GPS - accuracy, performance, availability ?

[eliwellis]

Hi everybody,

A friend and I are putting together an app that uses the GPS. We've noticed, more often than we would like, that our Droids (motorolas) don't have a current fix on our location. So I thought I would put out a question to you all, a survey if you will.

The questions are these:

- How well do you rate the phones gps? In a rural area? In the city? How accurate is the position shown on the map? How often is your "location temporarily unavailable"? Which Android phone do you have?

-For those of you with experience with other hand held GPS devices (Garmin,Magellan,Delorme) , how does the androids gps hardware compare?

-For those of you with both android and iphone experience, do you notice a difference?

Thanks in advance for the responses and the help.

-Eli

 

[garrett]

Hi everybody,

A friend and I are putting together an app that uses the GPS. We've noticed, more often than we would like, that our Droids (motorolas) don't have a current fix on our location. So I thought I would put out a question to you all, a survey if you will.

The questions are these:

- How well do you rate the phones gps? In a rural area? In the city? How accurate is the position shown on the map? How often is your "location temporarily unavailable"? Which Android phone do you have?
i would give it a 9/10 its very accurate in my area (tampa/ft lauderdale). if i have it on and then walk around in my yard it will be accurate within about 10 feet. i can also walk around inside of a building and it will show my location within that building.

-For those of you with experience with other hand held GPS devices (Garmin,Magellan,Delorme) , how does the androids gps hardware compare?
i have a Garmin Nuvi Handheld and its more accurate then that and it even has the updated maps. Then i have my cars (audi) navigation and the car navi seems to re-route faster but both are pretty close

-For those of you with both android and iphone experience, do you notice a difference?
The iphone GPS in my personal experience isnt accurate at all. this was using a 3GS. When i used my iphone it would always be off by about 100-300 feet.

Thanks in advance for the responses and the help.

-Eli

comments in red.... hope this helps.

 

[smokiedabong]

In my opinion it works better than a Garmin 255 , it shows my location and has satellite lock in areas where Garmin loses signal . I have around 4-5 signal losses per week , and they last for 10-20 seconds till I drive in another area .

 

[CBLJazz]

the beauty of this system- and the reason no one will be able to compete with it- is it's integration with google maps.
google maps is amazing on the computer and great on this phone.
the navigation is 9/10.
compared to a stand alone unit it is better because of google maps.
i can't compare to an iphone because i never had one.

the gps is accurate if you delete aps that interfere with it.

I had several news apps that used location and messed up my gps- deleted those & now it's perfect within 10-20ft.

 

[zakany]

Droid, iPhone, Garmin, etc. probably all use the same GPS chipset.

 

[sroach23]

the gps on my droid sucked until i read the calibration method in the faq. now it is extremely accurate.

 

[lschicky]

At my house, no GPS gets a good fix. Outside and so far everywhere else it's been just as good if not better then my Standalone GPS unit. Droid has a better GPS then my last phone. (Omnia with the GPS fixed)

Don't forget, the droid has two forms of GPS. Actual GPS and aGPS which is where it uses the cell towers.

 

[iPirate]

the gps on my droid sucked until i read the calibration method in the faq. now it is extremely accurate.

link to this?


My GPS works great when it has a fix. I sometimes have difficulty getting a fix but turning GPS off and back on fixes that problem.

 

[CBLJazz]

the gps on my droid sucked until i read the calibration method in the faq. now it is extremely accurate.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dr...r-gps-google-maps-more-accurate-location.html

 

[Omega-Tron]

I live in Northwest Iowa and the GPS is a little flaky in some rural areas. Once the GPS has a signal for at least 10 seconds though it seems to keep the signal.

I haven't actually compared the Droid side by side against my Navigon and Tom Tom to see how the signal strength is in the "dead zones" but I like the Google Maps interface a lot better. Probably because it has so many features like always up to date POIs and voice recognition.

 

[filterbox]

Hi everybody,

A friend and I are putting together an app that uses the GPS. We've noticed, more often than we would like, that our Droids (motorolas) don't have a current fix on our location. So I thought I would put out a question to you all, a survey if you will.

The questions are these:

- How well do you rate the phones gps? In a rural area? In the city? How accurate is the position shown on the map? How often is your "location temporarily unavailable"? Which Android phone do you have? I have a Motorola Droid. I'd rate the GPS a 9/10. It usually shows me exactly where I am in my house when I look at the satellite view in maps. I live in the greater Los Angeles/South Bay area and my coverage is excellent. I've had the GPS signal drop out a few times in Downtown Los Angeles (I assume cause of the building?) and in rural Washington state. The only time I seem to get the "location temporarily unavailable" is when I haven't used any GPS features in a while. Rotating the phone to 'calibrate' seems to make it find my location faster when this happens.

-For those of you with experience with other hand held GPS devices (Garmin,Magellan,Delorme) , how does the androids gps hardware compare? I've used a Magellan and compared them side by side and my Droid lost the signal less than the Magellan in rural Washington...the only bad thing is that the Droid would sometimes lose the map since they aren't stored onboard. Even my old LG Voyager had better GPS navigation than the Magellan, imo.

-For those of you with both android and iphone experience, do you notice a difference? My Droid GPS has always been more accurate when comparing it to friends iphones.

Thanks in advance for the responses and the help.

-Eli

My comments in red. Good luck on the app.

Edit: Also there is a really good app that shows GPS status and fix information. It's called GPS Status. Right now it shows I'm fixed to 8 satellites with an error margin of about 12 feet.

 

[gpsmapper]

Droid, iPhone, Garmin, etc. probably all use the same GPS chipset.

No, the iPhone 3G/S uses an Infineon PMB 2525 Hammerhead II chipset. The Droid uses a multi-function Qualcomm chip. Garmin uses neither of these.

 

[eliwellis]

Thanks for all of the responses.

Do any of you notice that the droids gps seems to have good days and bad days? Sometimes it has me perfectly throughout the day , other times it doesn't have my location at all. ( or thinks I am in Quebec , which I am not )

 

[lschicky]

what's the weather like on the bad days? Anything that uses satellite will have bad days.

 

[eliwellis]

I am curious also about how well the phone finds your location using wireless networks. Either with the gps on or off. Is there an app similar to GPS Status that monitors connections to wireless networks?

Any links to other threads related to this would be appreciated.

Thanks