Fairphone 5 on A14 - GPS measured speed updates too fast and jitters

I didnt tell yet (its only visible very shortly during the end of my video).
Its a Volla Phone 22 (codename: mimameid) which is hardware-wise based on the Siemens GS5.
Its running VollaOS 14-20250105-STABLE-mimameid which is basically LineageOS 21 with a custom launcher.

Thank you for your effort in documenting this, @T4om. I sure hope its not in vain.

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I think the users whose GPS signal jumps are those who have NetworkLocation disabled? Then FP5 apparently doesn’t use FuseLocation (attenuated/denoised) but the pure GNSS signal, which inherently jumps a bit!?

If you’re interested: com.google.android.apps.location.gps.gnsslogger is a great tool for digging into the innards of GPS :slightly_smiling_face:

It isn’t that. I have network location enabled (always had it, makes the gps better in my experience) but the speed jumps around for me too.

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We answered this question already half a year ago in post #30 and the following:

People in this thread are well aware of what it would look like on normal phones if GPS reception is bad. But the update rate that we are seeing is way too much.

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The update rate isn’t high, but the location data is incorrect!?
If the location changes quickly, does it make sense to display the change quickly?
It’s only a problem if the location data is incorrect and this incorrect data is then communicated?
Or not? :blush:

Not (in 20 characters).

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Hi @llluuuzzziii,

Are there FP5 user’s who do not have this issue?

Yeah (I don’t seem to have any issues) but I use /e/OS (Android 13 though).

Tested with:

  • Osmand
  • Here Maps
  • Magic Earth
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I can confirm the problem here on a Fairphone 5 with LineageOS 22.2 (Android 15). I uploaded a short demo clip on Youtube:

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I just tested exactly the same software stack on a Fairphone 3 (LineageOS 22.2 and OsmAnd 5.0.5) and the GPS speed was rock stable!
So I am very confident that this is a Fairphone 5 hardware/driver issue.

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Hi @ronny.standtke,

Thanks a lot for your input, i think this is helpful information


I like to share a bit of the information i recently reserved from Fairphone,

In the latest message i got from Fairphone was written that they now realize that the problem is in the Fairphone 5 or partly in the Fairphone 5.
wat is very good news for me.

The employee explained me that du to the small team it probably will take a long time before they find a solution for the problem.
Wat is completely understandable, no issue.

only i find hard to accept that was written that:

Wat so far i can tell is not true, but ofcourse i can not proof that since i not hade access to more than two Fairphone 5’s. just using, my one experience, and the information on the form.

I think we need to let Fairphone know that is basically all Fairphone 5 how have the issue. only a few exceptions like post above @JohnnyD.
i think the only way is that everyone who have the issue do tell them.

if we agree here (i prefer a little discussion first), i’m a little worried that this may daily the support causes of users how do need a warranty reapar. wat in my opinion should have more priority.

if you are already planning to contact Fairphone:

Please use the app, do not write again if you already have a open suport case.

Explain as clear as possible wat the problem is that you experience on your Fairphone. keep easy to understand and fast to read as possible to avoid unnecessary pressure on the currently overloaded customer support.
share so much information as possible to avoid the neet for them to ask for more information wat is time consuming for the employees.

Share the link to this topic, hopefully that makes is easy for them to know we talking about the same issue.

Greetings

Tom

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Well thats maybe not completely wrong as it only affects those using third party navigation apps and I guess the majority use GMaps. And I assume in their world Custom ROM user doesnt count a lot…even here very few people commented so far
And yes the only way is to open tickets to increase the demand.

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“Only in very specific cases” doesn’t explain 16K views of this topic. FP might want to priorize this issue if they see that anyone who drives with an FP5 owner using Waze or another nav app that has the speedometer jumping around won’t consider spending any money on FP products. It’s very visible and highly annoying.
I’ll open a support ticket and refer to this thread. Thanks guys for the efforts so far!

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