tl;dr — Dual-frequency GNSS on Android — Table of devices
In early 2018 I wrote an article introducing the state of dual-frequency Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) support on Android:
I expected it to be relatively short-lived — but then things got complicated 🤔. Multiple devices have launched with bugs preventing carrier frequency information from showing up in the GPSTest app, and other devices have launched with L5-capable hardware but for some reason the device as a whole doesn’t include dual-frequency support (i.e., L5 doesn’t show up in GPSTest).
As a result, as of June 2019 we have yet to see a dual-frequency GNSS Android device launch in the U.S. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chipset seemed like it would solve this problem, but for some reason all SD855 U.S. flagships don’t show L5 signals. Why? Great question. Let me know if you have the answer.
So — I’m going to keep adding detailed entries for devices supporting L5 to the original dual-frequency GNSS article, but I’ve also created a quick-reference table in this article. After all, the only thing better than a long article on dual-frequency GNSS on Android is a short article on dual-frequency GNSS on Android 😉.
The tl;dr table
I’m maintaining this list in a Google Sheet, and below is an in-line view of it.
If you can help fill in the missing entries (“?”) in the table please comment below with screenshots for that device (including firmware versions)!
EDIT April 2021 — This table is no longer being maintained. See the next section of this article below the table for a new crowd-sourced database with more up-to-date information.
GPSTest Database
EDIT April 2021 — I’ve created a way for GPSTest users to directly contribute the capabilities of their devices, including dual-frequency support, to a crowd-sourced database — the GPSTest Database. Read more here:
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