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Yesterday when the T-Mobile Pulse Mini got announced and demoed, we were excited that a budget android phone would come stocked with Android 2.1. What we DIDN’T know was the price, but ElectricPig is saying the phone will cost £100 on the Pay-As-You-Go plan – a pretty sweet deal! But they also so they company had to cut some corners to get the costs/price down and one of those corners was GPS.
How can an Android Phone not have GPS? Are all those location based apps just out the window? We’re trying to dig up some details on the situation here but lets hear what you have to say supposing this is true – is GPS a deal breaker? Or maybe they meant, being 2.1 and all, it just doesn’t come with Google Nav?
The small 2.8-inch screen and need for a stylus kill this for me regardless. But to each their own!
I have had 3 Android devices in the past year or so and I have never used GPS on any of them, except for the one time I wanted to use google maps in the car.
For me, its just not that useful. It wastes battery and for the tiny number of times I may use it, I could also do without it.
Sure, its a bit of a downer to lose the ability to use GPS at all, but for most people, its not that big a deal.
I don’t think lack of a GPS would be all that bad. Pretty much the only time my GPS is on is when I’m using navigation. Any other time location from cell towers is plenty good enough for me. Not that I would ever get a device like this, but I would have no problem recommending it to someone else.
No GPS would be a serious issue on Android with Google pushing location so hard. It certainly takes a significant chunk of the Android Market out of play. I wonder if it even has an accelerometer?
Can’t say I’m an expert on the matter but my understanding is that GPS really isn’t all that expensive anyway (or at least aGPS) seeing as must free under contract dumb phones have it now.
On the flipside, I am hoping to see cheaper Android phones come out soon. It’d be great to see a Android phone that’s free w/ contract and doesn’t require a data plan. If it had WiFi and Navigation added some map caching capabilities , Google would grab a *huge* chunk of market in just 2 years (the time it takes everyone to renew their contract and get a new free phone).
Jay
I hardly ever use my actual GPS. aGPS works for most anything I do except for actual navigation. For that I could always use my little blue tooth GPS unit.
Yea that would be a deal breaker for me although I wouldn’t get this anyway beacaae of the resistive screen
The first pulse is a sweet little phone I own it it is one of my favorites in my collection.
i think it would be a bit of a deal breaker since GPS is very handy to have in lots of situations and many more apps are being released that use it.
Since it doesnt cost that much as apposed to other technology that is in the phone it questionable why its missing.
@craig – not sure why you say aGPS isnt good for car nav since aGPS is a more advanced type of GPS (“a” stands for assisted). In fact I’d say to most people, if it doesnt have aGPS then its worth keeping an eye out for another phone that does
Still there are external GPS modules… But I don’t know, whether Android can sync with one…
For a lot of people, the type who are only gonna drop £100 on a phone I dont think GPS is even that essential. All the location based stuff will work pretty with just triangulation from network.
It’s accurate enough to let me know where the nearesr bars are and if I wanna go to them just input the start address and end address and follow the directions as a list.
The stylus kills it for me though. In this day and age I know almost nobody who likes to use one of those.
I didn’t even catch the stylus at first look.
FAIL.
Jay
I don’t know how requirements are in other countries. However, here in the US GPS is mandatory for use with e-911. I can’t remember when it became mandatory, but it’s a requirement. It may not be available to user, but it’s there for phones in the US. I wonder if the UK has the same requirements. Anyone familiar with the requirements that can chime in? btw, if it’s in it, I would look into xda developers. I have much respect for those people, they make amazing roms.
I am playing with the T-Mobile Pulse Mini at the moment. It definitively has GPS. Even voice navigation in Google Maps is working.
Florian.
Good phone, he have everything, including GPS !
Bad, bad camera =[
does anyone know where i can get a replacement stylus pasifically for this phone ?