Smartphone with GPS

PH4T

Is the N95 far and away the best smartphone available in Ireland with GPS?

The other two I have looked at are the Blackberry 8800 and the O2 XDA Orbit.

GUIGuy

As always best depends on what is important to you... but I'd say that if you can live without the keyboard and video calling then at 299 the orbit is pretty good value. Personally I prefer S60 devices over windows mobile. Couldn't justify the cost of an N95 though.

PH4T

GUIGuy wrote:

As always best depends on what is important to you... but I'd say that if you can live without the keyboard and video calling then at 299 the orbit is pretty good value. Personally I prefer S60 devices over windows mobile. Couldn't justify the cost of an N95 though.

Yeah I can live without the keyboard and video calling.

Is the GPS the same on all these devices? I read something recently about the Blackberry 8800 having a built in GPS receiver whereas the Blackberry Curve does not. What does this mean?

damo86

few facts here:

the blackberry 8800/8300 uses a-gps (not a standalone chip) os relies on a data connection, no experience so cant comment.

the n95 uses the qualcomm chip which is ok but not great(being hearing long fix times and overall performance is low )

the xda orbit is the daddy of gps's as it uses sirf III powered chip which is one of the best!

if your looking for the best gps with the best gps software i would go the orbit.
the touchscreen is more natural for gps too and bot do you have a choice of different gps software!

PH4T

damo86 wrote:

few facts here:

the blackberry 8800/8300 uses a-gps (not a standalone chip) os relies on a data connection, no experience so cant comment.

Just looked up a-gps on Wikipedia. Is Assisted GPS software based? Could u install this on any older smartphone like a SE P990i and would it be as good?

oakers

The XDA Orbit is a rebranded HTC P3300 (Artemis).

I have one and I can safely say it is a fantastic phone!

The lack of a keyboard or keypad is easily rectified by installing a small piece of keypad software with the english (or whatever you need!) dictionary and texting is back to the way it works on a normal phone!

TKK

I got an Orbit yesterday and from playing around with it the handwriting recognition seems damn good and I reckon I won't miss the keyboard at all.

PH4T

damo86 wrote:

few facts here:

the blackberry 8800/8300 uses a-gps (not a standalone chip) os relies on a data connection, no experience so cant comment.

QUOTE]

Is it not the case that the blackberry 8800 has a standalone chip whereas the 8300 does not?

Does this mean that the 8300 will not be able to tell you your position on a map and does that not render it useless?