Photo: autoevolution
Galaxy S20 is Samsung’s latest high-end Android smartphone, so you’d normally expect everything to run pretty flawlessly.
And I told you not a long time ago, my experience with the Samsung Galaxy S20 on Android Auto has been fairly smooth, with no major issue encountered as long as I used a Samsung cable – as many know already, Samsung cables are often the ones that make the difference between a reliable connection and a nightmare experience with Android Auto.
But as it turns out, others aren’t as lucky as I am. More and more users are now reporting issues with the GPS on the Snapdragon version of the Galaxy S20, which is available in a series of countries like the United States.
According to reports, these Galaxy S20 units need up to 20 minutes to lock GPS and very often, they even lose GPS tracking. In other words, not only that navigation apps fail to detect your location on the map, but they often get it entirely wrong, putting the device on a completely different street.
It goes without saying that this also breaks down navigation in Android Auto, as the device loses GPS signal and thus apps like Google Maps and Waze no longer provide accurate instructions.
At this point, a fix that does the job for everyone doesn’t seem to exist, but some claim that disabling 5G (in countries where 5G networks are available) and switching back to 4G sometimes resolves the problem temporarily. Others explain that turning airplane mode on and off could also fix it for a limited time.
Samsung is yet to acknowledge the problem, but similar issues have also been experienced in the past as well, so I expect the next few software updates for the Galaxy S20 to further refine the GPS sensor.
In the meantime, Android Auto on the Galaxy S20 with an Exynos chip, like the one that I tested, appears to be a lot more reliable, with no GPS issues whatsoever.
But as it turns out, others aren’t as lucky as I am. More and more users are now reporting issues with the GPS on the Snapdragon version of the Galaxy S20, which is available in a series of countries like the United States.
According to reports, these Galaxy S20 units need up to 20 minutes to lock GPS and very often, they even lose GPS tracking. In other words, not only that navigation apps fail to detect your location on the map, but they often get it entirely wrong, putting the device on a completely different street.
It goes without saying that this also breaks down navigation in Android Auto, as the device loses GPS signal and thus apps like Google Maps and Waze no longer provide accurate instructions.
At this point, a fix that does the job for everyone doesn’t seem to exist, but some claim that disabling 5G (in countries where 5G networks are available) and switching back to 4G sometimes resolves the problem temporarily. Others explain that turning airplane mode on and off could also fix it for a limited time.
Samsung is yet to acknowledge the problem, but similar issues have also been experienced in the past as well, so I expect the next few software updates for the Galaxy S20 to further refine the GPS sensor.
In the meantime, Android Auto on the Galaxy S20 with an Exynos chip, like the one that I tested, appears to be a lot more reliable, with no GPS issues whatsoever.
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