iphoneandroidwindows-phone-7gpsmobile-phones

how accurate is the altitude measurement in mobile phones


How accurate is the altitude measurement from a mobile phone's GPS? I've gathered that the lat/long can vary by hundreds of meters but is that same level of uncertainty present in the altitude values?

In particular I'm working with Windows Phone 7 but I'm sure that this question applies to other mobile devices. I expect that there are only a few GPS chip manufacturers and the same chip would be used by different phones.

This question deals with how it is calculated but it doesn't mention anything about accuracy or reliability.


Solution

  • Since the triangulation hands back a point in space, the same inaccuracies would apply to the Z axis like they do to X and Y.

    In other words, it's no more and no less accurate than the accuracy of the LAT/LONG.