Sunday 1 May 2011

Samsung Galaxy S II (2): GPS with "MyTracks"

I already wrote a quick article on the accuracy of the GPS, which you can find here, but many people requested I take the Galaxy S II out for a "longer" trip, to see how accurate it is over a broader area. 

"MyTracks" is an application available from the Android Market which allows you to track your routes on your run, or cycle ride, using the GPS to map your route over Google Maps. It also provides really useful information such as speed and distance, which is great if you are setting yourself training targets. It is also a brilliant way to test to GPS accuracy of a phone, and I've done just that!

Here is a photograph of the map on my phone, and below that is the exported .gpx file displayed in google maps. I've put a couple of pointers in there, for example when I went round in a very tight circle, so you can zoom in and have a closer look. 


The section of the route I recorded was 3.65 Miles/5.87Km over the course of 20 minutes. You can zoom in on this map to see the track in more detail.



This is where I went round in a circle: quite a small space, really!



You really can't fault the GPS on this device!!

Feel free to get in touch if there's anything you would like to know

6 comments:

  1. Hey Dom, Im thinking about buying this phone, but i havnt seen anything about the HDMI support yet, sure i have read that it supports it, but no more =(

    I would love to see an hands-on vid where you use the phone on your TV.

    Thx!, Anders - Sweden

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  2. Hey Anders!

    I think that might be because it's hard to come by an "mhl" cable which is the one you need to do this. I've been using my GS2 successfully with my TV over wifi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P5eX3qJlQQ) but I don't have a cable either. I'll do my best to get my hands on one (though I think they're rather expensive!).

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  3. Hi Mr. Dom Armstrong! First of all I would like to thank you for unselfishly sharing your SGS 2 with us.. I learned a lot of things just by reading and watching your blog.. I'm presently using 2 samsung phones, also planning to upgrade my I8910 to SGS2.. I stumbled upon your blog and I was instantly hooked to it. All your infos are very accurate and non biased.. I hope you still continue to share with us all the other nice features of SGS2.. Am also looking forward to hearing from you any negative/bad experience in using this phone (but I'm hoping there won't be any). I'm here in the Philippines and I think it will be available by the end of June... I'm definitely going to buy this phone! I checked your blog everyday for new uploads... Again my gratitude for sharing your phone with us... God bless!

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  4. Hi Robert, Thanks for your kind words! Is there anything you would like to know in particular?

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  5. This is awesome. I love this. Thanks for sharing. galaxys s 3

    ReplyDelete