Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2023 November 15

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November 15

Phone navigation services

I'm comparing two versions of the Moto G Stylus phone:[1]

The 5g version is the fancier one and costs $100 more. I look at the comparison table linked above, and most of the differences don't matter very much to me. One that might matter is location service. The 5g version says "GPS(L1+L5) | A-GPS |SAP | LTEPP | SUPL | Galileo" while the 4g version has "GPS(L1) | AGPS | LTEPP | SUPL | Glonass | Galileo".

My questions: 1) what is SAP? Our SAP disambiguation page and a quick web search don't find anything. 2) Should I care about the L1+L5 (two band) GPS in the 5g version? 3) Should I care about the loss of Glonass in the 5g version? I plan to use the phone entirely or almost entirely in the US if that matters.

Also, the phone has a "magnetometer" in the sensors section while other models say "e-compass". Are these likely to be the same thing? And can most Android navigation programs (particularly, Google Maps and Organic Maps make use of the compass? My current phone has no compass and it's a bit annoying that you have to actually be moving before the navigation programs can tell which way you are facing.

The 5g radio in the 5g version shouldn't make any difference in signal coverage, right? I mean the 4g version should work everywhere the 5g version does? I don't care about higher data speed in the 5g version since I use very little mobile data, primarily navigation or looking up something online. No streaming video or mobile games or anything like that. I'm on a 1GB/month data plan and generally use around 1/10th of that.

Thanks! 2601:644:8501:AAF0:0:0:0:6375 (talk) 08:47, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

Having Glonass on top of GPS and Galileo improves accuracy a little bit, but the difference is tiny, Glonass being the least accurate of the three. The main reason it was included is to be allowed to sell the device in Russia, but with current sanctions that isn't happening, so they could just as well remove that feature. Dual-band GPS improves compensation for ionospheric distortion, improving accuracy, but I think that without it's still accurate enough to tell you which street you are, so it shouldn't matter to you. PiusImpavidus (talk) 09:36, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

I also can't really find what SAP is, but considering that the rest of the line (before glonass/galileo) refers to various Assisted GNSS (aka A-GPS) protocols, I assume it has something to do with that. An Ecompass has both magnetometer and an accelerometer. The accelerometer essentially makes it easier to understand for the device when and how quickly you begin and stop moving. Even with a compass, it will generally take navigation programs a few seconds to realize what side you are facing, but instead of 10-15 it will be like 3, and it can do so, even if you are standing still or walking. Inside cars however the compass is often not used (the car is a metal cage, which distorts the magnetic field too much). In cars you often use Android Auto or CarPlay, and when possible, these actually use the GPS antenna and compass signal of your car. Not all cars do this however, some only provide GPS, some not even that. In both those cases your device will behave as you described, where it will take some time and movement for device to know what direction you are going. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:48, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

Thanks both. It looks like both phones have magnetometer and accelerometer so it is weird if those don't combine into an e-compass. I was pretty impressed with the compass app on an iphone SE2 that I looked at but I didn't try it out thoroughly. Ok I'll continue to ponder this. Meanwhile I see both phones have hole punch displays for the front camera, which I find a bit annoying, but I guess people live with that. 2601:644:8501:AAF0:0:0:0:6375 (talk) 20:30, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

Honestly, the manufacturers aren't always that accurate with their spec sheets on a topic like the compass, so It might be that they just changed what verbiage they use there. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:57, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, yes, I bought the phone yesterday and it does have a compass. I haven't tried it out with the navigation apps yet. It is a nice phone but unlike older Motorolas, it came with a lot of crapware pre-installed. I had to spend several hours uninstalling stuff and opting out of privacy invasion features. 2601:644:8501:AAF0:0:0:0:6375 (talk) 18:11, 18 November 2023 (UTC)