Notices

A highly unspecific & leading complaint.

There are hardware and software components. The hardware is a decent quality chip. Some software which uses the GPS has bugs. Ovi Maps is lacking some features, but I don't class that as "GPS inadequacy".

Yes it should, and does. Pre-PR1.2 Ovi Maps had an issue with long lock times, but that was:
a) a software issue in one application only
b) fixed now

With networking, I nearly always get a fix in under 10 seconds.
Without networking, it takes a few minutes the first time only, and seconds on subsequent fixes.

Sorry I can't compare with other phones - but it feels pretty good to me.

I can compare with the Nokia N95-8GB.
On the N95 it took ages sometimes. Got no fix, even with aGPS.
Often I got a fix after 20-40 minutes.

The N900 is so fast, it is not compareable. Don't know how it is on iPhone or such other crap.

After ~7 days without using GPS (it was even disabled) I got lock without internet connection in 2-3 minutes.

usually it is less than 10 secs for me using network assistance, and a minute or so at max without. i also have an n95 and it takes ages as someone else pointed out.

I get a minute or two typical without network, but can be much longer. Probably when I was a long way from the location it was last used.

Could latitude make a difference? I'm at 30°S, and wonder if the 55° orbits of the satellites give better coverage at colder latitudes?

I been using sygic maps program for the n900 and it works great without data paln on my tmobile here in USA california. All I do is laod up the sygic maps program and it takes about 30seconds to 2 minutes or so for the n900 internal gps to connect and I do have that location settings checked/enable using the google address rather than the default nokia name that was in there.

And it sygic works awesome it has voice turn by turn and once the gps is loaked and connected I can search for address's and it finds and makes thje routes and everything all without a data plan internet connection.

I use it to go to customers locations with my onsite mobile computer tech bussiness.

Guys, I am a novice here. Is the bottom line that the GPS in N900 cannot be used without an internet connection? I was traveling with my device and without an internet connection I could not get the GPS to lock. It would keep saying "Looking for GPS..." I disabled "Network Positioning" but that made no difference. Is there a way to get N900 to work like a real GPS? I called Nokia support and I was told that an internet connection is mandatory for the GPS to work

Nokia are telling porkies. As long as you have pre-downloaded a map for the area of interest (I have the whole of Europe) it can and will work unaided. Search the forum for map downloads, there are many threads (I used nokia map loader from a Win XP PC).

Download your map, disable your network, turn off AGPS and then start ovi maps. It will grumble and ask if you want to enable data, but don't. Leave the phone stationary, outside in an open area, and it will search for a GPS lock - should get one in a couple of minutes first time you try .. as mentioned above, subsequent locks (within same area) should be much quicker.

However , note that you CAN'T use the Ovi Maps search facility without a data connection, so you either need to map your route on wifi before you go out, or you need to plan it while out by moving around on the map itself to set your start/end points before letting Ovi calculate the route for you (i.e. you can't just enter a street name as a start/end point without data). Not ideal, but workable - I used it a lot while roaming abroad in this manner.

I have found that GPS works BETTER without an internet connection in some cases -- I noticed it when I took my sim out one day and my GPS connected up shortly. I have suspected that there was something wrong with Tmobile's GPS assistance and it was actually useful to get rid of it.

How do I turn off AGPS? There is no such option under "Location"