GPS on Mobile Phones

Anyone got any experience of it? Particularly for walking/cycling as opposed to using as an equivalent to a TomTom? Im in the market for a new phone and want a good Camera but never thought about the GPS side of things. Contract is up and Im looking to renew.

Useless. Don't bother.

Nails battery which leaves you phoneless
Always use crap chipsets which struggle to get any reception
Limited by phones memory/processor.

[SoulKiss]

Originally Posted by robchester

Anyone got any experience of it? Particularly for walking/cycling as opposed to using as an equivalent to a TomTom? Im in the market for a new phone and want a good Camera but never thought about the GPS side of things. Contract is up and Im looking to renew.

Most phones have SIRF2 spec GPS - the current standard is SIRF3

However a bluetooth external GPS unit can be had for about £30

So then you are just wanting to be sure that your phone can run whatever software you wish - TomTom, Garmin or my personal favourite iGo8 (which is what the PSP satnav is based on).

Originally Posted by gettin2dizzy

Useless. Don't bother.

ho hum...

Nails battery which leaves you phoneless

depends on phone / chipset / type of usage

Always use crap chipsets which struggle to get any reception

HTC's P3300 (O2 something or other) was known for having one of the best SirfStar III chipsets available, faster and more sensitive than a lot of standalone models. My P3650 (Touch Cruise) is also excellent. Nokia N95's (the original version) is much slower, though.

Limited by phones memory/processor.

True, get a decent one to start with and you're good to go.

Ive got it on my new iphone, plus ive dowloaded a couple of free gps apps as well, I dont know if Id want to rely on it for hillwalking mind.

Also I think the maps are free on iphone, you need to subscribe to Nokia for the N95 I beleive.

[SoulKiss]

As far as I am aware the iPhones use their Cellular reception to pinpoint their location (triangulate based on cell signals from the masts they can see) rather than satellites.

So useless if you have poor coverage

I could be wrong tho

Originally Posted by stewie

Also I think the maps are free on iphone, you need to subscribe to Nokia for the N95 I beleive.

Nope, maps are free too, you just have to subscribe to activate navigation capabilities. Garmin XT solves the problem though (albeit having an horrible interface IMHO).

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

As far as I am aware the iPhones use their Cellular reception to pinpoint their location (triangulate based on cell signals from the masts they can see) rather than satellites.

So useless if you have poor coverage

I could be wrong tho

The iPhone 2 has a proper GPS module so it'll use satellites too, but it also uses cell signals to get a faster lock (A-GPS, they call it...). Just like the N95, P3300, then... only these guys forgot to make such a big fuss out of it. Apple...

Originally Posted by SoulKiss

As far as I am aware the iPhones use their Cellular reception to pinpoint their location (triangulate based on cell signals from the masts they can see) rather than satellites.

So useless if you have poor coverage

I could be wrong tho

Mines pretty accurate, Ive just checked mine and Im in Cheshire apparently