Does this thing have a proper gps?

[Polychrome]

I'm starting to get curious. I don't bother with GPS much, but every time I've needed to look something up on a map for some reason or other, the GPS location appears to be correct.

I don't think it's my phone or IP address. I've never bluetoothed my phone to this (though I should, more convenient than wifi tethering) and the locations are too exact for IP address. I suppose I'll have to try it out in a car next time I have someone in there with me when I happen to have the Surface along.

 

[bauerbach]

most certainly does NOT have a GPS in it. first, most GPS is built into the cellular SoC, which this of course does not have, even the ipad wifi does not have GPS for this reason while the 3/4g versions do.

wifi positioning is quite accurate these days. If you get out in an area without any wifi signals, you'll see more error with cellular triangulation.

 

[Luke Kailburn]

Neat! it does work nice. I think they should have definitely sold the Pro with an embedded 4G. Total portability freedom.

 

[jmerrey]

I know they said something about market research revealing that a large percentage of ipads with cellular data are never activated, but I think battery life probably made this not an option, at least on the Pro. I would imagine battery life with 4g, or even LTE, would be well under two hours.

 

[bauerbach]

cant get a signal through the vapormag case either.

but the main reason was that it would add a solid 100bucks to the price tag, increase the sku count, and of the fraction of ipads sold with 3g, only a third get activated.

I know I just tether... no way Im tacking another 20bucks onto my cell phone bill for no good reason.