How is GPS?

[shad0wf0x]

I've seen alot of posts of people getting their new SGS2, but I haven't seen any GPS results. I expect it to be the same as the international, but has anyone used gps test or gps status to see how well gps works?

 

[attn1]

GEEPEE-ESSSSS - Are you afraid of getting lost in the woods again? Why not put "Witches of Eastwick" on your new fancyphone and take a walk deep into the woods and see if it can nav you out? Street view will be particularly helpful I am sure!

Top 10 Pitfalls of using GPS in the Woods

10: Watch out for those uncharted cliffs.
9: Turn right into bee-hive alley
8. Skunk alert
7. Turn left at large oak tree? they are ALL large oak trees!
6. Nice. A bird just crapped on my head.
5. I wonder where my date is? I wonder what all that screaming is about? I should Google that...
4. Nice of Streetview to warn about all these hungry pygmies waving shrunken heads and standing over that brush covered pyramid.
3. Bear cub on the left - bear on the right - when will Google incorporate travel advisories worth a damn? Really? Bear right means this?
2. Wait - what? Low battery?
1. I wonder if twitter works out here?

 

[dandrumheller]

GEEPEE-ESSSSS - Are you afraid of getting lost in the woods again? Why not put "Witches of Eastwick" on your new fancyphone and take a walk deep into the woods and see if it can nav you out? Street view will be particularly helpful I am sure!

Top 10 Pitfalls of using GPS in the Woods

10: Watch out for those uncharted cliffs.
9: Turn right into bee-hive alley
8. Skunk alert
7. Turn left at large oak tree? they are ALL large oak trees!
6. Nice. A bird just crapped on my head.
5. I wonder where my date is? I wonder what all that screaming is about? I should Google that...
4. Nice of Streetview to warn about all these hungry pygmies waving shrunken heads and standing over that brush covered pyramid.
3. Bear cub on the left - bear on the right - when will Google incorporate travel advisories worth a damn? Really? Bear right means this?
2. Wait - what? Low battery?
1. I wonder if twitter works out here?

Nice, thanks for the laughs Attn1 - and good to see you posting over here.

I gotta agree with shad0wf0x though - I'd like to get some general impressions about the GPS on this device, as I want one that works, and my wife's Cappy is absolutely junk in this regard.

 

[nyamoV2]

Mine insta locks with 3 sats and will pick 4 more up in less than ~15 sec

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using Tapatalk

 

[war eagle]

Works great, good as my iPhone's did. The Infuse GPS was awful and it really pissed me off when I was foursquaring, but this phone does it PERFECTLY.

 

[dayv]

Mine locked on in less than 5 seconds and it is a cloudy rainy day here.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App

 

[shad0wf0x]

well I didn't wait, i got 3 sats in 10 seconds or so, got another 4 or so in under 30 seconds, did the update agps in gps test and got 11 right away strong locks (41+ indoors). GPS looks good to me.

 

[avengeryarr]

Got a fix on 8 out of 9 sats in my living room in under 5 seconds.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App

 

[locsplitter]

This is good news for old SGS owners.

 

[Simba501]

Good to see everyone having positive experiences with GPS.

Works great, good as my iPhone's did. The Infuse GPS was awful and it really pissed me off when I was foursquaring, but this phone does it PERFECTLY.

Weird. The two Infuses I've owned have had perfectly functioning GPS.

 

[ElCamino]

Been using the SGII since Saturday and GPS works like it should. Locks within 5 seconds +/-

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA Premium App

 

[war eagle]

Weird. The two Infuses I've owned have had perfectly functioning GPS.

Really? I was at a Waffle House in Atlanta, GA and my GPS said I was in Chattanooga, TN and no matter what I did it kept locking on there.

I'd be using Google Navigation and it would take like 2 minutes to lock before it started navigating.

 

[dandrumheller]

I'll echo the good user experience of most of these folks -

Wife tried hers on the way home - google nav got an accurate lock in about 15 seconds.

I waited till i got home and installed gps status - 4 sats within 5 seconds, 7 at 12 second first location fix, inside my metal roofed house on an overcast day. Had 11 sats by about 30 seconds or so - but never reported better than a 25m accuracy...not sure what's up with that. Did not clear or redownload agps data.

 

[Kadin]

Mine just took about 7 seconds to get a lock after opening up Maps fresh and took about 15 seconds burrowed inside my downstairs apartment. Very good compared to my old Captivate and even faster than my stock Infuse - and MUCH better than my Infused version on 2.2.3 (no disrespect to gtg though, it was as good as it could get I think).

 

[goojman]

GPS is definitely wayyy better than the Captivate ever was!! I got lock within 10 seconds... I'm not disappointed by this phone at all..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using xda premium

 

[foxbat121]

GS2 uses SiRFStar IV GPS chip, way better than the POS Broadcom chip used in Captivate. Anyone ever used standalone GPS unit knows SiRFStar is a brand you can trust in GPS world.

 

[MisterEdF]

GS2 uses SiRFStar IV GPS chip, way better than the POS Broadcom chip used in Captivate. Anyone ever used standalone GPS unit knows SiRFStar is a brand you can trust in GPS world.

That's excellent. Where did you find that info?

 

[foxbat121]

That's excellent. Where did you find that info?

Various Reviews. The Exynos APU also have a GPS baseband circuit built-in but Samsung decided to use an expensive dedicate GPS chip instead. I think the reputation of the poor GPS in original Galaxy S forced Samsung to do this.

 

[Dsmwookie]

Various Reviews. The Exynos APU also have a GPS baseband circuit built-in but Samsung decided to use an expensive dedicate GPS chip instead. I think the reputation of the poor GPS in original Galaxy S forced Samsung to do this.

That is good news. I made T mobile replace both of my Vibrant's with new units after almost two years of use because of that. I am very directionally challenged so this was a big deal to me.

 

[Shammyh]

Various Reviews. The Exynos APU also have a GPS baseband circuit built-in but Samsung decided to use an expensive dedicate GPS chip instead. I think the reputation of the poor GPS in original Galaxy S forced Samsung to do this.

Exactly. The SoC does have integrated GPS functionality, but Sammy chose not to use it. In fact, as you probably know, it's been rumored since the i9100 launched that the brand new SirFStar IV chip was in the Galaxy S2. I'm sure the SoC solution worked, but seeing as "gps issues" was probably one of the biggest complaints against the old Galaxy S, and in such a thin phone there isn't tons of extra space to put a huge antenna, they probably wanted to put the best GPS chip in that they could find!

The GS2 will never rival the reception of a dedicated GPS unit with a big ol' ceramic patch antenna, but it should work about as well as is possible with such a small antenna. At least, that's the hope.

PS, this is supposedly the GPS chip in the GS2. Which interestingly enough actually contains it's own 109 MHz ARM7 CPU. Normally GPS is handled by a combination of the baseband and the SoC, so it's gonna be interesting to see what sort of tweaks and upgrades will be available in the future by virtue of having a dedicated GPS chip.

And non sequitur for those interested, that means there's an ARM core in the baseband, another in the GPS, and 2 in the SoC. Quite a few cores for a tiny little device...