From the review of Nokia’s LD-4W Bluetooth GPS Module I posted a few days ago it was clear that it’s a superior solution when compared to Nokia’s built-in offerings on the Nseries. The external unit manages to gets a GPS lock in dramatically less time and when it comes to accuracy it again beats the built-in solutions hand down. When the Built-in solution had an accuracy of 27-30m, the LD-4W managed to get numbers in the range of 5-8m. After doing some additional testing it appears that external GPS units like Nokia’s LD-4W have some added benefits.
To test this out I did a fairly simple test: I used my trusty N95 8GB with Nokia’s Sports Tracker in combination with the LD-4W and in the other case I used the built-in GPS receiver. In both cases the phone was fully charged and was not used for anything else but GPS, basically I went out and about and took my N95 8GB with Sports Tracker running in the background. The idea was to see how long it would take before the phone would shut down due to an empty battery. As you may or may not own, Sports Tracker keeps track of the duration of the trip/exercise and has the ability to recover a session from an accidental shutdown. In essence it could show me how long the phone On before it shutdown by itself. To put some extra stress on the device I decided to turn on the always-on option for the display light.
The results I think speak for themselves and make a very strong statement: Using the N95 8GB with its internal GPS (and the screen light set to always on) the phone managed to stay on fo about 4 hours and 15 seconds before it shutdown. Repeating the same thing, but this time using the LD-4W connected to the N95 8GB via Bluetooth, the phone stayed on for about 6 hours and 30 minutes! In that case the GPS unit still had some juice left to keep on going. Another plus comes from the fact that LD-4W is connected to the phone via Bluetooth, this means that you can put the phone out of harm’s way like in your purse or pocket. In the case of an internal GPS, the phone is the GPS unit and has be positioned in a specific way to get a signal, not to mention the fact that the keypad has to be open. Chances are the phone’s battery will die before the GPS unit, meaning that you could also use it with another phone that may have with you.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that internal GPS units are all the rage these days, where I suspect that convenience plays a big role, external units are still superior, not only for the faster lock on times and higher accuracy, but as I learned they help conserving the internal battery giving you a longer battery life. Having an all-in-one solution like the N95 8GB is definitely convenient, but external units don’t get left far beyond in this regard: they keep your phone out of harm’s way and can be used with other devices like other phones or your laptop. Important benefits indeed if you ask me. What do you prefer internal GPS unit and why?
