Smartphone GPS performance: Some are better than others

[Gundam168]

I compared two aGPS enabled smartphones using Endomondo as the same GPS app and the results are surprising!

Device 1: Huawei Ideos U8150 (528 MHz CPU, Android 2.2)
Device 2: Motorola Defy+ (1GHz CPU, Android 2.3)

Spec sheet comparison:
Motorola DEFY+ vs. Huawei U8150 IDEOS - GSMArena.com

Ideos:

Defy+:

Ideos:

Defy+:

If you look closely at the Defy+'s tracks, the trail seemed to stray away from the actual street on at least 4 instances.

Both devices were contained in a single pouch near my chest riding on my scooter.

 

[Gundam168]

In case you missed the difference:

 

[chanchan05]

Its not surprising, even with the same app. You did not take into account that they may not be using the same GPS antenna hardware. Then you also forgot that the Defy is built to be for rough handling so there will be other stuff like reinforcements inside and waterproof coatings over the chips. Then you have to take into account the Android OS customizations the OEMs did if that may have affected GPS calculation algorithms of the device.

 

[Gundam168]

Its not surprising, even with the same app. You did not take into account that they may not be using the same GPS antenna hardware. Then you also forgot that the Defy is built to be for rough handling so there will be other stuff like reinforcements inside and waterproof coatings over the chips. Then you have to take into account the Android OS customizations the OEMs did if that may have affected GPS calculation algorithms of the device.

Interesting. Especially this...

"Then you have to take into account the Android OS customizations the OEMs did if that may have affected GPS calculation algorithms of the device."

I forgot to add that the Ideos was rooted and the Defy+ is not. The Defy+ also took twice as long to get an initial GPS fix.

 

[!on]

Would be interesting to see before / afters using the GPS Fix app from the market.

 

[chanchan05]

Interesting. Especially this...

"Then you have to take into account the Android OS customizations the OEMs did if that may have affected GPS calculation algorithms of the device."

I forgot to add that the Ideos was rooted and the Defy+ is not. The Defy+ also took twice as long to get an initial GPS fix.

The Galaxy S GPS problems were fixed with the Gingerbread update, and it was fixed before by software tweaking problems.

Then back when Symbian still reigned supreme, Nokia handsets also had varied quality in terms of GPS accuracy. As I said, you have to take into account:

1. Hardware antenna used
2. build design of the device
3. OS customizations

The hardware antenna actually may have the biggest effect, since one phone may be using a weaker antenna than another.

 

[Gundam168]

I don't think there are specifications for GPS antennas used for smartphones to help one make an informed choice should one be on a lookout for the smartphone with the best GPS receiver.

Though several Xperia smartphones are using a combination of GPS and GLONASS receivers which they promised should be better than GPS or aGPS alone.

 

[mrspeedmaster]

This is true. My old Samsung Captivate (and many of the original Galaxy S) phones where crap w/ GPS. 2 mile radius accuracy.

There should have been a mfg recall with that. My new GNEX doesn't have those problems.

 

[Stuntman]

I've used a Nokia N97 and an HTC Desire Z. The Nokia N97 had Ovi/Nokia maps. The maps can be downloaded ahead of time. The HTC Desire Z uses Google Maps that require network service to run.

I found that the N97's GPS and mapping software was adequate. It worked quite well on my vacation. Always got me to where I needed to go. Sometimes it takes a while to lock on. I noticed that it has difficulty locking onto my position when I am moving fast in a car. If I'm on the highway, it has difficulty locking on until I exit and slow down. When stationary, it can take up to several seconds or even longer before it locks onto my position to any great accuracy.

The GPS performance on my Desire Z is excellent. It takes only a second or 2 most of the time to lock onto my position. I had some poor performance with one of the Maps update, but the next one fixed the issue.

 

[Gundam168]

GPS "afficionados" turn up their noses against smartphone GPS erroneously assuming that aGPS means you can't use your GPS where there is no network or it uses up data just to get a GPS fix. For them, it's useless as a GPS device without a network.

Please post links of articles comparing GPS performance of different smartphones whether Android or not.