Why HTC Desire GPS Hardware work better then other androids ?

Hi guys,

I was wondering why does HTC Desire GPS receiver works better then other devices such as iPhone 3G , Xperia 10i and even Samsung Galaxy S ? I tested this is an indoor environment in a large exhibition hall. Only with my HTC Desire i get a GPS coordinates any where in the hall. But my other mobile devices could not get GPS coordinates.

Surprisingly the coordinates are accurate as well. Could anyone tell me what is special about HTC Desire GPS hardware ?

That's because its Quietly Brilliant.

Welcome to the revolution

Here's wikipedia's article on a-GPS,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS

Basically, with aGPS, the GPS location lock is being pushed by the phone's local processing. Having an accelerated processor, in addition to better firmware, pushes the GPS lock to a shorter time.

Oh... so you are looking at those two specific models....

1. Samsung Galaxy S has a crippled GPS system. Users had to root to fix it properly.
2. iPhone 3GS has an underclocked processor.

Any more details and you'll have to break into HTC HQ in Taiwan, Mission Impossible style.

There's more than that. Theoretically speaking, all a-GPS are the same, uses the same satellite signals (which are ever present) and whatnot. So, the difference in the Desire lies in two parts:

1. Hardware. Since the GPS chipset is located in the Snapdragon processor itself, and Snapdragon is used for many, many handsets, the hardware difference per se is limited. In fact, the x10 uses the same chipset. Samsung and iPhone 3GS uses a different chipset. In fact, Samsung manufactures the damn chipset for Apple.

2. Firmware. This is where HTC really shines. At the moment, SE and Samsung is struggling with 2.1, while HTC phones are running in relative 2.2 comfort. Don't forget that 2.2 is supposed to be 2-5 times faster than 2.1, so you get some bonus there. Also, HTC's radio configuration files are much more advanced, with newer version coming out all the time (at least for rooters like me), so there's a double improvement there. I have tried to use AOSP ROMs and I have to admit, other than the occasional speed boost and "clean" look, I do miss the Sense-like ROMs.

So, a little background research came up with the information above, as well as some experience rooting and running countless ROMs.