I'm fairly ignorant of these things, but navigation is something I'd like to work 'properly'-tomos
Any recent, (and not so recent), smart phone with a GPS will work fine, if the
Huawei Y201 Pro and the
Huawei Y300, (both of which I own and cost less than AU$50 each, 3+ years ago), can happily do navigation and the G4 can't, then Lenovo has problems.
Work out what you want to do with the phone, then work out what functions the phone has to have to fulfil them.
eg.
- If you're going to take 360⁰ photo spheres with the camera, then it has to have gyroscope.
- If you want photo metadata that shows which direction you were facing when you took the photo, then it has to have a compass, (although I just use GeoSetter + Google Maps usually).
- If you want to play games that require tilting/moving the phone, then it has to have an accelerometer.
- If you want to navigate, it has to have a GPS receiver.
- If you just like playing with gadgets, get everything.
The below are all quoted from the "review":
Much worse is shame on you Lenovo, the abandonment of basic sensors for navigation.
To put things into perspective, my current 'real' GPS receiver is a
Geko 201. It has the following: a GPS receiver ... that's it.
I bought it in 2003 when I was in the USA, no Compass, no Magnetometer, no Accelerometer, no Gyroscope, no Barometer, no Assisted GPS (A-GPS), etc, etc, etc.
It still works, it'll keep working until the GPS satellites fall out of the sky or it dies in some unknowable fashion.
I can load a route into it and tell it to guide me, it'll tell me what direction I'm heading in as soon as I start moving.
From a cold start it'll take a couple of minutes to acquire a fix but if you're in that much of a hurry, turn it on before you
need it.
The G4 comes with the basic requirements for navigation: a GPS receiver ...
that is all that is required. Anything extra is just a bonus toy.
The Moto G4 supports only A-GPS!
It's not
only A-GPS, it's a GPS receiver with Assisted GPS function, it can download GPS Almanac data through a network connection, this data will also be downloaded from the GPS satellites themselves if it is out of date, (this is what my Geko did), and there's no network connection.
About the Almanac:The GPS almanac is a set of data that every GPS satellite transmits, and it includes information about the state (health) of the entire GPS satellite constellation and coarse data on every satellite's orbit.
Not having current Almanac data can slow down the time to first fix (TTFF) due to having to get it from the satellites but that is all.
Pointless Info
It requires 3 GPS satellites to calculate a 2D location fix, it requires 4 GPS satellites to get a good 3D location fix, (ie. altitude). Once a location fix is obtained a GPS receiver can get by with only 2 satellite signals until those signals are lost, then it will be a warm start to reacquire which should only take 10-20 seconds.
If the Almanac data is out of date then it requires approximately 30 seconds of good signal reception from each satellite in order to update the receiver. Once it has the almanac for 1 satellite it can use the data to predict the locations of other satellites.
So, in theory, it should only take a 2-3 minutes from cold start to get a position given decent signal reception.
A-GPS can also speed up TTFF using trilateration from mobile phone tower signals.
And it has no magnetometer.
It's not required, move a couple of meters or so and it'll tell you which direction you're going.
There is therefore no Glonass support and a compass.
Must be something in the translation but the answer to this statement as read would have to be: So?
A-GPS needs additional WLAN or mobile phone reception.
Yes it does
but A-GPS is not required ... therefore a data connection is not required.
There is also a real GPS sensor. Inlandsnavigation by car is thus very well possible (with good satellite reception on 3m accurate).
Finally he gets the idea that it has a GPS receiver. And it won't just work inland by car, it'll also work on a boat and in a plane providing it can get a clear view of the satellites.
However, if you do not have an Internet connection for a long time, the corresponding help data can not be downloaded ...
GPS Almanac data will be downloaded from the satellites, it'll just take longer.
... and the GPS fix can take several minutes (otherwise 5-20 sec).
Yes it can but generally the Almanac data is only required once a month or so and a cold start TTFF without A-GPS will most likely be about 2-3 minutes.
Glonass support would have been great, however, to enable even faster and more precise location determinations through a dual system.
Faster, more accurate ... maybe. My RN2 can receive GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), BDS (China), and use A-GPS ... I don't think I've seen better than 3m accuracy from it and that's using 18 out of 27 satellites.
Having access to more satellites doesn't guarantee increased accuracy as you're still relying on the electronics with whatever tolerances they use plus other factors, (multi-path ghosting, etc), and how it copes with them.
And a compass for the orientation on the map is also indispensable, if you have no orientation points and you do not want to go a stretch to know in which direction of heaven one moves. Even in the city, it is sensible to know where to go. Where the needle points is the direction of view.
It's not indispensable, as for a 'stretch', is moving 5 meters really too much to do?
... but a gyroscope is there.
Because it is necessary to have a gyroscope in order to take 360⁰ photo spheres which are popular, a compass isn't really necessary unless you also want that info in photo metadata.
For me it is a often used basic feature, since I am often in foreign cities and also for wild walks less suitable.
At last he finally admits that this is
his problem. The fact is, he wants a compass but then went and bought a smart phone that he knew didn't have one ... I mean, he did check the specifications first, didn't he?
