I am posting on this board because it relates to many or all Samsung smart phones - if there is a more appropiate place please feel free to move it.
I am trying to understand what is going on with mobile phones and GNSS (layman often call this GPS, but the term GPS really means the US military navigation satellite constellation, GNSS refers to all of them - GLONAS (Russian military), BeiDou (Chinese miliatary), Galileo (European), etc).
The various militaries don't want to give their enemies access to accurate positioning systems, so don't give the public access to accurate orbit info, hence 3 to 10m accuracy - depending an many factors. Galileo claims 1 m accuracy for their low precision system that they allow everyone to access, 30cm for a version that only approved customers can obtain (apparently not designed for the general hobbyist).
It seems most medium and higher priced phones now read all 4 constellations mentioned above.
But when I ask manufacturers what accuracy I can get, Samsung advise 5m accuracy, Nokia advise 4m 95% of the time. I still have to ask others.
Can anyone advise what is going on? Is this due to the phones just not having hardware capable of accurate measurement?
If I understand how the measurement and calculation is made, the phone has to measure the exact time it receives a radio wave from the satellite. To get 1m accuracy this measurement needs measurement precision of the time it takes a radio wave to travel 1m (at 300,000 km per second, i.e. an incredibly small fration of a second).
Is it just that manufacturers are adding the Galileo constellation to their phones just to look impressive, but by skimping on the quality of the chip that measures things, not obtaining any advantage over what older phones were doing with only the GPS, GLONAS and BeiDou signals?
More importantly, how does one improve measurement accuracy? Do other device manufacturers (maybe Garmin, Tom Tom, etc) produce devices with more accurate positioning? Or iPhone? Or do I forget Galileo, and wait for the SBAS/PPP project to come on board? If the latter, will an average phone work with it?
PS: I am posting here because I have had mountains of Gobbledegook from Samsung, they don't understand what constitutes a technically competent adviser.
What's your question? Or rather what's your point?
You want a super accurate GNSS? Well these are phones for the masses, which means it's good enough for the masses. If you want a super accurate GNSS, then I'd suggest looking at a company that specialises in this.
Also, I doubt you'd get any answer from a community forum like this. It sounds like you need a specific answer, and you're probably (within 5m, what?) in the wrong place to seek such answer.
What's your question? Or rather what's your point?
You want a super accurate GNSS? Well these are phones for the masses, which means it's good enough for the masses. If you want a super accurate GNSS, then I'd suggest looking at a company that specialises in this.
Also, I doubt you'd get any answer from a community forum like this. It sounds like you need a specific answer, and you're probably (within 5m, what?) in the wrong place to seek such answer.
Hi @Cedric8, thanks for reaching out. We’ll be sure to pass your interest in improved GPS on devices internally to the relevant department. Please note, we cannot always implement customer suggestions due to various reasons and will not be able to provide an update on whether we are going to be implementing your suggestion or not. We hope you understand.
Hi Laura, it is currently impossible to use a consumer phone (to make calls and photos) to get less than 5m of accuracy. It's a phone.... Not a GNSS receiver connected to a base station with updates from AUSPOS. They combined are $10,000 plus. And are dedicated equipment.
As a newby I am trying to understand what's going on in the GNSS world, and whether it is practical for a hobby level user to get more accurate Positioning.
Firstly, if you're able to suggest where I might get better answers, I'd appreciate that.
Secondly, in recent years many manufacturers have added Galileo to the GNSS constellations that they access. I would have thought that was done in order to improve accuracy - but at least what manufacturers have told me shows there's been no improvement in accuracy. So the cynical side of me is now wondering if this is just a marketing move to fool the unwary into thinking the new model has an improved feature, when there is actually no improvement? Is the lack of improvement a defect in the Galileo system, or have the phone manufacturers failed to put a chip in their phones that can read the accuracy of the Galileo system?
I have asked for accuracy figures from Samsung, Apple and one of the smaller market share Android Manufacturers. I asked that someone with technical competence answer my question, have I just got the brush off from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about? The answers I have are: Samsung: their range gives about <5 m error. Apple: can't give inaccuracy figure Other manufacturer: in eastern Australia, 95% of time <4 m error.
Running the GPS Status App on my current Nokia 6.1 phone (only mid-range quality, and does not pick up Galileo), more often than not it reports around 3 m accuracy. That's of course under good conditions, such as no nearby structures or other things that interfere with the signals. I usually take a reading at a known survey point, then readings at the locations of interest, then another reading at the survey point. I have quite a few of these reading sets, but haven't yet fully compared my results for the survey points, but I suspect the GPS status app is giving a reasonable estimate of accuracy, hence my surprise that phones which pick up Galileo can't do a bit better.
Of course commercial systems can do far better, 15+ years ago I was easily getting 6 mm relative accuracy (relative to a base station on a known point). But equipment worth $50-$100,000 isn't for the hobbyist. Trimble and Qualcomm are introducing a system capable of a few centimetre absolute accuracy, but also for a price.
When the SBAS/PPP project comes online, will that be an alternative to current GNSS systems that is available for the Hobbyist?
Or is a consumer stuck with 3 to 10 m accuracy, for the foreseeable future?
You have NO IDEA. As I mentioned to Laura, it's currently impossible to use a consumer phone to get less than 2 -1m of accuracy. It's a phone.... Not a GNSS receiver connected to a base station with updates from AUSPOS. Wifi and tower connections help. But a Tree or Building will reduce your accuracy (Which I Assume You Already Knew) ha ha
