How can I tell if a tablet has GPS that will work without a data contract / away from WiFi?

Question

We are looking to buy a collection of fieldwork tablets for Survey123. But it's not clear to me which will be able to automatically record location without data. The participants will be directed to upload results when good WiFi is available. But the tablets should still record the location away from WiFi.

dougbrowning · Answer

Look at the specs and it will list a GPS if it has it.

As stated on all iPads you must have a cell card to get a GPS since they are on the same chip.  All wi-fi only iPads do not have a GPS.

All Samsung wi-fi only tables do have a GPS.  Except maybe some of the super budget Lite models.  They dominate the Android market to the point there is not really much other choices.  The new Active 4 Pro has a dual band GPS giving submeter.  We are still trying to actually get one to test so I cannot say for super sure but the phones with dual band have tested very well for us.  iPads do not have the dual band yet.

Hope that helps

TraceyDixon1 · Answer

Yes, I'd seen that iPads need cellular, but we are steering away from them on grounds of cost.  Will probably be Android. I'm not seeing an easy way of telling if they have GPS on board

DavidForbuss1 · Answer

What model are you looking at purchasing?  A general rule-of-thumb with iPads is if they are cellular capable, they will have a GPS.  The non-cellular versions are WiFi only.