yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] CandyAndy:
I have been complaining about the SGS2 gps. Yesterday I run about 9,5km. The same route I run pretty often and tracked it with SGS2 GPS.

I can see there is some slight difference when compared to Desire but nothing alarmingly wrong.

The results are here, Desire:

http://runkeeper.com/user/AndyE82/activity/35331916

and SGS2:

http://runkeeper.com/user/AndyE82/activity/36111245

I would point out that the biggest difference is with "Climb". While SGS2 says there was all together climb of 154m, the Desire says there was 184. So don't know what to say.

Also you could point out that one point where I make a loop (just next to the bigger road). There is a bridge which I run under. It doesn't seem to disturb neither of the phones too badly.

I don't know why but during time this phone has been improving. Both battery life and GPS are getting better (ok I did update with Odin, rooted and froze many apps)

Oh and btw, I ran without wifi or motion sensor help off.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] vimto25:
used my gps today with copilot live, i must say faultless!!!! always 100% accurate and even when took the wrong route on purpose it re-directed me instantly,no lagg or gps drops. very pleased!!!
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Ulrik0:
Removed post, please delete.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rustyx3:
I voted "Yes, my GPS is stable", because although I did notice the 'jumping' behavior OP mentioned, if I ignore that piece of information then the actual accuracy of the GPS is in fact much better than the 25m it is reporting, more like 2-5m.

The only thing that annoys me about this device is that getting a GPS fix without wi-fi or 3g aids takes a very, very long time. :(
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Dannyboyni:
GSM arena did a test comparing the galaxy s II, LG Optimus 2x and HTC Sensation.

http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_sensation_vs_galaxy_sii_vs_optimus_2x-review-608p7.php

The Galaxy s II, scored by FAR the lowest accuracy out of the three phones, very disappointing.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] WebghostDK:
Never had any kind of problems with it
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] peterlan:
The same here. GPS Test report poor accuracy, jumping between 50 and 25 meters all the time.

In the real world, the GPS is perfect and I agree with 2-5 meter accuracy.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid...0&ll=60.684737,17.262526&spn=0.014855,0.03974
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beowulf_pt:
I voted positive. SGS1 was a disaster and I was expecting to take the SGS2 back to the store too, but it's still around. GPS is perfectly functional this time. Can hold to locks and accuracy is pretty good.

No reference GPS, but definitely decent enough and works great for car navigation, and probably some walking nav most of the time.

I can post some tracks later but people have been sharing them more lately.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beowulf_pt:
Their "gps tests" remain useless. Pointless, waste of space. They test nothing. They just wait for TTFF times, see if they lock fast (don't even comment on cache data), sometimes do it indoors and then just stare at indicators showing accuracy and number of locks.

Irrelevant.

They're just too lazy to do some proper testing. Who cares about lock speed. I can wait. I need no locks in 30 seconds. Who cares about indoor locks or how many satellites it holds on to on your couch?

What they should test is driving around and walking around, both in roomy areas and in complex urban meshes with tight streets and high buldings, do the same route every time and then post the tracks online so people can see accuracy.

That would not be a scientific test, but at least it would be better than a totally meaningless pair of paragraphs that do nothing but confuse newbies.

Given Samsung's poor quality control, I'm not sweating for all SGS2, perhaps some are rotten. I never figured out why the SGS1 differed so much in GPS performance from model to model, definitely a lack of consistency in manufacturing, hardware and not only firmware issues. But the SGS1 was a GPS pice of "#$='* and so far as I can tell the SGS2 is at least reliable enough so that people who know how to record some tracks don't end up looking and them and laughing as it seems something a drunk 4-year old scribbled over a map with crayons.

GSMArena should stick to testing audio chipsets and headphone quality. Seems that's the only thing they care about. I guess they don't go out often or just ask around for directions when they get lost.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] CarpathianUK:
Finds lock very, very quickly and holds it well. Seems very accurate nearly all the time. All you want from a GPS really.

To be honest, I'm somewhat puzzled when I read some of those GPS 'reviews' as it feels like they have a different bit of kit in their hand to the one I have?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Nahum2:
lock is over 25 seconds igo + cognition 1.07
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] dk206:
Worried about GPS? READ AND WATCH THIS VID. Can't believe this thread is still active.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ACP_XT:
Re:

So I tried out the My Tracks app on my first outing with the Galaxy S2. I live in Abu Dhabi (UAE), a concrete jungle with towering buildings everywhere you look. My N97 mini (Ovi Maps) could never get a lock unless I was a few hundred metres away from my building, out in a relatively open area, and even then would keep losing the GPS lock because of the tall buildings. In contrast, the S2 got a lock in 30 seconds smack in the middle of my block with 20 storey buildings on all sides (accuracy was only 100m though in google maps). This improved drastically and in my opinion was within 10m as can be seen on the track, I couldnt figure out how to see the accuracy from inside My Tracks. The deviations from the road are correct for the most part because of construction work etc, except for one sharp deviation mid-way, which I did not make (the accuracy here must have been around 50m judging from the map).

Still I am mighty impressed! This level of performance is good enough for me, though I dont have any experience with GPS performance on Android.

My Tracks link:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=210860155147529648675.0004a6acc4d9f50b6831b

Info:

TtFF - 30 seconds, cold, moving, in car, urban area.

Accuracy: 100m at lock, 10m soon after (estimate)

Number of sats: 8 at lock.

Wifi off, "use wireless networks" off, "use sensor aiding" setting off.

Firmware release: STOCK

From the S2 About section:

Baseband:I9100XWKE1 (latest FW in Kies)

Kernel: KE2

Build Number: GINGERBREAD.XWKE2

From Kies:

PDA:KE2

Phone:KE1

CSC:KE1(ARB)

Phone was on the lap of a passenger throughout, as I haven't got a car holder yet.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tuhinz:
The GPS on my SGSII has been excellent most of the time.

I generally have sensor aiding on and AGPs off.

However it has acted up 3-4 times in about 2 months time.

On some occasions, it would pick up 6-7 satellites but never lock on. The number of satellites would also fluctuate from zero to 6/7 and back.

Once it was fixed by toggling the GPS and turning on aGPS.

Sometimes I would have to restart the phone to get it working again.

Once locked it would work flawlessly except this one time yesterday when i was out jogging. It was a clear sunny day (After ages!) and the GPS (I use endomondo for tracking) locked on pretty quickly. However about 6 kms into my jog I looked at the phone to find that it had lost lock after about 3.5kms.

When I fired up GPS Test, it weirdly showed that GPS was still locked (Green) but number of satellites locked was zero (However it was still showing 7-8 available satellites with good signal strength but greyed out!)

I toggled the GPS several times (Didnt want to switch off the phone as I would lose the tracking data). After toggling and fiddling with the aGPS switches several times, it finally showed a good lock and tracked true thereafter !

I do hope this is a one-off incident. Very difficult to understand why it lost lock under a clear blue sky and could not lock again without all the fiddling.

Im on O2 stock ROM (KE2).

Use GPS Test for testing GPS & Endomondo for Tracking.

As a side note, I had to uninstall GPS Status as I found it would often consume 15-20% battery even when not running. Anyone see that happen?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kingshonen:
My sgs2 gps work/fied on satellite quite fast 10sec less. Accuracy to about 2-5meters, when using gps software driving for 20mins+ from point A to b phone tend to get quite hot at back where the camera/cpu at. Any1 get this as well?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beowulf_pt:
That N97 is no example as it was pretty bad, but not as bad as the SGS I. :)

Thanks for posting the tracks data. It appears to match the results I got so far.. the GPS of the SGS2 locks well and is precise enough.

My only doubts now are that I have not used it for very long distances (no more than 10km by car) and am curious about comments on it losing lock or having issues. But at this time I'm quite confident that the GPS can be trusted for normal navigation and might buy one of these phones.

I will try to borrow it again from a friend so I can take more tracks on longer routes tho.

As for getting hot, yes, I did notice that, it did get quite hot while navigating, on a warm day, but with screen on all the time. The rest of the heat was probably CPU-generated due to routing and graphic calculations and not GPS related. Still, it was not amazingly hot, I'd say, moderately warm (like many phones get while the battery warms up when being charged) - I don't think it will be a problem at all.

Still, heat does mean wasted energy and it does go thru that battery quite fast... but that's a problem all current androids seem to share.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] ACP_XT:
Re:

You are right about the N97 when it comes to the lock issues, but free offline voice navigation in more than a 100 countries is hard to beat (I still have the N97 as a backup for GPS cos I dont have a data package).

I tried a longer route yesterday (6.8 km - was searching for a silicon case for the S2) passing through the same road where I got the deviation yesterday, and this time it didnt happen, so I am putting it down to a satellite visibility issue (it was almost the same time though).

I am surprised to hear about the heat issues you faced, my S2 was a bit warm but definitely not hot throughout the journey. The passenger was also playing games on it simultaneously and commented on how slick the phones UI experience was.

This time I kept an eye on accuracy - it was between 15 and 65 feet and an average of 25 feet. Amazing performance I have to say, it never lost lock once, even when I stopped for some time on a 5 metre wide street with tall buildings around. This is where I took a loop and came back - where the tracks are all squiggly.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=210860155147529648675.0004a6be35850c221d496

TtFF - Around 40 seconds, cold, moving/stationary, in car, urban area.

Accuracy: 20 feet at lock, 15-65 feet (GPS Essentials and is correct based on landmarks)

Number of sats: around 8 at lock.

Wifi off, "use wireless networks" off, "use sensor aiding" setting off.

Firmware release: STOCK

From the S2 About section:

Baseband:I9100XWKE1 (latest FW in Kies)

Kernel: KE2

Build Number: GINGERBREAD.XWKE2

From Kies:

PDA:KE2

Phone:KE1

CSC:KE1(ARB)

Phone was on the lap of a passenger throughout, as I still haven't got a car holder yet.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] prusling:
Just to report that on finally biting the bullet and rooting my phone, and using GPS Aids (paid) to optimise the GPS, I now get a first fix much more quickly than I used to with wifi enabled (as well as data). I would say that my GPS now performs quite acceptably.

One of the optimisations I made was to select the European NTP server rather than the US default (I'm in the UK); it would be interesting to know whether I was unlucky in receiving an early phone (on O2) that had not been properly set up for my region?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Beowulf_pt:
That's still a pretty good track considering the buildings in your area. It is interesting to know that the phone was being used while recording. That was another issue with the SGS1, if you used it it would lose accuracy even more often.

As far as I can tell the GPS was indeed fixed. The only question remaining is if it remains locked and accurate for a long time (like a long 1h+ trip or so) or has stability issues.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] lfabresm:
My results indoor, close to a window with wifi turned off:

time to lock: less than 10 sec with 116m accuracy (initially)

best precision: 14m, 8 sats in view (after 20 sec aprox)

same situation, with wifi turned on, precision and time to lock get worst. Takes 15 to 20sec to lock but the precision never drops from 38m... some moments get 25m.

In outdoors, with very clear sky, the things go more similar having or not having wifi turned on.

The time to lock was very fast, less than 10sec, 10 sats in view and precision around 4-6-8m... very good :D
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bambollero:
So far, my SGS2 is slow when locking to satellites (up to 5mins sometimes) and inaccurate (tested KF7 and KF3). When in building crammed areas, GPS Status reports 20-30 meters accuracy, which is indeed reflected during navigation in the city centre. It's somewhat usable, but quite jumpy and frustrating. Having compared it side by side with my HTC Legend, the later shows always better accuracy under the same conditions (4-8m accuracy) and has flawless navigation even when in heavily built areas.

What is strange to me however is this : I recorded several My Tracks routes and the SGS2 almost always shows better route lines compared to the Legend (less jagged, stay better on the road instead of going through buildings), How can this be? Shouldn't the HTC's better accuracy reflect on My Track routes? Does this point to a software issue concerning the SGS2 accuracy?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] h20pt:
I'm not following this thread, so please don't reply things like "use search" or "read all the thread".. This is a simple question and you should only reply to it if you really want to help me: Those of you who are getting good results on the GS2 use GPS with 3G data enabled or disabled?

I know that with 3G enabled results are far better and locks are faster, but i would like to know if you're getting the same results with data on and off.

Thank you.

EDIT: Also, my GPS takes the same time to get a lock with or without wifi enabled.. The only thing that really makes difference is 3G data.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] nilsoli:
I'm with official KF3 and have exactly the same behaviour with my S2 (15 meters accuracy at its best, but really good track records), compared to my old HTC Hero (2 meters accuracy, but sometimes jumpy).
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] kaassema:
I think the accuracy is off indeed... When it estimates my location, it usually is pretty spot-on on the map, while still displaying an error-marge of 40 meters.

Might have something to do with errors in the HDOP/VDOP/DOP handling? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilution_of_precision_(GPS)) Some users (as well as myself) already reported the HDOP/VDOP/DOP to be sometimes displayed as 'infinite' in GPS Status, while still having a pretty accurate fix... Maybe an error in floating-point handling or something like that?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] bambollero:
The calculation error is fixed in KF3 (at least on mine, I had the infinite calculations in KE7), with no impact on accuracy.

The thing is, the accuracy is not only being reported poor, it actually IS, as seen in all three navigation applications that I have tried. The vehicle position is always jumpy, inaccurate and slow to catching up my real movement.

The accurate MyTracks performance is what still gives me some hope, that all this might be a software problem, to be corrected in the future. Atm, GPS performance is unacceptable on my unit.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] leon_lim:
Hi Chalid,

May I know what is the setting has been use in your phone for the first lock timing? Is it wifi and 3G turned on? Can I have your setting if your first fix doesn't need 3G data network enable?

1. Without 3G data, my SGS2 NEVER fix to any Satelit.

2. With 3G data network enabled, my GPS fix time is 13 seconds.

3. After 3G helping for first GPS fix, if my location not too far during first GPS fix, My SGS2 can fix to the Satelit.

I tried my setting below but the phone cannot fix/lock to satelit even there is 5~8 Satelits in the list. It keep refreshing

Below are my phone setting during the test:

1. Under "Wireless and network"

-> "Mobile networks" -> "Use packet data" -> UNCHECKED

-> "Mobile networks" -> "Network mode" -> "GSM only"

-> "Wi-Fi settings" -> "Wi-Fi" -> UNCHECKED

2. Under "Accounts and sync"

-> "Background data" -> UNCHECKED

3. "Location and security"

-> "Use wireless networks" -> CHECKED

-> "Use GPS satelites" -> CHECKED

-> "Use sensor aiding" -> CHECKED

Below are my "GPS status version 3.7" setting during the test:

1. Under "GPS & Sensors"

-> "GPS required" -> CHECKED

-> "Sensor filtering" -> NO FILTERING
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Eckankar:
I, too, am having problems with getting a fix without data.

I'm on holiday on Crete, and therefore have data disabled, as roaming data is quite expensive.

With this, I've been unable to get a fix, except when I'm on wifi.

Current firmware:

PDA: KF3 - Phone: KE7 - CSC: KF1
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Burgscheinkerkdeiktraast:
Hey all

I am new to this forum and found you by searching terms of GPS in Galaxy S2, which I am about to buy.

So far I still don't know either GPS has been corrected or it is still crappy :( For me personally GPS is very important and if I pay 450 Euro for phone I expect it working well.

How would you evaluate GS2 GPS? Is it better than my current one in Nokia N95? I show you some my tracks recorded in Sports Tracker with hardware modified phone (Nokia used very ****ty GPS chip from Texas Solutions and to get it working as it should have been since beginning I've had to solder 10 cm cable to GPS stick on phone's motherboard -.-). What can I expect from Galaxy S2? Would tracks look better than mine, recorded by N95?

Links (aren't allowed in firsts posts so please write in address bar manually)

ww.mapmytracks.com/explore/activity/222423

ww.mapmytracks.com/Forsberg

I do want avoid situations where I am forced to solder cables to get working GPS, where even with cable it is still not good IMHO - quality signal, but this is failure of the chip I guess.

I've read GS2 has SiFRStar IV GPS chip. I expected chips from this company are always very good and I am bit suprised Samsung has still problems with GPS :(. I wanted to ask Samsung directly, but I don't expect real answer from their employees, because it is obvious they will not say anything which could lower sales, even if it would be immoral.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Quickshooter:
I've read through the thread and its completely messed up, basically because some people don't understand how GPS should work.

Outside, a proper GPS should work like it worked on my HTC Hero - in GMaps only arrow is shown (no circle), accuracy around 2-3 meters, lock in 20-30 seconds. The accuracy of 20m is not a proper result.

Currently I had very bad experience with my SGS2 - I have a circle around 20 meters in Gmaps (and "accuracy" in GPS Status is also around 20-25m, although around 9-11 satellites are being locked and used.), lock time around a minute (sometimes more). What surprises me is that when wireless-location tracking is turned on, the accuracy gets worse!

Now, I am seriously considering taking the phone to the store and taking LG Optimus 2X as I consider such GPS performance as a bug and not suitable for the price I've paid for SGS2.

However, as my last check I would like to ask you gentlemen if you know of the situations when installing Custom ROMs solved the issue?

In this case I'd rather install a Custom ROM.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tjtj4444:
Quickshooter:

Is the positioning worse than your other phones?

Accuracy is just a guess made by the phone itself, and there is no standard for guessing this. Stating 2-3 meter accuracy means that htc state the accuracy with very low probability. So far I haven't seen any post at xda showing that sgs2 has worse positioning than any other phone. Please note that I'm talking about actual error here, by comparing positioning logs made at the same time with "my tracks".

Once again: Accuracy reported by the phone CANNOT be used to compare different phones.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Quickshooter:
Yes, I would say it is worse as it updates "in jumps", when I move, while on HTC Hero (I have no other phone to compare to unfortunately), I can see my arrow, continuously moving on the exact path I am walking - SGS2 can deviate from the path clearly.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] _sasa_:
Navigation speed display issue - how can that be fixed?

I apologise in advance if this question has been answered already, but I've tried to find the answer in vain. So GPS accuracy is relatively good as my SGS2, but all the navigations I've tried (Igo, Sygic, Navigon) display the speed above 100kmph as a multiply of 4 (below it is multiplying by 2-3). The strange is that if I use external bt. GPS, the current speed displayed flawlessly. Is there any fix or setup that might help in this case, because it is really annoying (since I usually drive at speed limit below retribution zone also at foreign countries by rental car).

I'd appreciate any kind of help or idea.

Thanks!

Edit:

same issue for paulcc: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1209708
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] EarlZ:
I consider it stable at 10-13M, have your phones replaced :D
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jpxdude:
My GPS accuracy works on my SGS2, but it is terrible compared to my old HTC Desire. As mentioned, it does jump a little too often, and doesn't stay 'locked' Also the compass is not very accurate, it works sometimes, and at others it gets 'sticky' and doesn't turn when you do.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tjtj4444:
What firmware are you using? This was solved in KF3 for me.

The actual step is 3.6 km/h = 1 m/s if you investigate position log files, someone at samsung though it was a good idea to convert a float to integer I guess. :rolleyes:
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] milance86:
app: GPS Test > Sat Fix in about ~10-15sec ACCURACY: ~15-20m

a made Google Track GPS test

http://bit.ly/rttme5

so what do u think is this normal or is my GPS faulty

PDA: XWKF4

PHONE: NEKF2

CSC: DREKF1
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheSaw:
It's very faulty.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] milance86:
I called Samsung Service and they told me the accuracy for more 15m -30m is normal...

he told me thats total normal it is a phone not a tomtom navigation :D haha?

can u ppl post accuracy screenshot from " GPS Test " app ?
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tjtj4444:
No it's not.

What are you basing your assumption on? This is not a log from a car navigation system with map matching where the position snap to the available roads. This is raw position logs.

This is normal accuracy under certain conditions. It is sometimes even better than this in open areas outside of cities, but in urban areas this is normal (or rather quite impressive) for a GPS.

But it depends on the conditions at the moment you're doing the test, the sattelites are constantly moving etc.
[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] m4rshall:
GPS on the Galaxy S2 is a dream compared to the Galaxy S. First lock took me about 20 seconds. Very stable after that, with perfect reception from sitting on the passenger seat of the car (something the old Galaxy S struggled with).