[Q] GPS Accuracy - Nexus S Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm curious as to what kind of GPS accuracy are you getting on your Nexus S. Please let me know what's the average and best accuracy you're getting.
I'm getting around 30-50m accuracy while in my house. My Nexus One on the other hand (placed side-by-side with my Nexus S) gets around 3m accuracy!
The best accuracy I had on my Nexus S is 10m, and it doesn't stay at 10m for long.
My Nexus One also locks on much quicker than the Nexus S. The Nexus S usually takes up to 1 minute for it to lock on, sometimes it takes like 10-20 secs if I'm lucky. The Nexus One only needs a few seconds to get a lock

How did you check that?
Well, I used my NS with Sygic Aura this morning, just for testing.
And it worked well
GPS fixed in seconds!

I used an app called GPS Status & Toolbox to check the accuracy

Related

GPS and the large display

I was at a conference this week where the CTO of Tom Tom was taking and he made an interesting comment. The large displays of these smart phones interferes with the GPS receiver, so I did a quick experiment.
I used gps test with the screen brightness all the way up, signal strength e was good and lock was ok. I then turned the brightness down all the way and did the same gps test, this time signal strength was better and lock times were shorter. I repeated a few times with similar results.
I was just wondering what other people would see. I will do a more scientific method soon.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
citrit said:
I was at a conference this week where the CTO of Tom Tom was taking and he made an interesting comment. The large displays of these smart phones interferes with the GPS receiver, so I did a quick experiment.
I used gps test with the screen brightness all the way up, signal strength e was good and lock was ok. I then turned the brightness down all the way and did the same gps test, this time signal strength was better and lock times were shorter. I repeated a few times with similar results.
I was just wondering what other people would see. I will do a more scientific method soon.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always run my phone at the lowest brightness to save battery and my GPS sucks. So, if it improves the GPS with lower brightness, I don't want to see what it'd look like at full brightness!

Phone like to haz p0wer all the time.

I am running current widget. This phone is a beast and eats 250mA while idle while my OG droid only was taking 20-30mA. no wonder this sucker dies in 4 hours
That shouldn't be that high when idle. I'm doing idle power tests right now, all the time in fact, on my nexus. Checked the thunderbolt and inspire at the store. At least they seem more efficient with screen on, hitting around 430mA at max brightness. My nexus will hit 750mA which drives me nuts.
I'm comparing ginger bread idle power, and Google seems to have made enormous improvements. Idle current draw is now at 8 mA, where on froyo for me its around 18mA. More testing needed.
But I feel that slcd screen is way way better for power than the amoled since most uses show white color anyway.
RogerPodacter said:
That shouldn't be that high when idle. I'm doing idle power tests right now, all the time in fact, on my nexus. Checked the thunderbolt and inspire at the store. At least they seem more efficient with screen on, hitting around 430mA at max brightness. My nexus will hit 750mA which drives me nuts.
I'm comparing ginger bread idle power, and Google seems to have made enormous improvements. Idle current draw is now at 8 mA, where on froyo for me its around 18mA. More testing needed.
But I feel that slcd screen is way way better for power than the amoled since most uses show white color anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well its pretty consistent idle power draw of 200-250. i have 4G on and syncing on as well. When i am using the phone with the screen on i average around 450-500. when i turn of 4G and have good 3G signal i can get the phone around 45mA
45mA is still high. I just wiped my phone because I'm averaging 50mA idle all the time no matter what. On this clean install I'm now at 15mA very consistently. But what's driving me nuts is I loaded stock ginger bread, and that ROM stays dead even at freaking 4 - 7mA. It's beautiful, my battery lasts incredibly long on it. But switching back to cyan7 I can't get below 14mA, and its driving me mad.
I just swapped ROMs again a few hours ago to do more tests. I hacked the nexus battery driver to do some useful tests. Wonder if the thunderbolt uses the same driver.
My idle draw is an average 40 with 4G. I'm using the current widget.
It also draws the same on airplane mode. Something is screwed up somewhere...
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk
Your posts aren't very informative for someone trying to compare.
What apps are you running background, which services (sync, location, etc), which radios on (wifi sleep policy, BT on, 4G/3G area, etc), screen brightness settings? Even the app will have an impact on draw, since keeping a log file will cause some juice drain each time the log is written, so update interval is probably necessary for the discussion to be meaningful.
You're getting your numbers from the log and when the phone is actually truly idle (ie. untouched, screen off) for a while?
Not criticizing at all, but these kind of discussions can end up just frustrating folks because of ambiguities...kind of like the posts where someone says (I get 5 days on my battery with "moderate use", and it turns out that guy's idea of "moderate use" means it sits untouched all day except a couple of minutes browsing).
I just installed the current widget out of curiosity, so not much data to go on, but with the screen on 50% brigthness, wifi on, BT on, sync on, several apps having been opened I saw about 140mah. Turned the brightness down to minimum and it dropped to 76, then 45. Let the phone idle scree off for a few minutes, and it was showing 32 when I first turned it back on.
My log shows that during the idle period for a couple of minutes, the phone was drawing between 30 and 40 each pull (every ten seconds).
A lolcatz haz rited yor subjekt...
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
distortedloop said:
Your posts aren't very informative for someone trying to compare.
What apps are you running background, which services (sync, location, etc), which radios on (wifi sleep policy, BT on, 4G/3G area, etc), screen brightness settings? Even the app will have an impact on draw, since keeping a log file will cause some juice drain each time the log is written, so update interval is probably necessary for the discussion to be meaningful.
You're getting your numbers from the log and when the phone is actually truly idle (ie. untouched, screen off) for a while?
Not criticizing at all, but these kind of discussions can end up just frustrating folks because of ambiguities...kind of like the posts where someone says (I get 5 days on my battery with "moderate use", and it turns out that guy's idea of "moderate use" means it sits untouched all day except a couple of minutes browsing).
I just installed the current widget out of curiosity, so not much data to go on, but with the screen on 50% brigthness, wifi on, BT on, sync on, several apps having been opened I saw about 140mah. Turned the brightness down to minimum and it dropped to 76, then 45. Let the phone idle scree off for a few minutes, and it was showing 32 when I first turned it back on.
My log shows that during the idle period for a couple of minutes, the phone was drawing between 30 and 40 each pull (every ten seconds).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ill post a copy of my Log later on. Right now the results wouldnt be fair because i am at my parents place and their house is made of some material where you go from 3 to 0 bars of reception when you walk in the door. But usually my general setup is 3g/4g on wifi off, BT on but not connected to anything, GPS on but not actively lookin for sataillites, and then a bunch of my regular apps. I mean let me put it like this. in my first post i discuss the difference i have seen in current consumption between the TB and my OG droid. The phones are set up EXACTLY the same with the same programs running in the background. The only difference is the TB has that extra 4G radio. I live in West LA so generally the coverage should be 100% 3g/4g. anyhow ill get a copy of the log.
my currentwidget is almost always above 100mA and ive got 4g off, wifi off, gps off, BT off, no apps running etc. very frustrating to see this phone die in 6 hours no matter what
This has been my experience also. my history from last night showed a peak of about 400mah discharge and a min of about 120 mah discharge. Not sure what is going on.
I have wifi off, bt off, gps off(using vzw location services though), with words with friends, double twist, battery booster, goog voice, lookout, bat indicator service, myphonemrules, simple service, craigs checker service, weather toggle widgets, nobars, night time service, battery monitor widget, and swiftkey, the rest are vzw bloatware services or htc processes in the background. Backlight is at about 30-40, and timeout is set to about 1 min. Since the last restart I have gotten as low as -50mah and max is about -350. I can't say what all was running during the night because I changed few things this morn to try and fix my drain, which as seemed to help, but not a lot.
Attached is a copy of my history since 3/24.
Once we are able to undervolt our kernel, our idle usage should drop significantly. Until then, I'm keeping a charger handy and waiting for my eBay batteries to get here, lol.
I have the extended battery, which I can't use with my case of course, if I really need it. But I like having a case on my phone because I shattered the screen on my D2 a week after I got my last one. Not trying to do that with the TB.
so to revisit this post a couple months in.. i am on the new GB leak. still idle at 40mA still sucking power like nobodys business.. wtf

gps speed

i m asking how long the device take to detect the gps signal ??
i remember some say 10 seconds "thats good " others say abou 30 sec to one minute ??? "thats bad"
give ur experience
xdafun4all said:
i m asking how long the device take to detect the gps signal ??
i remember some say 10 seconds "thats good " others say abou 30 sec to one minute ??? "thats bad"
give ur experience
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Usually less than 10 seconds on mines.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
I get a lock within 20 meters of where I am within 5 seconds.
I get a 20 meter range instantly and that generally cleans up to 4m within another 20 seconds or so...
5min sometimes for me outdoors on 3rd ave in nyc..................................
13m lock in 5 seconds
indoors usually around 30 seconds to a minute.
outside, pretty much instant.
same here, 30sec to a min when indoors... outdoor less than 5 sec for initial lock and then refines to 4-10m in 10 secs.
Normally locks are within 10 secs, with good accuracy.
Sometimes it either won't see sats or sees them but won't lock for long enough that I give up. I end up using GPS Test and clear the A-GPS data, and that fixes it. Seems like the ephemeris gets corrupted sometimes and clearing it resets things.
Overall it's a huge improvement over my Vibrant, so not complaining so far.

GPS standalone for running

I'm looking to buy this watch but one of the key factors for me is using it as a standalone for running.
I'm not too concerned with HR or having a map for the exact route I ran but it is crucial that the distance is pretty accurate and therefore my pace per km is accurate. Is the Gear 3 able to deliver on that front? Also does S Health have the feature where a voice-over will alert you at each completed km and update you with your pace for that km and overall average pace per km?
I've tested the LTE Frontier version against a Garmin Vivoactive on a 5 and 4 mile run, so far. Both runs were within .03 of a mile difference. I did have it tethered to my phone because AT&T hadn't gotten NumberSync worked out yet. I'm not sure if the watch refers to the phone during workout while tethered, but now that NumberSync is straightened out, I'll test it again this weekend.
A few things I've discovered:
- It seems to begin recording before the GPS has locked. To work around it, I paused it as soon as it started and gave it a few moments to lock on. This worked but it's little things like this that Samsung should address if it wants to be taken a little more seriously in the fitness world.
- I don't use always-on display so it takes a second or two for the distance display to catch up to the current number. It's usually no more than .05 off for that couple of seconds.
-I don't do interval notifications and I track miles instead of km, but there are options for "Guide at interval every..." .5 mile, 1 mile, 5 miles, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, hour.
- The heart rate max has been way off but the average is fairly close. I kept it strapped pretty tight during runs. It's convenient but I'd prefer they allow connecting to chest straps, etc. Wrist based HR is tough to do right.
- Heart rate is not imported into Strava when S Health has been set to automatically import. You can manually export the data but I haven't tried that, yet.
- Many of the activities in the phone version of S Health are missing on the watch. Skiing is a big omission in my opinion and seems like a no-brainer with onboard barometer\altimeter.
- For a short time the display would not turn off after starting a run. It eventually did. Also, it has gotten "confused' several times with auto-brightness level but rights itself after the display has turned off and back on again.
Techradar's 50k run review on YouTube was helpful in deciding. I can't post links, yet, but search: "Samsung Gear S3 vs Apple Watch 2 vs Garmin Forerunner 735XT: Battery and GPS 50k test"
tracycm55 said:
I've tested the LTE Frontier version against a Garmin Vivoactive on a 5 and 4 mile run, so far. Both runs were within .03 of a mile difference. I did have it tethered to my phone because AT&T hadn't gotten NumberSync worked out yet. I'm not sure if the watch refers to the phone during workout while tethered, but now that NumberSync is straightened out, I'll test it again this weekend.
A few things I've discovered:
- It seems to begin recording before the GPS has locked. To work around it, I paused it as soon as it started and gave it a few moments to lock on. This worked but it's little things like this that Samsung should address if it wants to be taken a little more seriously in the fitness world.
- I don't use always-on display so it takes a second or two for the distance display to catch up to the current number. It's usually no more than .05 off for that couple of seconds.
-I don't do interval notifications and I track miles instead of km, but there are options for "Guide at interval every..." .5 mile, 1 mile, 5 miles, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, hour.
- The heart rate max has been way off but the average is fairly close. I kept it strapped pretty tight during runs. It's convenient but I'd prefer they allow connecting to chest straps, etc. Wrist based HR is tough to do right.
- Heart rate is not imported into Strava when S Health has been set to automatically import. You can manually export the data but I haven't tried that, yet.
- Many of the activities in the phone version of S Health are missing on the watch. Skiing is a big omission in my opinion and seems like a no-brainer with onboard barometer\altimeter.
- For a short time the display would not turn off after starting a run. It eventually did. Also, it has gotten "confused' several times with auto-brightness level but rights itself after the display has turned off and back on again.
Techradar's 50k run review on YouTube was helpful in deciding. I can't post links, yet, but search: "Samsung Gear S3 vs Apple Watch 2 vs Garmin Forerunner 735XT: Battery and GPS 50k test"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for the response, will check out the YouTube video. If you did get round to testing the watching as a standalone this weekend, can you let me know how well it worked?
4 mile run with the Gear S3 on LTE (Not connected to a phone), Garmin VivoActive with Scosche Rhythm+ HRM, and Galaxy S7 Active
- The final average pace between all 3 devices was within 10 seconds of each other. The VivoActive was in the middle and the Gear S3 was 5 seconds more and the S7 Active was 5 seconds less.
- Throughout the run, the Gear S3 always read the pace at 1 to 2 minutes more than the Garmin. But, the final results of the Gear S3 basically matched the Garmin so I'm not sure what is going on there because it was displaying a pretty big incorrect pace.
- For the first 5 minutes of the run, the heart rate on the Gear S3 read a consistent 40 bpm less than the Garmin with the Scosche Rhythm+ hrm. After that 5 minutes, it was never more than 2 or 3 bpm different from the Garmin. Looking at the S Health app, I'm not seeing those consistently low numbers for that 5 minutes. While S Health shows an incorrect hr for only a couple of minutes, the watch was definitely showing an incorrect hr for a full 5 minutes. The final average is very close to the Garmin, though.
Gear S3 Garmin VivoActive (Scosche Rhythm+ HRM) Galaxy S7 Active (Strava)
Start Bat % 99% 100% -
End Bat % 89% 88% -
Distance 3.98 mi 4.03 mi 4.0 mi
Avg hr 147 bpm 150 bpm -
Max hr 165 bpm 165 bpm -
Avg Cadence 83 spm ??? 160 spm ???
Max Cadence 167 spm 168 spm

Inaccurate GPS issue

Hello everyone, I just bought a Hongkong SM-G9700 S10e, and flashed the latest Android 11 firmware to it.
I found that the GPS reception is noticeable weak (I use GPSTest from Play store). The S10e can't locate me if I stand next to the window, and even though when I go outside the building, it always takes at least 30 seconds for the Time To First Fix with > 50 meters accuracy and 30 seconds more to reach the maximum accuracy at 5 meters.
I also did the test with 3 other phones and all of them can reach to ~3 m accuracy in less than 10 sec (I clear the A-GPS data before the test).
Did you get this issue with your phone?

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