Nexus S Plagued By The Samsung GPS Issue

Cuerbo said:

Samsung Nexus S Review: How to Build an Android Phone for 2011

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This is good news. We may really get a fix now. Since they changed the GPS antenna on the Nexus S, it sounds like that it could be a software issue after all.

Sounds like the Captivate still rules the 'S' phones. To me it looks by far the best and its metal back makes it feel more substantial/less cheap. I also prefer the slimmer form factor over the Epic.

All but a couple people in the Nexus S forums at XDA are reporting perfectly functioning GPS. It may be that there are a few defective units out there, and Gizmodo got one of them?

I guess we'll find out soon enough after more owners have had more time with the phone.

cmt074 said:

Sounds like the Captivate still rules the 'S' phones. To me it looks by far the best and its metal back makes it feel more substantial/less cheap. I also prefer the slimmer form factor over the Epic.

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I actually hate the metal back plate. When my nails rub against it, it feels like I'm scratching a chalk board.

Personal preference I guess. But I don't really see how a metal plate would be superior to the Nexus S's Vanilla Android, Gingerbread, immediate updates, front facing camera, LED flash, NFC, contour display, developer support and anything I may have left out. But I guess that's personal preference as well.

Donatron said:

I actually hate the metal back plate. When my nails rub against it, it feels like I'm scratching a chalk board.

Personal preference I guess. But I don't really see how a metal plate would be superior to the Nexus S's Vanilla Android, Gingerbread, immediate updates, front facing camera, LED flash, NFC, contour display, developer support and anything I may have left out. But I guess that's personal preference as well.

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If all goes well, the Captivate will be getting the software just as fast as the Nexus S thanks to the Devs. I think it really comes down to:

Nexus S: NFC, front facing camera, and LED flash
Captivate: Expandable storage

Really though, NFC is going to be pointless for a while and how often do people really need LED flash to take a picture at night (keep in mind that for the flash on most phones to have any effect, the subject has to be pretty darn close). I'd rather have a phone that will store Seasons 1 - 6 of the Sopranos

Oh, and with the Nexus S, you have to suffer through T-Mobile's spotty 3G network.

I agree- I prefer expandibility over an LED flash and front-facing camera.

Firstoff, the flash on most cell phones are next to useless and the Captivate has proven to do extremely well in low-light situations with the night filter built into the stock camera software. Even when I have a real camera with a flash I use other techniques to take nighttime photos because I hate the way the flash makes photos look. The front facing camera sounds like it would be a novelty for me personally. I doubt I'd use it to video chat anyone.

I love the metal backing though. My friend has a Vibrant and it feels very cheap/chintzy compared to the Captivate. I far prefer the look of the Captivate's case overall to any other of the 'S' models. I'm not a fan of an oval/round top/bottom.

I admit I've never used a 'contoured screen' so I can't really comment on it but I find the screens on all the 'S' phones to be comfortable.

I'll update my statement: to me the Captivate still rules the 'S' phones .

skinien said:

If all goes well, the Captivate will be getting the software just as fast as the Nexus S thanks to the Devs. I think it really comes down to:

Nexus S: NFC, front facing camera, and LED flash
Captivate: Expandable storage

Really though, NFC is going to be pointless for a while and how often do people really need LED flash to take a picture at night (keep in mind that for the flash on most phones to have any effect, the subject has to be pretty darn close). I'd rather have a phone that will store Seasons 1 - 6 of the Sopranos

Oh, and with the Nexus S, you have to suffer through T-Mobile's spotty 3G network.

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I think I rather have the expandability as well if I had to make a choice.

But although an LED flash does kind of suck, it is useful for things like barcode reading in dark environments. It's better than no photo at all in other situations.

Personally, I no longer keep my external SD card in my Captivate anymore after realizing that I don't even need it since the internal memory is more than enough for me. But that's just me, others will definitely want that extra storage.

But anyways, I've been keeping up with the XDA forums, and it looks like the small few who were reporting GPS problems are saying that their GPS's started working perfectly. They don't know why it didn't work right out the box, but it works now, so that's all that matters.

Do you have problem with your GPS? - xda-developers

Aside from those few people, everybody else reported perfect GPS out the box. Looks like the GPS MAY actually be fixed in the Nexus S. We'll see over the course of the next few days if it continues to perform well.

My GPS has never had issues. Locks in as quick as other smartphones I have tried. Rogers unit that I got about 3 weeks ago.

skinien said:

If all goes well, the Captivate will be getting the software just as fast as the Nexus S thanks to the Devs..

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I hope and thinks so! I read that some were worried about the different file system used on the Nexus S, but it's basically a sanctioned lag fix, so I don't see a problem. Also, some mentioned different band frequencies as a potential hiccup as well.

Skip to 8:25, one phone has working GPS, the other is a Nexus S....

YouTube - ‪Nexus S v Samsung Galaxy S2 - Boot time, Speaker, Browser & GPS‬‏

phonefreek said:

Skip to 8:25, one phone has working GPS, the other is a Nexus S....

YouTube - ‪Nexus S v Samsung Galaxy S2 - Boot time, Speaker, Browser & GPS‬‏

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so your point is that us galaxy s owner....like simple captivates have no working gps and the s2 does...and the nexus s...doesnt..........um...ok...

still doesnt help me with a simple captivate that has inconsistent gps ..........that so many other phones have....iphone...htc phones...etc.