZERO GPS performance, I consider the attached to be a huge improvement. I usually have accuracy between 4.7M-6M. That's not fantastic, but it's better than nothing.
A lot of Dev work has been done. A lot of effort has gone into the Hardware Fix by many different people (I know I've been inside my Vibrant 7-8 different times). If you've done the hardware fix and you've flashed one of the two gps.fix zip's out there and it still doesn't work for you, then all I can say is flash your kernel again and flash the gps.zip. In addition to that, WE ALL KNEW ABOUT THE ISSUE when we either bought our phones or shortly after we started using them. We ALL decided to keep the device because the other features outweighed the GPS issues. Does it suck? Yeah, it does. It's a ridiculous feature to not have right. It's worse than when an iPhone didn't have copy/paste and MMS. I feel the pain, trust me. I travel constantly for work, I use GPS a LOT. I get it. But at this point, it's gone from beating a dead horse to beating a dead horse skeleton.

Another thing, Samsung will never be able to "fix" current Vibrants. I fully believe that stepped into a deal with a supplier that supplied a faulty, subpar GPS Receiver. If the hardware is flaky then it's flaky. No amount of contact bending/replacing or firmware tweaking will fully compensate for that fact. When you accept it for what it is, you decide to just deal with it until the next device you want comes out (in my case, it's the fabled Nexus Prime). There are WAY to many people that need to just let go of crap they can't control and move on. Being mad at Samsung on a message board doesn't fix it.

One final tip before you ditch your Vibrant, try a different Kernel. For example, the firmware GPS fixes don't really agree with Bali Kernels and Bionix 1.3.1 on my handset. But it does work great when I flash Overstock 2.4.1 instead.
There's a relationship between your ROM and Kernel selection. Experiment and find what works, or ditch the phone.

Look for anyone who the GPS is not working and is running CM7, do me a favor and go here:
At the bottom I have a direct download to CM7 with the GPS fix built in.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1182735
I have replaced the gps file and put my own config file in. It's running Nightly #56, and i'm getting locks fast...
I put it up earlier, but so far nobody has posted back. I tried it and am using it myself, GPS works great.
Someone please try and let me know! No need to modify anything.

I'm curious, did they fix the GPS for the Samsung Galaxy S 4G since its the newer galaxy model? If so, I'll purchase that one right away instead of the Vibrant.

The Original Ralph said:
"this is like deja vu, all over again"
tks for the responses -
i missed the display on the vibrant and was looking at one of the newer sammy models, but figured i'd check to see if they corrected the issues on the model they pumped 10 million units out onto the market, before pulling the trigger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you miss the display, grab the SGS 4g, SGS 2 or the Nexus S.
Battery on both of those is fixed.

No, Samsung did not fix the GPS....it's a fundamental flaw with their GPS supplier that will never go away. Refurbished units get better GPS but nothing near as fast and accurate as other phones.

Blown 89 said:
No, Samsung did not fix the GPS....it's a fundamental flaw with their GPS supplier that will never go away. Refurbished units get better GPS but nothing near as fast and accurate as other phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GPS is good enough never had problem
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA Premium App

Yeah, it got fixed in later production
I lost my phone in June, got a replacement via insurance. The new one locks GPS in under 10 seconds, decent accuracy. It's considerably better than my first Vibrant, which could take over a minute to lock.