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iPhone X GPS accuracy is weak

I recently got a new AT&T iPhone X. I have a couple gps apps I use a fair amount. Accuracy is significantly worse than my old iPhone 6. I saw that iOS 11.2 was rumored to perhaps fix it, but just did that upgrade and no improvement.


Any ideas? Fixes?

Posted on Dec 6, 2017 8:58 AM

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Posted on Feb 19, 2018 1:56 PM

After extensive investigations, including hours running multiple GPS apps on both iPhone X and older models, Apple replacing my iPhone X, and a ton of Internet research, it is clear to me what the problem is and everyone with this problem needs to be complaining to Apple. The more of us that tell them this is unacceptable, the more likely this will be fixed in the future.


There are two models of iPhone X - one (A1901) has the GPS accuracy problem and the other (A1865) works properly. If you purchase your phone through AT&T, or purchase an AT&T phone through Apple, you will get the A1901 phone. If you purchase an unlocked SIMless phone or through most other carriers, you will get the A1865 phone. Why does this matter?


The A1865 phone uses a Qualcomm chipset (cellular modem and the GPS chip) and these work great. It is the same family that has been in older iPhones for a long time (which is why this has not been a problem in the past). The A1901 phones (AT&T) come with an Intel chipset that seems to have lower specs all around, and in particular the GPS has more trouble connecting to satellites, and even with the same number of connected satellites, the accuracy is about half that of the Qualcomm (accuracy will show twice the distance).


If you are an AT&T customer, I recommend that you purchase an unlocked phone from Apple (this will be the A1865 version), then get it activated on AT&T and you will be fine. In my case, I purchased my iPhone X from AT&T and it took more than 14 day working with Apple to figure out what the problem was, so AT&T won't take it back. Apple also is unable to exchange this for me because it is not from their inventory, so can only exchange for the same model. If you are in my situation, you need to have them escalate this to engineering. There seems to be no other option for us at this point. This is why I am encouraging as many people as possible to communicate clearly to Apple what the problem is so that they will acknowledge the problem and help us. Hopefully it will become harder for them to claim that your phone is the only one that is having this problem.

It is really not cool of Apple to sell us a phone with severely reduced GPS specs and not tell us there is a difference! Apple, please help us with this.

31 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Feb 19, 2018 1:56 PM in response to joncarlson

After extensive investigations, including hours running multiple GPS apps on both iPhone X and older models, Apple replacing my iPhone X, and a ton of Internet research, it is clear to me what the problem is and everyone with this problem needs to be complaining to Apple. The more of us that tell them this is unacceptable, the more likely this will be fixed in the future.


There are two models of iPhone X - one (A1901) has the GPS accuracy problem and the other (A1865) works properly. If you purchase your phone through AT&T, or purchase an AT&T phone through Apple, you will get the A1901 phone. If you purchase an unlocked SIMless phone or through most other carriers, you will get the A1865 phone. Why does this matter?


The A1865 phone uses a Qualcomm chipset (cellular modem and the GPS chip) and these work great. It is the same family that has been in older iPhones for a long time (which is why this has not been a problem in the past). The A1901 phones (AT&T) come with an Intel chipset that seems to have lower specs all around, and in particular the GPS has more trouble connecting to satellites, and even with the same number of connected satellites, the accuracy is about half that of the Qualcomm (accuracy will show twice the distance).


If you are an AT&T customer, I recommend that you purchase an unlocked phone from Apple (this will be the A1865 version), then get it activated on AT&T and you will be fine. In my case, I purchased my iPhone X from AT&T and it took more than 14 day working with Apple to figure out what the problem was, so AT&T won't take it back. Apple also is unable to exchange this for me because it is not from their inventory, so can only exchange for the same model. If you are in my situation, you need to have them escalate this to engineering. There seems to be no other option for us at this point. This is why I am encouraging as many people as possible to communicate clearly to Apple what the problem is so that they will acknowledge the problem and help us. Hopefully it will become harder for them to claim that your phone is the only one that is having this problem.

It is really not cool of Apple to sell us a phone with severely reduced GPS specs and not tell us there is a difference! Apple, please help us with this.

Dec 6, 2017 10:29 PM in response to Reese_PEACE24

Thanks for the response, I appreciate the idea. I don't quite see how that would help, as the device is actually new.


I did some experimenting today with the nice app MotionX GPS. The position error, shown as "Accuracy" in the app's Position page, is frequently 52 feet, sometimes more. This compares to something more like 10 feet with my iPad (Air) in the same location. But basically the iPhoneX is always significantly worse.


Somethin' ain't right.

Dec 9, 2017 3:28 PM in response to joncarlson

So I went and traded my AT&T iPhone X for a sim-free iPhone X (which includes CDMA, etc, but also has the Qualcomm chipset versus the Intel chipset). GPS accuracy seems better. I have not tested it super extensively, but the at a glance tests seem similar to my other (older) i-Devices. The AT&T one was never as accurate as the older devices.

Jan 21, 2018 6:42 PM in response to joncarlson

My husband and I also encountered the similar problem. Both Iphone X GPS is fine in my husband's car (Audi A6L), but very very weak in my car (Audi A4L), however, no GPS issues occurred when I using my previous phones (Iphone 5/6P) in my own car. I called the service line of Apple China, and the operator told me it is the first complaint she received on Iphone X GPS issue. Are my husband and I just bad luck?? We bought A4 and A6 in the same year, I really do not think it is related cars.... Why Apple can not fix this problem!!!!

Feb 17, 2018 11:34 PM in response to joncarlson

I have the same exact issue with my new iPhone X. I use MotionX GPS extensively and the accuracy is always much worse than every other iPhone in my family (iPhone SE, iPhone 6, iPhone 5). Using other GPS apps and MotionX together I discovered multiple problems. First problem, the iPhone X has a harder time connecting to satellites. It is frequently connected to 7 instead of 8 that older iPhones show in the same area. Also sometimes only finds four when others are still at 8. Second problem, even when connected to the same number of satellites, the accuracy is not nearly as good. My iPhone X never shows lower than 20 ft, while other phones show more like 10. But most often, the accuracy is 52 ft or 105 ft. It frequently shows dotted lines as well, which means that it can't get a sufficient signal to place the location at all. This means my tracks are horribly inaccurate and I cannot trust the distance I hike.


Here's the fun part. This is my second iPhone X. Working with support, they determined that the behavior I described, and diagnosed by doing full resets and set up as new, is a hardware problem and replace the device. The behavior is exactly the same on the new device.


I keep hearing that Apple switched from the Qualcomm GPS chip to Intel, which may account for these problems. I worry that there may not be a software fix that will help, which significantly decreases the value of this otherwise awesome phone. I am on iOS 11.2.5, so any fixes that have been promised are not helping.


Is it possible to get an iPhone X with a Qualcomm chip and still be on my AT&T service? I would go for that solution. does anyone know the answer, or have more information on the problem?

Mar 5, 2018 1:09 PM in response to duckapalooza

I'm not sure your statement that the GPS on the A1865 "works great" is correct. I have an unlocked A1865 and its GPS accuracy is clearly worse than that of my iPhone 6. For one thing, the ground tracks on the iPhone X are definitely noisier than those on the iPhone 6, as created by the app Runmeter for the same route. In addition, the lengths of my walks have "increased" with the iPhone X for the very same routes. For example, one of my standard routes averages 4.24 miles on the iPhone 6 but on the iPhone X averages 4.40 miles. That's an increase in distance of about 4%.

Mar 14, 2018 7:37 AM in response to joncarlson

We recently drove to a nearby city in two cars, with me and my shiny new iPhone X in the lead. I started making turns following my gps that led us into neighborhoods we shouldn’t have entered. My kids in the back car phoned us and told me their phone were showing we should go straight, rather than turning into the hood. We had to use my wife’s older iPhone 7 for the rest of the trip. Now what I have to do is put in my destination and memorize the route I will take, and not pay attention to the directions. I also have an old Polaroid phone I use for gps directions. Ridiculous when you pay $1200 for a **** phone.

Mar 17, 2018 11:55 PM in response to Uscenturion

A1901 here. GPS accuracy is poor; it drifts - sometimes even hundreds of meters - when not moving and occasionally places you far away from your actual location and won’t move at all.


Can anyone tell if this is a problem that can be fixed with a ios update?


I use GPS exploiting apps a lot. If it’s something that can’t be fixed I’ll take my X back to the reseller and cancel the deal.

Apr 2, 2018 1:09 AM in response to joncarlson

I have also noticed that the gps accuracy of the iPhone X is far worse than my old iPhone 6.

The accuracy of the iPhone 6 has always been quite good but the accuracy of the iPhone X is really bad.

I have now tested and run them side by side running the latest iOS 11.3 in both and the same software and operator. The error in positioning of the iPhone X is about 10-15 meters of the iPhone 6 which is very good in its positioning.


It is hard to find information regardning this in the forums and I do not seem to find a solution. You definitely would expect a product like the iPhone X to have a much better performance.


Do anyone know a better solution or workaround? Is this a software or hardware issue?

iPhone X GPS accuracy is weak

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