4 years later, the samsung GPS is still a POS

[Anubis]

ive never had an issue with GPS

Droid
Droid X
Galaxy Nexus

 

[Midwayman]

The fact that Samsung decided to use this as a way to encourage purchase of new phones rather than offering a fix over several generations of phone with this problem has left me reluctant to buy another Samsung device, despite the general attractiveness of a Note 2.

Yah, Samsung has a bad habit of sweeping mistakes under the carpet and trying to sell you a new device instead. All the exynos 4 have a bug on their emmc chip that if you do wipes on a unsafe kernal (ICS for sure, not sure if JB) you can permanently destroy your phone.

 

[BoberFett]

The GPS on my Optimus Elite is fast and accurate. *shrug*

 

[Red Storm]

OP should perhaps change title from a not so sensational one or this thread is just going to fill up with people saying "Works fine on my phone".

 

[Bateluer]

ive never had an issue with GPS

Droid
Droid X
Galaxy Nexus

Under 4.0.2 & its radios, the Gnex GPS would cause reboots.

 

[lothar]

This was an issue on 1st and 2nd generation Galaxy phones.

It's a complete non-issue on the Galaxy S3, which locks accurately in seconds on the stock ROM.

Cyanogen founder Steve Kondik mentioned that the S4 GPS locks even faster than the S3.

That is incorrect.
This issue was not present on 2nd Gen Galaxy phones.
I can attest to that because I own the phone.

 

[iahk]

It was present on the Sprint version of the Galaxy S II.

 

[Bateluer]

It was present on the Sprint version of the Galaxy S II.

Yeah, there were some people that reported GPS problems with the SGS2s, but my understanding was that it wasn't near as bad or widespread as the SGS1 models.

 

[Thegonagle]

I had a suspicion it another case of blaming the software for what is really just poor hardware.

Of course, upon seeing that the hardware in question is the Galaxy Nexus, my suspicion was confirmed.

I bought a GNex, and after spending much time with it, I've concluded, unfortunately, that as far as the hardware goes, it's kind of a piece of crap.

It overheats easily (especially with a case or cover), it has weak cellular reception, the mobile hotspot drops connections regularly, the camera is junk, the external speaker is a joke, and yes, the GPS is slow.

Furthermore, nobody has mentioned this before--ever--but it looks/feels cheap and plasticy compared to most other phones.

 

[WelshBloke]

OP download Gps status and toolbox and flush your a-gps data.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

S1 was long fixed, but since the GPS was never really good anyway, people kept blaming it on the phone. Fact is it's not that great. However, once fixed, it was about as good as the HTC phones like the HTC Nexus One and stuff. Overall they weren't great.

The S2 wasn't great either.

The S3 and phones from that generation on had a huge boost because now GLONASS capabilities are added. This applies for the S4 and the Nexus 4 also. With GLONASS, you lock onto a whole different satellite system as well and so you get much faster locks.

With that said, even with a great phone like the Nexus 4, it really depends WHERE you are. I have no problem in my neighborhood, but my gf's S3 lags behind me in terms of GPS drift. Let's not even talk about my fellow Ingress players on their Galaxy Nexii. They are terrible at running street corner to street corner to be in the right location.

Now even with my N4, when I play Ingress in major metropolitan cities like Hong Kong, I can't do it at all. Completely screwed. The tall buildings completely mask my location despite having a 7-8 satellite lock.

 

[ChronoReverse]

S1 was long fixed, but since the GPS was never really good anyway, people kept blaming it on the phone. Fact is it's not that great. However, once fixed, it was about as good as the HTC phones like the HTC Nexus One and stuff. Overall they weren't great.

I'm not sure why you say that. I owned both the Nexus One and the HTC G2 (the next generation) and both had good GPS's.

Although they'd only work outdoors, both would lock in under 10 seconds (versus a minute for the Tomtom I had). I only remember being amazed at how much better they were compared to a dedicated GPS unit.

Now when I was in a downtown area with lots of skyscrapers, they'd lose lock but I imagine that's not unusual for GPS.


(As an aside, despite the disparaging the Snapdragons get, the SGS2 LTE, which used the Snapdragon, featured GLONASS as well and had a great GPS as a result)

 

[Anonemous]

Used to have an Optimus S, never had a problem with gps.

 

[Anubis]

Under 4.0.2 & its radios, the Gnex GPS would cause reboots.

ive been on a rom since day 1 with the Gnex so that could be why ive never had an issue

 

[Red Storm]

Furthermore, nobody has mentioned this before--ever--but it looks/feels cheap and plasticy compared to most other phones.

Hey now, I think it's the best looking and best holding phone ever released. Not one single phone has come close to matching the all glass, sleek looking, logo, marking, and button free front of the Nexus line.

 

[lothar]

I'm not sure why you say that. I owned both the Nexus One and the HTC G2 (the next generation) and both had good GPS's.

Although they'd only work outdoors, both would lock in under 10 seconds (versus a minute for the Tomtom I had). I only remember being amazed at how much better they were compared to a dedicated GPS unit.

Now when I was in a downtown area with lots of skyscrapers, they'd lose lock but I imagine that's not unusual for GPS.


(As an aside, despite the disparaging the Snapdragons get, the SGS2 LTE, which used the Snapdragon, featured GLONASS as well and had a great GPS as a result)

False.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

My thunderbolt is awesome for GPS.

 

[ChronoReverse]

False.

Oops, it's the nearly identical cousin the Galaxy Note 1 (which featured everything else identical) that had GLONASS from launch.

But it looks like SGS2 LTE i727's can pick up the GLONASS sats too after some updates:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=20421840&postcount=19
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=34677093&postcount=27

Basically it was enabled later on in its life when Qualcomm announced support: http://www.slashgear.com/qualcomm-a...-and-s3-support-for-gps-and-glonass-16202874/

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

I'm not sure why you say that. I owned both the Nexus One and the HTC G2 (the next generation) and both had good GPS's.

Although they'd only work outdoors, both would lock in under 10 seconds (versus a minute for the Tomtom I had). I only remember being amazed at how much better they were compared to a dedicated GPS unit.

Now when I was in a downtown area with lots of skyscrapers, they'd lose lock but I imagine that's not unusual for GPS.


(As an aside, despite the disparaging the Snapdragons get, the SGS2 LTE, which used the Snapdragon, featured GLONASS as well and had a great GPS as a result)

Because my cousin and I spent 2 weeks in Taiwan in 2011. The first 3 days we lacked internet, and during days 2 and 3 of Computex, we ran around the city doing GPS tests with my Nexus S against his Nexus One. We did moving tests, car tests, etc. I wouldn't say either device is BAD, but my Nexus S consistently beat out his Nexus One in terms of lock time. The most noticeable seemed to be while in a moving car, but when we were standing around, the difference was a mere few seconds. And yes, we used GPS Status and reset GPS frequently to try cold locks.

And to caution the 10 seconds statement that many people use. Many factors such as aGPS + warm lock contribute to faster lock time. Then you see people talking about how it takes 1 minute for a full lock. I just feel these time comparisons don't mean much unless you use apples to apples with cold locks and GPS only.

Edit: The one phone that beat these two phones out all the time was my Motorola Milestone/Droid 1. That thing had a good GPS receiver. However, I never bothered to compare since my SGS2, but since I have such a ridiculous phone collection maybe it's worth doing an objective timed test in my back yard.

 

[ChronoReverse]

Huh. Well I used custom ROMs throughout the entire time I was on my N1. Probably did something to improve it since I used my N1 all over the place in my car including many places without data (offline GPS apps are important!).

Oh, plus I was using the T-Mobile version (the ATT one always seemed to have more problems).

 

[poofyhairguy]

OP download Gps status and toolbox and flush your a-gps data.

Thanks that is good advice.

 

[wirednuts]

some phones are a lot better at gps then others, that's for sure.

my sensation just gave a craptacular performance the other day. it still worked, but it was really slow and confusing. it was super cloudy that day though...

otherwise, for the most part, i think android gps is the best you can buy. the fact that its always current is extremely nice in todays world.

 

[Thegonagle]

Hey now, I think it's the best looking and best holding phone ever released. Not one single phone has come close to matching the all glass, sleek looking, logo, marking, and button free front of the Nexus line.

The front is quite attractive, but the backside is straight from the low-rent district.

 

[WelshBloke]

The problem with custom ROMs or using phones released in a different area is they may be using the wrong time server. Editing the gps.conf file to point at the correct server for your area can help, at least I've found it to help anyway.

 

[Zstream]

Friend has a brand new Samsung phone from tmobile and his gf has one from ATT. They both had the GPS problems and it is the hardware associated with the device.

Here from Nokia is where its at!