Tablet with Real GPS, Not a-GPS - Does It Exist?

I could be wrong here but I think most tablets have a GPS chip. My old Archos 5IT has one and my Huawei S7 can do GPS. Tablets that don't have phone/3g functionality use them for location based services as well as GPS I believe. You hear things like aGPS or sGPS which seems to be a combination chip that uses both cell towers and GPS satellites for location/navigation. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, I would actually like to learn a little more about this myself.

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from what I know most tablets do NOT have a GPS chip. Walked in to Best Buy today and saw at least 6-7 different tablets. Asked a guy if any of them had GPS and he said all of them do. Then I said I mean real GPS chip so if I have no wireless access I can get the position from a satellite. He disappeared for abut 10min and came back and said sorry none of them do. So, I am still searching for one. If there is anyone out there who knows I would appreciate any help. Thanks!
 
I would take the word of a Best Buy employee with a grain of salt as it were. As I understand it aGPS uses the same radio for both cellular and GPS. If one isn't available it will use the other. The Galaxy Tab WiFi, for instance, has no cellular radio but does GPS. Maybe you should check one of these out.

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I was on my way to the beach with no wireless access and it picked up where I was.

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Jkirb said:
I was on my way to the beach with no wireless access and it picked up where I was.

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Click to expand...
actually Transformer seems to be the only one that claims to have real GPS not A-GPS. I just checked its specs. Does it work when you turn off the wireless antenna?
 
I do alot of geocaching and GPS (Global Positioning System) is a satellite based triangulation done through a dedicated receiver chip and not usually in a tablet. Most if not all cell phone and most tablets use A-GPS that used a signal strength system by several cell towers. Also known as signal voting, it can track a phone or tablet by monitoring the signal strength. this requires several towers to make this happen. A-GPS or assisted GPS phone or tablet makes use of both signal voting and GPS satellite, this system can jump back and forth as needed. From what I have read the newer smart phones and some expensive tablets use true GPS tracking.

poikaa
 
This is confusing. One thing I am sure of is that my old Archos 5IT has a dedicated GPS chip, to use it in my vehicle there was GPS mount/antenna kit that you had to buy separately. It works exactly like a stand alone GPS device I occasionally use, with turn by turn voice directions (i know this is software enabled)
According to Huawei the Ideos S7 has a GPS chip as well. It is hard to tell wether it is an integrated chip or stand alone from the documentation.
Maybe the FCC would be a source to find out what each tablet actually is using.

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Tom T said:
This is confusing. One thing I am sure of is that my old Archos 5IT has a dedicated GPS chip, to use it in my vehicle there was GPS mount/antenna kit that you had to buy separately. It works exactly like a stand alone GPS device I occasionally use, with turn by turn voice directions (i know this is software enabled)
According to Huawei the Ideos S7 has a GPS chip as well. It is hard to tell wether it is an integrated chip or stand alone from the documentation.
Maybe the FCC would be a source to find out what each tablet actually is using.

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Click to expand...
OK, did you take your SIM card out and try the navigation?
 
poikaa said:
I do alot of geocaching and GPS (Global Positioning System) is a satellite based triangulation done through a dedicated receiver chip and not usually in a tablet. Most if not all cell phone and most tablets use A-GPS that used a signal strength system by several cell towers. Also known as signal voting, it can track a phone or tablet by monitoring the signal strength. this requires several towers to make this happen. A-GPS or assisted GPS phone or tablet makes use of both signal voting and GPS satellite, this system can jump back and forth as needed. From what I have read the newer smart phones and some expensive tablets use true GPS tracking.

poikaa
Click to expand...
Which expensive tables have true GPS? The only one I found so far is the EEE Transformer.

EDIT: researching again EEE Transformer seems like that's also just aGPS. So, I have not found one yet. If you know of one please let me know what it is. Thanks
 
Last edited:
Tom T said:
This is confusing. One thing I am sure of is that my old Archos 5IT has a dedicated GPS chip, to use it in my vehicle there was GPS mount/antenna kit that you had to buy separately. It works exactly like a stand alone GPS device I occasionally use, with turn by turn voice directions (i know this is software enabled)
According to Huawei the Ideos S7 has a GPS chip as well. It is hard to tell wether it is an integrated chip or stand alone from the documentation.
Maybe the FCC would be a source to find out what each tablet actually is using.

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Click to expand...
I'm on Huawei website and find no info about GPS chip in their Ideos tablet
 
Hi guys!
Don't be confused with GPS or aGPS. Both are REAL GPS systems.
The difference is that regular GPS's take quite a lot of time to find its initial position - something between 1-3 minutes.
Then some genius found out that if there is a way to know the approximate position before starting to calculate it from the satelite signals, the positioning lock time shortens considerably - something between 10-20 seconds!
So they came with a protocol (called aGPS) which is a way to get the coordinates of the nearest cellular antennas.
That's it! Simple like that!
So, both GPS and aGPS are real positioning tracking systems, with the difference that the position lock on aGPS systems tend to be far quicker.
I hope this helps all puzzled minds!
 
dhuewes said:
Hi guys!
Don't be confused with GPS or aGPS. Both are REAL GPS systems.
The difference is that regular GPS's take quite a lot of time to find its initial position - something between 1-3 minutes.
Then some genius found out that if there is a way to know the approximate position before starting to calculate it from the satelite signals, the positioning lock time shortens considerably - something between 10-20 seconds!
So they came with a protocol (called aGPS) which is a way to get the coordinates of the nearest cellular antennas.
That's it! Simple like that!
So, both GPS and aGPS are real positioning tracking systems, with the difference that the position lock on aGPS systems tend to be far quicker.
I hope this helps all puzzled minds!
Click to expand...

No, it doesn't really help sorry.
Question is: can I use a tablet that has aGPS without a SIM card in it to receive a satellite signal?
I tried that with an iPad 2 which has aGPS and it didn't work. iPad's WIFI was disabled. I was unable to receive GPS signal despite of waiting 10min. Is a-GPS on an iPad different than on other devices?
 
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