Galaxy Tab S3 - GPS.....

[UFO]

How accurate is the Galaxy Tab S3 for GPS? Used as mainly a secondary unit, but sometimes primary.



Would It be better to get a Bluetooth Unit such as the XGPS160 SkyPro or Bad Elf or is it good enough by itself?


Specs state: GPS + GLONASS, BEIDOU, GALILEO

[StuM]

Very. No point in adding an external receiver. I've used several different Galaxy phones and tablets and sitting at the nav table in the saloon, they almost always give me better than 10m accuracy, frequently within 2 metres.

[danielamartindm]

Originally Posted by UFO

How accurate is the Galaxy Tab S3 for GPS? Used as mainly a secondary unit, but sometimes primary.



Would It be better to get a Bluetooth Unit such as the XGPS160 SkyPro or Bad Elf or is it good enough by itself?


Specs state: GPS + GLONASS, BEIDOU, GALILEO

Hi UFO,
Galaxy tablets are very accurate, and Navionics has a very good map package for Android that provides broad coverage with vector-type ability to zoom in and out for layers of more or less detail at a very reasonable cost. They offer a free trial.

[ranger58sb]

We have two Samsung smartphones and two Galaxy tablets; the GPS in all 4 is very accurate. We get pretty much the same results as from our plotter GPS and from the external GPS we use with our ship's laptop.


-Chris

[roland stockham]

Agree accuracy is very good. I frequently use street maps (map ME) on mine and it is almost always good enough to put you on the right side of the highway. Different sensors do not really effect GPS accuracy. However, like all phones and tablets, it uses a small low power sensor with an internal aerial. If I compare it to my Garmin GPS 60 which is a high sensitivity handheld with a stub aerial or any of the on-board GPS's they are far more sensitive. On the boat this is not a problem and it works below decks through a plywood roof. May be an issue on a metal boat. I do find it is blocked by buildings or trees. The Garmin is fine in the forest the tablet is not. Same in high rise cities. I think power is more important than the aerial. GPS is quite power hungry so phone/tables us the min possible power to extend battery life. If you use the GPS constantly expect you batt life to be halved.

[Sojourner]

I use a Tab 3 as a backup, for anchor alarms, etc.... it's very accurate. As someone else said, Navionics works great on it too

[Rough Magic]

+1 on Navionics with Samsung phone and pad. Both use the USA and Russian satellites, very accurate. That said, the usual keep them at least a meter from anything metal caution is important.

[CarinaPDX]

Tablets and phones use the same class of GPS modules, optimized for low power. USB pucks and marine equipment use a different, "navigation" class of modules which use a bit more power. Until recently both used the same GPS transmissions and were similar accuracy. The latest modules (e.g. uBlox 8) support all four constellations (GPS, GLONASS, Beidu, and Galileo) but most of the time GPS will be the best solution, at least until Galileo is fully implemented. The latest development is the addition of the L5 signal reception to the usual L1 in a few of the newest phones - this will improve accuracy. So basically there are incremental improvements continuing to happen, but I don't see much practical difference in accuracy for phones and tablets with current products - other issues are sensitivity, time to first fix and internet-downloadable ephemeris.

What will affect your tablet's (non-GPS) accuracy will be calibration of the sensors - you must do this in order to have a good compass heading. There are several Android programs available for free from the store that enable you to calibrate your tablet for 3D magnetic and gravity sensors. It makes a big difference.

Greg

[Bleemus]

My Galaxy tab is very accurate. I run OpenCPN on it and love it.

[knockabout]

we have been using a waterproof android brand phone for 12 months / downloaded a freebie Open cPN for android then copied world CM93 charts to a sd card and booted up the Open CPN in the android phone and loaded CM93 charts then clicked on data base rebuild link at the bottom of the chart screen which converted all charts to suit android phone / took approx. 1.25 hours to rebuild charts then rebooted the phone made the various adjustments to Open CPN to suit boat size and navigation habits / bling,bling whalah world sea map on android in waterproof phone / as GPS is a navigational aid and not meant to be a replacement for our brain, compass, sounder or paper charts and guides the GPS in the phone is very accurate and a good navigation tool / I get growled at by the admiral for turning off the Open CPN and using night sky app to find a suitable star on the horizon then turn all navigation gear off to save power and steer by the designated star till my watch is over leaving the admiral to boot up whichever plotter suits her requirements / the phones are suitable for passage making but being portable need to be secured and protected from harm and have back up systems

[CarinaPDX]

Please be careful about making assumptions about accuracy. While it is true that most of the time the reported position is within a few meters of the known position, all of our inexpensive consumer solutions will produce results that are tens of meters off rather frequently, as a result of atmospheric conditions and satellite positions (i.e. not equipment problem). My brother consults on GPS, and keeps logs on about a dozen different receivers/antennas continuously. It is typical for the error to spike once or twice a day. With the L5 signal now starting to be used this should improve. Just be aware and don't count on blindly finding your slip on GPS alone.

A readable article on L5 developents: https://www.zdnet.com/article/your-p...ssive-upgrade/

The Xiaomi Mi 8 smartphone is now being sold with dual-frequency (L1+L5) GPS in China, and others will follow soon. [It should make it to us in the 3rd world within 6 months or so.]

Greg

[UFO]

Thanks Everyone

[barnakiel]

Most tablet gps are very inaccurate. Maybe you got lucky with quality hardware. More likely as Samsung is known to build very decent kit.

More detailed test of this gps module is here:

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Samsun....199702.0.html

Scroll to the GPS and wifi part somewhere midway thru the review.

"...We took the Tab S3 on a short bicycle ride to check the everyday performance and compared the results with the bicycle navigation system Garmin Edge 500. The tablet performs well, but is not quite as accurate as the Edge 500. We can see occasional shortcuts, but the performance is perfectly adequate for car navigation...."

Cheers,
b.

[Bleemus]

Not scientific but running OpenCPN on a Galaxy Tab up and down narrow roads with heavy tree cover I can clearly see the track difference traveling in each direction.

Loran used to have me sailing down the streets of Providence RI quite often.

[Larry Florida]

According to the book Understanding Nautical Charts, GPS is typically more accurate than many charts.