How is GPS?

thehavock18

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2010
284
33
0
Scott AFB
First GPS boot took about 15 second to have 4 satellites then at about 45 second I have 10 in view and locked on to 8 or 9. Several reboots and different locations I get 5 to 7 locks within 5 seconds. Never had that good of service with captivate

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA App
 

Entropy512

Senior Recognized Developer
Aug 31, 2007
14,095
25,085
0
Owego, NY
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... :D
Fairly certain that it's the 4t, not the 4e - http://www.csr.com/products/25/sirfstariv-gsd4t
 

AODfan

Senior Member
Mar 27, 2011
167
19
18
Tulsa
Amazing GPS. First android was a HTC Aria and thought the GPS was pretty good, then I got an Infuse and had horrible GPS, so I took it back and waited on this. I was hoping since this was Samsung's flaghship phone there would not be any problems. After receiving it I fired it up and GPS locked in fast like 5-10 secs, even faster now with GPS test and GPS status apps. Does not dropped GPS at all like the Infuse would do. I am very happy with this phone!
 

mmarquis

Senior Member
Aug 29, 2010
165
13
0
Allen, TX
GPS finally works like it should!

Never happy with my Captivate GPS until I got a Bluetooth GPS receiver; then it worked OK.

Without the Bluetooth I could get fairly quick and good locks outside by my pool with a clear sky, extended battery (plastic cover) sitting on a wire mesh table (performance suffered a little when I held it). But in my car it would only work when on the dash, and even then it would occasionally drift off.

With my SGS2 I can get very quick locks with accuracy down to 5m (claimed on Chartcross GPS test) even when in my cupholder!! Even works in my house to some degree.

Oddly enough the displayed SNRs with GPS test are quite similar between Captivate/extended battery and the SGS2. A few bars above 40 on a good day.
 

mcann

Member
Feb 1, 2010
29
1
0
It seems that we are all in agreement about the HUGE improvement over the Captivate (or your flavor of SGS1). I am also getting 5-7 locks inside with SNR over 40. I never got that on my Cap. I did have one of the freak Caps that had working GPS out of the box. It worked, but not as good as the SGS2. Just remember that you're using a smart PHONE with GPS functionality. It should be a great phone first and foremost. I'll be waiting for modems to come around since the stock modem drops calls in my area NY/NJ. I had to flash various modems with my Cap until I found one that was solid. So for now I have great GPS and a so-so phone!
 

jsmith8858

Senior Member
Nov 11, 2008
675
107
63
Boston
Everyone is talking about how quickly they get a lock here, but anyone who spent any time with a Captivate knows the problem was never getting a lock, it was keeping a lock during navigation and not having your phone think you were 2 blocks away while driving and going from 15m to 50m accuracy every few seconds.

I am happy to report that I've used the phone 4 times to track my driving, and it's been perfect every time so far -- no issues at all with it getting a lock quickly, nor losing the lock, the signal, or getting confused while driving. And this is on smaller, twisty, rural roads with lots of trees and generally cloudy weather this week, I haven't even taken it on the clear, open highway yet!

I have not touched a single GPS settings or done anything other than fire up Navigation and ask for directions to somewhere.

So, needless to say, I am very, very pleased about this coming from the Captivate, where the GPS was inconsistent at BEST. A HUGE improvement!
 
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Sledutah

Senior Member
Apr 13, 2007
435
78
0
Utah
Picked my phone up Monday morning. As soon as I got to the car I hit the Maps to see if it could find me. Damn, it was off by 5 blocks. I was about to head back into the att shop. Then I noticed the GPS wasn't turned on............... :eek:

Turned it on and this things rocks. I tracked it while driving around and it stays in my lane.
 
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kelavine

Member
Jan 11, 2008
30
4
0
For me the GPS in the GS2 is 100 times better than my experience with my Captivate.

I was always able to get a GPS lock with my Captivate, but it could take 5 to 10 minutes. However my Captivate could be very flaky when in a Nav app or GPS status app.

With the GS2, it is getting a GPS lock in less than one minute. Once in a Nav app it has held lock and been very accurate.
 

nycbjr

Senior Member
Oct 10, 2006
622
1,016
0
New York
Listen to me as "i'm only going to say this once"

Coming from the Iconia tab's infamous GPS issues.. this is 1 million times better..

GPS Status (from the market) gets me a lock in under (no joke here) 30 seconds!, this is WITHOUT wireless assist enabled...

on my iconia I'm lucky to EVER get a lock..

Good job samsung, my next tab will likely be one of yours!
 

Simba501

Senior Member
Feb 2, 2010
3,206
1,137
0
Listen to me as "i'm only going to say this once"

Coming from the Iconia tab's infamous GPS issues.. this is 1 million times better..

GPS Status (from the market) gets me a lock in under (no joke here) 30 seconds!, this is WITHOUT wireless assist enabled...

on my iconia I'm lucky to EVER get a lock..

Good job samsung, my next tab will likely be one of yours!
Mine locks on even faster than that. Literally seconds....best I've ever experienced.....very impressive.
 

dross50

Member
Apr 5, 2011
15
2
0
Everyone is talking about how quickly they get a lock here, but anyone who spent any time with a Captivate knows the problem was never getting a lock, it was keeping a lock during navigation and not having your phone think you were 2 blocks away while driving and going from 15m to 50m accuracy every few seconds.

I am happy to report that I've used the phone 4 times to track my driving, and it's been perfect every time so far -- no issues at all with it getting a lock quickly, nor losing the lock, the signal, or getting confused while driving. And this is on smaller, twisty, rural roads with lots of trees and generally cloudy weather this week, I haven't even taken it on the clear, open highway yet!

I have not touched a single GPS settings or done anything other than fire up Navigation and ask for directions to somewhere.

So, needless to say, I am very, very pleased about this coming from the Captivate, where the GPS was inconsistent at BEST. A HUGE improvement!
I had problems with both getting and keeping a lock on my captivate. I would RARELY ever get a lock and if I did and moved the phone more than a few inches I'd lose the lock. Now I'm keeping a 10 satellite lock even with the phone in the passenger seat while driving.
 

daverod

Senior Member
Aug 6, 2009
95
3
0
This is good news for old SGS owners.
Exactly. Abandoned Samsung because of this. Thinking about coming back.

---------- Post added at 09:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:37 AM ----------

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.
Wow. With new Vibrants or something else? Did it take a month of arguing back and forth?
 
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