Xperia X1 GPS

I’m comparing the GPS on the Xperia X1 with the one on my Nokia N95. I’ve not used too many GPS’s, but a friend of mine let me borrow his Garmin on a trip to Toronto, so I at least know what to expect. The N95 has a decent GPS, but it takes a while for it to find satalites to determine your initial location, typically this takes at least 10 minutes, compared to the Garmin, that’s not too impressive. But once it’s triangulated, the GPS works well. Unfortunately, you need to pay extra to Nokia to unlock the turn by turn voice navigation. Otherwise, you’re no your own to look at the GPS while it tracks your progress.

The Xperia comes with Google Maps installed and uses desktop and windows mobile software called WayPoint. From my initial loading of the software, Waypoint’s desktop client is used to get maps for the phone version to use. I grabbed the New York area maps, and I thought they loaded ok, but when I went to use it today, it didn’t have any maps… It also turns out that Waypoint is only a trial. I’ve not looked into what it’ll cost yet, but it comes up with a buy notice now. But does let me in… I’ve not played around with this much, since it has no maps…

There’s additional software on the phone called “Quick GPS”, which downloads your location from the nearby cell towers which seems to speed up locating you, but that’s not all that accurate, not until the satellites hone in on you does it get better. I recently added a data plan to my existing T-Mobile plan, so I don’t know if this feature works without a data plan.

Using Google Maps is pretty simple, I was able to look up a restaurant on my way there, and it found it on the map and gave me directions based upon my GPS location. It also gave me detailed info including address and phone number. There’s doesn’t seem to be a real time turn by turn navigation with Google Maps, which is where Waypoint must come in.

Overall, so far the GPS doesn’t seem to be as easy to start with as the Nokia, since the GPS on the phone depends on the application you have on the phone running it. I’ll need to give this more time to see how it works overall. It does appear to have quite alot of potential in terms of what you are openly able to do with it, from a development standpoint, that seems pretty nice, but as it is now, it won’t get me to my destination any faster than my Nokia, or my friends Garman.

I clearly need to play with this a bit more