Help Navigation issues

[rob the plumber]

I switched to the Moment from a Blackberry a few months ago. The Sprint Navigation on the Blackberry worked great. The navigation on my Moment is pretty much useless. It takes forever to locate satellites, constantly re-routes me while driving down a straight road, etc... Absolutely not acceptable.

I know that this is an issue for a lot of Moment users. I have not really been able to find a straight answer why, let alone a fix for it.

Is Google turn by turn available with my new 2.1? or is the problem in the phones hardware?

Thanks!

 

[CriticalCritic]

I switched to the Moment from a Blackberry a few months ago. The Sprint Navigation on the Blackberry worked great. The navigation on my Moment is pretty much useless. It takes forever to locate satellites, constantly re-routes me while driving down a straight road, etc... Absolutely not acceptable.

I know that this is an issue for a lot of Moment users. I have not really been able to find a straight answer why, let alone a fix for it.

Is Google turn by turn available with my new 2.1? or is the problem in the phones hardware?

Thanks!

My google Nav works beautifully, so I removed Sprint Nav altogether. With something as quick an accurate and clear as google nav (plus it gets updates), Sprint Nav is pointless.

 

[rob the plumber]

Where is google navigation? In the market or already on the phone? (I'm kind of a nooooob)

 

[pastafarian]

Google turn by turn is part of google maps in 2.1 but probably won't fix your problem. The gps reception is weak on this phone. If the phone has a clear unobstructed view of the sky, it may be acceptable. A few trees, tall buildings, less than deal windshield design and you're out of luck. In my Honda Odyssey, if the phone is on the dash it's acceptable, in a vent holder and it's a little dicey, in the cup holder and it's awful. My old Touch Pro, Mogul and cheap Pharos AOI worked great from all the same locations. Some have reported improvement with de03, but I've yet to do any serious testing.

 

[rob the plumber]

Where is turn by turn in Google Maps for 2.1? I have the update, but don't see it when I open maps from the menu.

I am pretty bummed out that the GPS works so horribly on this phone. My Blackberry (Still Sprint) had great navigation. I really need accurate navigation for work too.

 

[ZimLanfire]

After the 2.1 update, my Sprint Nav started actually working. This makes me happy. :-D

 

[rob the plumber]

Ahhh, I found it. When you look up directions you can hit menu and select navigate.

Now to test it out......

 

[Matt_H]

I didn't think Sprint Navigation was useless, but it definitely lagged a bit when recalculating or refreshing the map view when making multiple turns in succession. It was a decent navigation option, but when I knew ahead of time that I was making a trip in to the unknown, I always made sure to grab the dedicated GPS device from my wife's car.

I updated my Moment to 2.1 from 1.5 on Friday, and yesterday I drove to an unknown place in an unfamiliar city. I brought the dedicated GPS with me, but decided to give Google Navigation a chance. Compared to Sprint Navigation, Google Navigation is a champ. Recalculating was quick, view updates were quick, and its integration in to the rest of the phone is much nicer.

I'm not sure what happens with Google Navigation when the phone is out of data range. The dedicated GPS device obviously has its maps stored locally so as long as there is GPS, the unit is usable. With Sprint Navigation, when you were out of data range but still had a GPS connection, you no longer got live map views, but still got directions, distances, etc, so it was still usable. I was in data range all day yesterday, so I could not test that out.

There are two things I did not like about Google Navigation compared to Sprint Navigation. At least by default, Google Navigation uses minutes as measurements far more than Sprint Navigation (ie, go on this road for 43 minutes), where as Sprint Navigation uses miles as measurements. The only time where I care about minutes, Google uses raw minutes while Sprint Navigation tells you what time you will arrive (Google: you will arive in an hour and 6 minutes; Sprint: you will arrive at 1:08PM). The other thing I like about Sprint over Google is when an audio direction runs too long, Sprint will cut it off and start with the next direction, whereas Google will let the original direction finish and then move on to the next direction even if its already past. You need to make sure you are looking at the map so you don't miss a direction.

Anyway, these are my findings after one day of Google Navigation use. Long story short...I purchased a stand-alone GPS device because I felt Sprint Navigation was not up-to-par. Had Google Navigation been on my phone from the start, I don't know if I would have made that separate purchase.

 

[rob the plumber]

After the 2.1 update, my Sprint Nav started actually working. This makes me happy. :-D

My Sprint Navigation works no better after the update unfortunately.

 

[dannyniceboy]

My moment's gps is spot on even on cloudy days in nieghborhoods with tall trees, i have done a few routes around the city using google's navigate and it was always spot on. Maybe some phone's gps devices malfunction a little bit try a replacement...

 

[rob the plumber]

Maybe the GPS accuracy depends a lot on your location. I am in the Detroit area and everyone I know with a Moment says "the phone is great, but the navigation sucks...."
My wife and I both have equally crappy navigating Samsung Moments.
I also won't settle with buying a Garmin. Sprint sells navigation with their service. It should work, period.

 

[dannyniceboy]

Maybe the GPS accuracy depends a lot on your location. I am in the Detroit area and everyone I know with a Moment says "the phone is great, but the navigation sucks...."
My wife and I both have equally crappy navigating Samsung Moments.
I also won't settle with buying a Garmin. Sprint sells navigation with their service. It should work, period.

No arguments with that, go to the Sprint store and test out some other phones, maybe you'll get lucky and they will let you upgrade to the EVO

 

[rob the plumber]

No arguments with that, go to the Sprint store and test out some other phones, maybe you'll get lucky and they will let you upgrade to the EVO

I might have to try this in a couple weeks when the EVO comes out. As long as the virtual keyboard and Navigation work well, i'm sold.

 

[Tomoko]

Where is google navigation? In the market or already on the phone? (I'm kind of a nooooob)

If you have the latest maps update, ( I recommend going into the market and checking) there is an icon in the apps tray for "Navigation". You can put that on a homescreen if you want. From within the maps app hit Menu > Directions, set your start and end point, then hit Go. Once the app gets the directions, you'll see the option to navigate, press that and Google maps navigation will open and then take you there!

 

[rob the plumber]

The navigation through google works just as poorly as the Sprint navigation. I guess ill be brooming this slug and getting a phone that does its job.

 

[seattletd]

Google maps worked great prior to the 2.1 update. I complained at the Sprint store, and they finally gave me another Moment. Same problem. Nav and Maps constantly loses GPS fix, re-routes me, and is very jumpy even when it has good GPS fix. Have gone on road trips with wife's Mogul alongside, and GPS on the Mogul is great: fast at acquiring GPS, doesn't lose fix, smooth movement. The hardware on the moment is good, looks like a software problem.
Unfortunate, it makes GPS maps and Nav totally useless.