GPS on Smartphones

[mh71]

My question concerns the GPS capabilities of the UTStarcom 6700 phone. Specifically, the Verizon XV-6700 incarnation. PhoneScoop says that it does have a GPS receiver.

Is this a full-fledged receiver or does it require assistance from the cell-towers to find itself? If I bought a third-party program like Tom-Tom, would I still need to match it with a separate receiver?

My father wants a cellphone with GPS capabilities, and he was originally looking at the VZ Navigator. I've suggested either the Moto Q, XV-6700 or the Palm 700w. The Moto Q appears only to come with A-GPS (again, from PhoneScoop).

My apologies if this has been hashed out before, but I didn't see anything. I've read a couple of posts concerning the ipaq 6900 series which has an installed receiver. HP seems to tote this feature, which leads me to believe that it is a more complete solution than is provided on the cell phones.

Thanks all

[ADBrown]

My question concerns the GPS capabilities of the UTStarcom 6700 phone. Specifically, the Verizon XV-6700 incarnation. PhoneScoop says that it does have a GPS receiver.

Is this a full-fledged receiver or does it require assistance from the cell-towers to find itself? If I bought a third-party program like Tom-Tom, would I still need to match it with a separate receiver?

Yes, you would. The 6700 has what's called Assisted GPS, which means it needs help from the network to locate itself. In most devices (the 6700 included) that information isn't accessible from the phone, for a variety of reasons (not the least of which being that it requires work on the part of the network).

My apologies if this has been hashed out before, but I didn't see anything. I've read a couple of posts concerning the ipaq 6900 series which has an installed receiver. HP seems to tote this feature, which leads me to believe that it is a more complete solution than is provided on the cell phones.

That's true. The iPaq has a full-fledged internal GPS receiver, not reliant on anything else (unless you buy Cingular's over-the-air mapping service, in which case you need a connection to the network in order to download the maps).

[mh71]

Thanks, ADBrown.

Well, kinda throws a wrench in the works.