GPS on S3

[Richmc]

I have to give credit to Samsung for big inprovement on the GPS. I had the Vibrant the day it came out and the GPS sucked out of the box. It was better using custom roms but stock was almost unusable.

Loaded up GPS test today on the S3 and was suprised. On the Vibrant stock, I never had greater than 50 feet accuracy and it never showed more than 9 in view and usually only showed 4 or 5 in use.

[S4GRU]

I have to give credit to Samsung for big inprovement on the GPS. I had the Vibrant the day it came out and the GPS sucked out of the box. It was better using custom roms but stock was almost unusable.

Loaded up GPS test today on the S3 and was suprised. On the Vibrant stock, I never had greater than 50 feet accuracy and it never showed more than 9 in view and usually only showed 4 or 5 in use.

 

GPS on the E4GT was fair, and got even better with radio updates over time. The GPS on the Galaxy Nexus was good in my observations, an improvement over the E4GT. However, the GS-III GPS so far has been very, very good.

 

Robert

[QWIKSTRIKE]

The GPS and the radio is perfect on this phone so far!

[iansltx]

Depending on the firmware revision, GPS was hit-or-miss on my Epic, though in later revisions it was perfectly solid (9 foot accuracy at time), to the point that charting routes via MapMyRun is very doable on that phone. The SIII seems to take slightly longer to get a fix, but holds it well.

[digiblur]

It probably does GLONASS as well. Combine the two and you have an awesome accuracy. Most chipsets have glonass support since they would like to sell their stuff in Russia too.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

[jefbal99]

It probably does GLONASS as well. Combine the two and you have an awesome accuracy. Most chipsets have glonass support since they would like to sell their stuff in Russia too.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

 

How would one go about enabling that support? I'm guessing there are no antennas, but it would be cool

 

Sent from my CM9 Epic 4g Touch using Forum Runner

[The Root]

From what I've heard Samsung relied on Google's coding for GPS and it had issues. HTC did well because they wrote their own code for it. Going forward, I believe Samsung is writing their own GPS code, thus the vast improvements by build and device.

[iansltx]

From what I've heard Samsung relied on Google's coding for GPS and it had issues. HTC did well because they wrote their own code for it. Going forward, I believe Samsung is writing their own GPS code, thus the vast improvements by build and device.

 

Could be. Google has an app called My Tracks that's nearly as old as the Android platform, with a video tutorial that mentions having enough time to do a round of calisthenics while waiting for your G1 (or something close to it) to get GPS lock. Kinda sad, considering my Mogul could get a lock faster than that...once it got its GPS enabled...and it ran Windows Mobile!

[boomerbubba]

From what I've heard Samsung relied on Google's coding for GPS and it had issues.

 

I doubt that very much, having been deeply involved in troubleshooting the GPS on the first generation Galaxies. Google does not write the low-level drivers and firmware that interfaced to the GPS chips and radios, the manufacturers did, and the carriers were responsible for their own acceptance testing. And Samsung screwed up the GPS firmware on multiple Galaxy platforms. (The original Galaxy S generation actually had different GPS hardware and low-level system firmware on different carrier-branded phones, and Samsung botched them all in different ways at different times.)

 

I am encouraged by all the positive anecdotal reports about the GPS performance on the GS3 models. I still have not seen any controlled testing that includes not just locking times and imputed accuracy from GPS Test, but also actual accuracy over the ground using My Tracks. When I get my hands on a Sprint GS3, I will do some testing to satisfy myself. But at least we don't see the forums full of posts saying "the GPS sucks," etc. Quite the opposite.

[digiblur]

 

How would one go about enabling that support? I'm guessing there are no antennas, but it would be cool

 

Sent from my CM9 Epic 4g Touch using Forum Runner

 

It's probably already turned on and used.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

[WiWavelength]

How would one go about enabling that support? I'm guessing there are no antennas, but it would be cool

 

It's probably already turned on and used.

 

Correct. The Galaxy S3 uses either its Qualcomm MSM8960 SoC or an outboard Broadcom solution for GNSS. Regardless, both Qualcomm and Broadcom support GLONASS, as does the S3. And GLONASS likely does not require an additional antenna, as it operates ~1600 MHz, very similar to GPS in that regard.

 

This app -- in its free version, paid version, or both -- displays GLONASS satellites.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chartcross.gpstest

 

Note, however, that GLONASS may be used only for backup. Hence, if you have sufficient GPS satellites "in view," then GLONASS may not be used.

 

AJ

[iansltx]

Correct. The Galaxy S3 uses either its Qualcomm MSM8960 SoC or an outboard Broadcom solution for GNSS. Regardless, both Qualcomm and Broadcom support GLONASS, as does the S3. And GLONASS likely does not require an additional antenna, as it operates ~1600 MHz, very similar to GPS in that regard.

 

This app -- in its free version, paid version, or both -- displays GLONASS satellites.

 

https://play.google....rtcross.gpstest

 

Note, however, that GLONASS may be used only for backup. Hence, if you have sufficient GPS satellites "in view," then GLONASS may not be used.

 

AJ

 

I have the paid version of that app. Just checked and the phone definitely sees GLONASS birds (several show up in constellation view), though the phone stayed put on GPS exclusively except for a second or so when it picked up a GLONASS sat to augment its position reading.

[jefbal99]

I have the paid version of that app. Just checked and the phone definitely sees GLONASS birds (several show up in constellation view), though the phone stayed put on GPS exclusively except for a second or so when it picked up a GLONASS sat to augment its position reading.

 

I have the free version, how do you determine what is a GPS bird vs. a GLONASS bird?

[iansltx]

I have the free version, how do you determine what is a GPS bird vs. a GLONASS bird?

 

According to the Help system, the foreground/background of the satellite number are inverted in signal view, and GLONASS sats are displayed as triangles 9vs. circles) in constellation view.

[jefbal99]

According to the Help system, the foreground/background of the satellite number are inverted in signal view, and GLONASS sats are displayed as triangles 9vs. circles) in constellation view.

 

I just realized that I was in the GS3 thread

[v8bait]

This comes from over at the XDA forums where this has been discussed in detail http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1752203

 

Quote from biff6789:

Here are a few links showing that any sats numbered 65-88 are GLONASS:

 

http://www.anandtech.com/show/5533/m...-the-battery/3

 

http://developer.sonymobile.com/wp/2...xperia-phones/

 

 

Furthermore, due to the rotation of the earth, a device can only connect with 12-13 max sats when it can only see GPS:

 

 

If you can talk with 20+ satellites then you are definitely communicating with two separate systems

 

:-)

[themuffinman]

I don't have a gs3 but I do have a gnex and evo lte and using the gps test app I can view about 11 to 12 satellites at any given moment on the gnex but on my evo lte I can view 22 to 24 satellites.

[S4GRU]

I don't have a gs3 but I do have a gnex and evo lte and using the gps test app I can view about 11 to 12 satellites at any given moment on the gnex but on my evo lte I can view 22 to 24 satellites.

 

My Viper and my GS-III both see 22-24.

 

Robert

[Kisakuku]

My Viper and my GS-III both see 22-24.

 

Robert

 

So does my EVO LTE. Or should I say "In Soviet Russia, GLONASS sees you"...

[digiblur]

 

So does my EVO LTE. Or should I say "In Soviet Russia, GLONASS sees you"...

 

One problem with that...GPS is one way comm.

 

Sent from my C64 w/Epyx FastLoad cartridge

[BenChase7]

This seems hard to believe to me, there are only 24 GPS satellites in orbit (plus a few spares that are offline and will come online if another satellite fails). I just don't see how a GPS receiver could be in view of so many satellites at one time. But IDK.

[boomerbubba]

Correct. The Galaxy S3 uses either its Qualcomm MSM8960 SoC or an outboard Broadcom solution for GNSS. Regardless, both Qualcomm and Broadcom support GLONASS, as does the S3.

 

Do we know for sure from teardown reports, etc., which GPS chip the Sprint GS3 employs? And do we know which GPS chiip the other carriers (particularly the GSM carriers) use?

 

The reason I ask is that the first generation Galaxy S units had different GPS hardware and associated software across carriers, which led to much misiniformation and confusion in user forums because people ignorantly thought "the GPS" was the same on all carriers. But the only thing they all had in common was that Samsung and the carriers managed to screw up the GPS on all the devices, just in different ways.

 

With all the positive anecdotal reports out there about the different GS3 implementations this time, the common news is good, so few users will care to do much testing. But it is worth noting that details for one carrier's GPS may not apply to another's.