This really has me curious as if the GPS is cacked, I can't justify shelling out a couple hundred bucks on something that does most of the things my 770 does satisfactorily.

I doubt Nokia doesn't know how to make antennas... if that is determined to be the root cause I'll be VERY suprised.

How are people trying to use this? Are they holding it, possibly dampening signals with their hand?

One possible cause I could think of is power conservation, maybe it's just not getting enough juice to prolong battery life in a poor tradeoff between battery longevity and practical use.