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iPhone 4: GPS Quality versus iPhone 3GS?

S

sofakng

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 5, 2008
270
32
How is the quality of the GPS in the iPhone 4 versus the iPhone 3GS?

To be honest, the GPS in the 3GS seemed pretty awful and most of the time I preferred using my ancient Mio GPS standalone device but I've ordered an iPhone 4 so I'm hoping that the GPS has been improved...
 
agreed - much better. with my 3GS, whenever I located myself while at home, it consistently had me a few hundred yards (!) away. With my 4, it's right on the money.
 
How is the tracking/updating while you are in the car?

With the 3GS it seemed to lag a bit and was quite jerky. (this was especially bad when making a turn, etc)
 
It's actually impressive how much they improved it. It's faster, more accurate - basically better in every regard IMO.
 
I have a question. Is there In-Built GPS lie Nokia 5800/N97 has? Can i use the GPS without internet?
 
I used the gps in the 3GS quite a bit, and although it was good enough for what I needed it to do, it wasn't very accurate. Since I've been using the 4, I can say it's a lot better in every way. Faster lock, more accurate positioning, A LOT less lag. It still gets some hiccups everynow and again, but corrects itself much faster. All in all, I could defiantly see someone using this as a true standalone gps, especially if they have a gps app like Magellan or garmin.
 
Mines rubbish :(

Whenever i locate myself whilst at home, it puts me a good mile away from my address, which sucks
 
Does the phone get warm or hot when using the GPS for long periods? I notice my phone gets notably warm/borderling hot when I'm using my BT headset for a long conversation.
 
Pretty remarkable.

I used the updated Mapquest iOS4 app with voice turn-by-turn GPS directions during a 3 hr trip this weekend and it was spot on. Very impressed.
 
Steve Jobs=God said:
Mines rubbish :(

Whenever i locate myself whilst at home, it puts me a good mile away from my address, which sucks
Click to expand...

Have you tried cutting a hole in your roof to allow the sat signal in?

OR I guess you could go outside and try it :D. Most GPS devices don't work that well indoors.
 
It's quite good. I've been using the MotionX GPS app to produce tracks of my bicycle rides, and it consistently nails the location within a few feet. When recording these tracks in the background, I haven't been able to notice any significant difference in battery use.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)

TomTom and Navigon are locally stored on device. You don't need Internet. You DO need Internet for traffic and google local searches.
 
Ahhh duh I'm an idiot, no wonder why my 3GS usually gives me the wrong location when I try to locate myself in my house. :rolleyes:
 
Steve Jobs=God said:
Mines rubbish :(

Whenever i locate myself whilst at home, it puts me a good mile away from my address, which sucks
Click to expand...

Get your MAC address off your router and submit it again, with your coordinates, to Skyhook (the WiFi triangulation database company). Try again in a month, it should help.
 
In my experience so far, the iPhone 4 GPS is superior to many devices. The lock is near instant and I no longer have to put my phone on the front dash of my car to get a lock as I did with my Droid and various other phones. Its also extremely accurate, even indoors.
 
TheMacBookPro said:
Get your MAC address off your router and submit it again, with your coordinates, to Skyhook (the WiFi triangulation database company). Try again in a month, it should help.
Click to expand...

Whoa, thanks for the information!

Indoors, my GPS used to be very accurate when connected to my WiFi, even as far as pinning me in the correct spot in the building. Somewhere along the line, however, it stopped being so good. Sometimes it would even identify the wrong cross street.

Let's see if this helps any.
 
When i was walking home from school with it updated step by step and i even stopped and it stopped too! Very impressive apple.
 
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