[Question] Are there any Chinese smartphone with fast lock GPS?

[futurebreeze]

Hi,
I own an iOcean X7, my wife owns a THLw200, I have a few friends who have other similar MTK phones (in terms of price)... all of us are rather unhappy with the GPS lock time or reception quality. Of course, I applied many software or even hardware mods, they seemed (or not) temporary improve the situation a little but still, the GPS of many MTK based smartphone is not reliable. Sometimes the improved situations lasted only one day or one location, changing one of these caused, again, a very long GPS lock.
I am comparing the GPS performance with an Samsung I9060, a side-by-side test showed an amazing fast lock for Samsung with different occasions, 3-10 seconds (both phones restarted and no A-GPS).
Are there any (no-so-expensive) Chinese smartphones that have built-in reliable GPS? Is there any GPS type to be found in the specs or a certain price threshold in order to have a reasonable GPS lock? All the manufacturers says their product has built-in GPS but how could I know this is really working as expected.

[cookiedough]

Have you tried any of the newer SOC like MT6732 and MT675x? The lock is always within a few seconds. I've noticed no difference between them and Qualcomm GPS.

[vidtek]

I've been doing a bit of research into this area, and have found that there are reasons for smartphones, whatever their make and cost may have problems getting a lock particularly when not in an urban environment.

Much of the GPS software utilises not just the built-in GPS of the 'phone, but also a combination of wi-fi and cellphone segments. Generally speaking in an urban area you will get a lock from this combination first, then the satellites in the sky, which is why you can get a lock fairly quickly sometimes with some 'phones and then with the same combination in a different location it may take ages.

A dedicated vehicle GPS generally has a far more sensitive receiver and GPS antenna system than a smartphone which has a myriad of other functions as well.
There are ways around this, I use a dedicated GPS reciever which beams via bluetooth the GPS data required for the smartphone, most GPS software programmes will have an option to pick this in their settings, rather than the internal GPS receiver.

Once you understand the way the system works, it makes perfect sense why a lock takes ages sometimes. When I lived in Australia, I used a dedicated GPS in the outback and found when the Iraq war was at it's zenith, sometimes I would find there were no satellites available, all the satellites were being used by the American military to guide their cruise missiles to their targets, and they just took all the transponders for themselves. I suppose they do belong to them so I shouldn't complain too much.

Best wishes in your hunt. Tony.

[WuddaWaste]

My last MediaTek smartphone (Mlais M52) had a much faster GPS lock than its two predecessors (THL T200 and Star S7589, respectively). The THL was incredibly slow, and the Star was basically worthless. That said, my Mlais still tended to do a little bit of that "wandering" from time to time, which is much more obnoxious to deal with in the moment than I could ever explain in words.

My Asus Zenfone 2 ($180) used an Intel chipset and never had an issue with GPS. I just switched today to my innos D6000 ($250), which I believe uses a Qualcomm processor. I haven't tested it yet, but I'd be surprised if there were any problems. If I remember correctly, there are a handful of upcoming smartphones in the China market which use Qualcomm chips as well.

@vidtek totally has the right idea here. Several old timers in this forum used to use a dedicated GPS in their car to transmit via Bluetooth to the phone. I haven't seen one in quite some time, but I suspect they still exist and have likely even come down in price.

[Twotems]

This is a non-issue these days. Mediatek have sorted it out. It was painful in the past. Most phones have a dedicated gps option also so not sure what vidtek means.

[vidtek]

This is a non-issue these days. Mediatek have sorted it out. It was painful in the past. Most phones have a dedicated gps option also so not sure what vidtek means.

Twototems-
I apologise if I did not express myself in a lucid manner. I take a pride in my ability to communicate well, and am saddened I have fallen short of my own high expectations. As a TV engineer, I know about signal propagation, and its vagaries.
A cheap £50 windscreen mounted GPS will always outperform any £500+ smartphone. The reasons are:

1) A dedicated unit has one task, smartphones are designed for multi-tasking.
2) The positioning of the GPS aerial in a smartphone is a compromise, a dedicated GPS has the aerial positioning optimised for the placement in a vehicle's windscreen.
3) Smartphones at any one time have a myriad of things occurring concurrently, a dedicated GPS has just one function, to obtain a satellite lock and display the result in a mapped form.

I use this dedicated GPS receiver an Adapt 750. http://www.trustedreviews.com/Adapt-AD-7...ver-review
It gets a lock in a couple of seconds, whether I'm on Dartmoor, central London or the Australian outback.

Best regards, Tony Brown.

[Twotems]

This is a non-issue these days. Mediatek have sorted it out. It was painful in the past. Most phones have a dedicated gps option also so not sure what vidtek means.

Twototems-
I apologise if I did not express myself in a lucid manner. I take a pride in my ability to communicate well, and am saddened I have fallen short of my own high expectations. As a TV engineer, I know about signal propagation, and its vagaries.
A cheap £50 windscreen mounted GPS will always outperform any £500+ smartphone. The reasons are:

1) A dedicated unit has one task, smartphones are designed for multi-tasking.
2) The positioning of the GPS aerial in a smartphone is a compromise, a dedicated GPS has the aerial positioning optimised for the placement in a vehicle's windscreen.
3) Smartphones at any one time have a myriad of things occurring concurrently, a dedicated GPS has just one function, to obtain a satellite lock and display the result in a mapped form.

I use this dedicated GPS receiver an Adapt 750. http://www.trustedreviews.com/Adapt-AD-7...ver-review
It gets a lock in a couple of seconds, whether I'm on Dartmoor, central London or the Australian outback.

Best regards, Tony Brown.

Not quite sure whether to take that as a smackdown or not! Lol

Your point is well taken and what you say is true for older model phones. But these days the gps's are generally excellent especially with the addition of Glonass.

Btw how's your new phone doing and did you manage to persuade your wife on the holiday?

[vidtek]

Twototems-
I would not presume to "smackdown" anybody here, I was being sincere.

The 'phone arrived the other day and it's soooo big! I'm afraid I'll drop it. It needs a case, but the one I like only delivers to the USA.

I finally managed to persuade the wife that a ferry in the English channel in mid-Winter doesn't make for a romantic idyll. pheww.

I fancy Rhodes, but she wants the Lake District or Cotswolds. I don't much see the point when we live in Bournemouth. Ah well, let's see what sort of Summer we get.

I'll post a review of the 'phone on my original thread.

Best regards Tony.

[Twotems]

Put the model number and name into Google and click on images. You'll definitely find another vendor that will deliver to the UK.

[vidtek]

Put the model number and name into Google and click on images. You'll definitely find another vendor that will deliver to the UK.

Been there done that.

There are only 2 vendors of this case-

ZTE Axon Pro Case, Nagebee - ZTE Axon Pro Heavy Duty Hybrid Armor Dual Layer Rhino Kickstand Belt Clip Holster Combo Rugged Case for ZTE Axon Phone (Holster Combo Black)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B...bc?ie=UTF8&condition=new&m=A2JWBJUIPNSXAJ

neither ship to the UK.

Tony.