Which Is The Best Mobile Phone For GPS?

[surefire888]

Any suggestions?

IMO, most mobile phone built-in GPS cant compete with stand-alone gp units in terms of locking speed n accuracy. That's why i eventually bought my holux bluetooth gps units but even then, it is not 100% smooth sailing.

I have tried several (see my sig below) and here r my thoughts:-

1. 3.2" Nokia 5230/5800-Symbian: The built-in gps is pretty decent but the best thing about the nokias (5800, 5230) is that they work beautifully with the holux. No need for separate bluetooth gps app unlike for iphone or android. Only prob is, the screen is too small (3.2"). One possibility is to upgrade to the 3.5" or 4" Nokias like the C7, N8 or X7 but these all use the new Symbian 3 which I hv no experience in. Also, eventhough the screen is bigger, the resol is still the same old 640 X 360!

2. 3.2" HTC Legend-Android 2.2: My HTC Legend built-in gps works well - WHEN it works. Sometimes, when i have not used it for a while n then switch it on, the gps takes forever to lock on. Rebooting sometimes helps but i have lost confidence that i be be able to rely on this phone. Worst thing with HTC is that the bluetooth is cocked-up - it absolutely refuses to pair with any of my holuxes.

3. 4" Samsung Galaxy S SL-Android 2.2: Built-in gps not fully reliable - Samsung Galaxy gps is notoriously bad. Linkage with holux worked fine earlier but now requires a toggle of the bluetooth setting otherwise it keeps crashing and rebooting.

Edit: After playing around with GPS Status and updating the assistance data, my SL's gps is working a lot better. Bluetooth pairing is also working fine now. All in, quite satsified (but not yet 100%) with the SL gps.

4. 3.5" iPhone/iPod Touch-IOS: Works flawlessly with my holuxes (needs to be jb-ed). Prob is screen not as big as i would have liked.

5. 7" Samsung Galaxy Tab: My latest acquisition and the gps performance is just unbelievable! Achieve lock using built-in gps in under 10 sec (could be warm start?). This is currently my best-performing gps amongst all my gps devices.

Well, the above r my observations. Anyone has tried other phones esp with a bluetooth gps? How about the Sony Xperia 10? It's going for quite a low price nowadays. LG Optimus? Will they pair with an external bluetooth gps?

Or perhaps i should just wait for the iPhone 5 n hope they increase the screen size to 4"!

Thks for any opinions.

P.S. Hv also considered android tablets but i think they r impractical to mount. In any case, i already hv the iPad n it works great (Edit: caved-in and bgt the Samsung Galaxy Tab (see no. 5 above - gps works fantastic!))

[Inggo]

Any suggestions?

IMO, most mobile phone built-in GPS cant compete with stand-alone gp units in terms of locking speed n accuracy. That's why i eventually bought my holux bluetooth gps units but even then, it is not 100% smooth sailing.

I have tried several (see my sig below) and here r my thoughts:-

1. 3.2" Nokia 5230/5800-Symbian: The built-in gps is pretty decent but the best thing about the nokias (5800, 5230) is that they work beautifully with the holux. No need for separate bluetooth gps app unlike for iphone or android. Only prob is, the screen is too small (3.2"). One possibility is to upgrade to the 3.5" or 4" Nokias like the C7, N8 or X7 but these all use the new Symbian 3 which I hv no experience in. Also, eventhough the screen is bigger, the resol is still the same old 640 X 360!

2. 3.2" HTC Legend-Android 2.2: My HTC Legend built-in gps works well - WHEN it works. Sometimes, when i have not used it for a while n then switch it on, the gps takes forever to lock on. Rebooting sometimes helps but i have lost confidence that i be be able to rely on this phone. Worst thing with HTC is that the bluetooth is cocked-up - it absolutely refuses to pair with any of my holuxes.

3. 4" Samsung Galaxy S SL-Android 2.2: Built-in gps not fully reliable - Samsung Galaxy gps is notoriously bad. Linkage with holux worked fine earlier but now requires a toggle of the bluetooth setting otherwise it keeps crashing and rebooting.

4. 3.5" iPhone/iPod Touch-IOS: Works flawlessly with my holuxes (needs to be jb-ed). Screen not as big as i would have liked.

Well, the above r my observations. Anyone has tried other phones esp with a bluetooth gps? How about the Sony Xperia 10? It's going for quite a low price nowadays. LG Optimus? Will they pair with an external bluetooth gps?

Or perhaps i should just wait for the iPhone 5 n hope they increase the screen size to 4"!

Thks for any opinions.

P.S. Hv also considered android tablets but i think they r impractical to mount. In any case, i already hv the iPad n it works great

actually, the best gps for mobile phone was that have "gps chipset internally",
not using a-gps nor externally bluetooth gps.

anyway, iphone 5 maybe would have same size (screen) but ve more enhanced new technology such as
finger print recognizer for lcd touchscreen, or retina recognizer for cam.

[surefire888]

Any suggestions?

IMO, most mobile phone built-in GPS cant compete with stand-alone gp units in terms of locking speed n accuracy. That's why i eventually bought my holux bluetooth gps units but even then, it is not 100% smooth sailing.

I have tried several (see my sig below) and here r my thoughts:-

1. 3.2" Nokia 5230/5800-Symbian: The built-in gps is pretty decent but the best thing about the nokias (5800, 5230) is that they work beautifully with the holux. No need for separate bluetooth gps app unlike for iphone or android. Only prob is, the screen is too small (3.2"). One possibility is to upgrade to the 3.5" or 4" Nokias like the C7, N8 or X7 but these all use the new Symbian 3 which I hv no experience in. Also, eventhough the screen is bigger, the resol is still the same old 640 X 360!

2. 3.2" HTC Legend-Android 2.2: My HTC Legend built-in gps works well - WHEN it works. Sometimes, when i have not used it for a while n then switch it on, the gps takes forever to lock on. Rebooting sometimes helps but i have lost confidence that i be be able to rely on this phone. Worst thing with HTC is that the bluetooth is cocked-up - it absolutely refuses to pair with any of my holuxes.

3. 4" Samsung Galaxy S SL-Android 2.2: Built-in gps not fully reliable - Samsung Galaxy gps is notoriously bad. Linkage with holux worked fine earlier but now requires a toggle of the bluetooth setting otherwise it keeps crashing and rebooting.

4. 3.5" iPhone/iPod Touch-IOS: Works flawlessly with my holuxes (needs to be jb-ed). Screen not as big as i would have liked.

Well, the above r my observations. Anyone has tried other phones esp with a bluetooth gps? How about the Sony Xperia 10? It's going for quite a low price nowadays. LG Optimus? Will they pair with an external bluetooth gps?

Or perhaps i should just wait for the iPhone 5 n hope they increase the screen size to 4"!

Thks for any opinions.

P.S. Hv also considered android tablets but i think they r impractical to mount. In any case, i already hv the iPad n it works great

actually, the best gps for mobile phone was that have "gps chipset internally",
not using a-gps nor externally bluetooth gps.

anyway, iphone 5 maybe would have same size (screen) but ve more enhanced new technology such as
finger print recognizer for lcd touchscreen, or retina recognizer for cam.

the prob is most gps on phones with built-in gps chips are not very good. the exception might be the Asus Garmin but that partnership has already dissolved.

[Inggo]

the prob is most gps on phones with built-in gps chips are not very good. the exception might be the Asus Garmin but that partnership has already dissolved.

actually, built-in gps chips on any mobilephone is almost SAME quality with PND dedicated GPS.
good or not good is depend on OS & Navigation Program.

even garminXT is not good as Nuvi Garmin dedicated device.
although both is same gps chipset & same dedicated PND, from Garmin itself.

the key is native OS & navigation program..
Not depend of Gps chip.

[tuah]

A50

[surefire888]

the prob is most gps on phones with built-in gps chips are not very good. the exception might be the Asus Garmin but that partnership has already dissolved.

actually, built-in gps chips on any mobilephone is almost SAME quality with PND dedicated GPS.
good or not good is depend on OS & Navigation Program.

even garminXT is not good as Nuvi Garmin dedicated device.
although both is same gps chipset & same dedicated PND, from Garmin itself.

the key is native OS & navigation program..
Not depend of Gps chip.

True to a certain extent but other than the navi app and the OS, i think the physical design limitation also makes a difference. Even before the navi app is launched, the acquisition of the satellites in a phone is already a chore.

I believe it's because, in a phone, there is little space for a proper antenna and the placement is also constrained. That's why there are lots of mods where people open up their phones to modify or adjust the antenna.

On the other hand, in a dedicated gps unit or even a bluetooth gps, u can have a large antenna and place it in the optimal position.

[Inggo]

the prob is most gps on phones with built-in gps chips are not very good. the exception might be the Asus Garmin but that partnership has already dissolved.

actually, built-in gps chips on any mobilephone is almost SAME quality with PND dedicated GPS.
good or not good is depend on OS & Navigation Program.

even garminXT is not good as Nuvi Garmin dedicated device.
although both is same gps chipset & same dedicated PND, from Garmin itself.

the key is native OS & navigation program..
Not depend of Gps chip.

A50

anyway, i've Garmin nüvi® 295W.. its manufacturing by Asus (same as A50)

but there is some bugs in nüvi® 295W: i really hate it!
1. cannot display icon POI while driving in 3D navigation, must stop driving and see in 2D mode, but still cannot display all POI, only display partly for layer 1 map (maximum zoom)
2. always hang and auto reset while driving with mfm map frequent about 10-15 minute while driving, maybe its compatibilty issues with cgpsmapper map , (not tested in NT map format yet)
3. white blank screen issues while battery drop near zero while idle mode, must reset.
4. lagging to drawn polygon area (but not lagging in the road) only for polygon, sometimes some area not refresh (blank).
5. the worst case is some road often missing in 3D navigation, but exist in 2D map.
6. i frequent got to wrong way if there is many junction into highway (that's why i still using both Papago with garmin -together).

The only good news is only for best routing and easily gobble hugh map (295W able to use more than 1 Gigabyte map).
The main reason i'd garmin nuvi is for testing my tracking into mapsource and loading into garmin device.
(mapsource tracks cannot transfer to other device but garmin, even cannot to garminXT also, only to garmin device such nuvi, etrex,..)

so, i think better using old 2X5 nuvi version (205 or 255 series) to compatible 100% with cgpsmap format.
hope Stan "can" releases the NT compiler for garmin

[Inggo]

....
the key is native OS & navigation program..
Not depend of Gps chip.

True to a certain extent but other than the navi app and the OS, i think the physical design limitation also makes a difference. Even before the navi app is launched, the acquisition of the satellites in a phone is already a chore.

I believe it's because, in a phone, there is little space for a proper antenna and the placement is also constrained. That's why there are lots of mods where people open up their phones to modify or adjust the antenna.

On the other hand, in a dedicated gps unit or even a bluetooth gps, u can have a large antenna and place it in the optimal position.

actually, antenna for gps chipset is not need big space, caused its only need half of lambda length signal.
GPS satellites transmit two radio signals, designated L1 and L2.
Civilian GPS uses the L1 frequency of 1575.42 MHz in the UHF band.
half lambda is only one by a billionth meters ( 3x 10e-7 milimeter) !!!!

The signals travel by line of sight, meaning they will pass through clouds, glass and plastic but will not go through most solid objects such as buildings and mountains.

Factors of GPS signal error & that can be degraded the GPS signal and thus affect accuracy include the following:
1.Ionosphere and troposphere delays - The satellite signal slows as it passes through the atmosphere. The GPS system uses a built-in model that calculates an average amount of delay to partially correct for this type of error.
2. Signal multipath - This occurs when the GPS signal is reflected off objects such as tall buildings or large rock surfaces before it reaches the receiver. This increases the travel time of the signal, thereby causing errors.
3. Receiver clock errors - A receiver's built-in clock is not as accurate as the atomic clocks onboard the GPS satellites. Therefore, it may have very slight timing errors.
4. Orbital errors - Also known as ephemeris errors, these are inaccuracies of the satellite's reported location.
5. Number of satellites visible - The more satellites a GPS receiver can "see," the better the accuracy. Buildings, terrain, electronic interference, or sometimes even dense foliage can block signal reception, causing position errors or possibly no position reading at all. GPS units typically will not work indoors, underwater or underground.
6. Satellite geometry/shading - This refers to the relative position of the satellites at any given time. Ideal satellite geometry exists when the satellites are located at wide angles relative to each other. Poor geometry results when the satellites are located in a line or in a tight grouping.
7. Intentional degradation of the satellite signal - Selective Availability (SA) is an intentional degradation of the signal once imposed by the U.S. Department of Defense. SA was intended to prevent military adversaries from using the highly accurate GPS signals. The government turned off SA in May 2000, which significantly improved the accuracy of civilian GPS receivers using L2C signal.

that all parameter can represents as fault of noise tobe as signal error, and gps chipset needs more time to generate NMEA accusition data from faulty signal, so you must wait more long time idle to get persistent "good" signal to get lock your gps.

So, antenna is not essential issues in gps chipset.

[kadajawi]

The GPS reception of my HTC Magic is pretty good, however the phone seriously lacks RAM and CPU power. Everything constantly keeps crashing because of a lack of RAM, and it's all very slow. And Android isn't exactly rock solid anyway, which makes things worse.

That being said, if Google Maps Navigation would run reliable and officially support Malaysia, it would be awesome. I absolutely love GMN in Europe, no satnav can even come close to it. If it were reliable and had one or two features that for whatever reason are missing (and I mean features that satnavs had for decades...).

[Inggo]

The GPS reception of my HTC Magic is pretty good, however the phone seriously lacks RAM and CPU power. Everything constantly keeps crashing because of a lack of RAM, and it's all very slow. And Android isn't exactly rock solid anyway, which makes things worse.

That being said, if Google Maps Navigation would run reliable and officially support Malaysia, it would be awesome. I absolutely love GMN in Europe, no satnav can even come close to it. If it were reliable and had one or two features that for whatever reason are missing (and I mean features that satnavs had for decades...).

Google & Satnav is good, but the main problem is.... their map is INCOMPLETE..!
(For Asean Region)