QSTARZ intros "most powerful GPS receiver in the world"

Really, QSTARZ? You've actually had independent testers confirm that your BT-Q818 eXtreme is the most powerful GPS receiver on the entire planet? We're guessing not, but for what it's worth, the second incarnation of the BT-Q818 features 51-channel tracking, 32-hours of navigation time, -158dBm sensitivity, USB connectivity, built-in Bluetooth, adjustable 1 to 5Hz update rate and a 36-second signal acquisition time (when cold). Sounds pretty run-of-the-mill from here, but QSTARZ wouldn't fib about this thing's world ranking, now would it?

[Via NaviGadget]

[gabe @ May 9th 2008 2:48AM]

i believe them

[Ace b @ May 9th 2008 2:59AM]

does it really matter?

As long as it works,and works well,I could care less about what label someone gave it.

[Allister @ May 9th 2008 3:10AM]

I would have thought being a 'receiver' and not a 'transmitter' that it wouldn't matter how powerful it is.

Unless it's combo-ed with a Taser?

[alex @ May 9th 2008 3:19AM]

I work with commercial GPS units that will blow this thing out of the water any day of the week .... I would love to know how thye came to "most powerful" those specs are not that impressive.

[Reader @ May 9th 2008 3:22AM]

You see, it powers itself with Archer Quinn's generator, and that is what makes it the most powerful GPS in the world. Few GPS receivers have the sword of god within them.

[Carl @ May 9th 2008 3:22AM]

Previous QSTARZ GPS were based on the MediaTek GPS receiver chips, which have been shown in several reviews to be a fair amount better than SirfStarIII based receivers, so if this is using an updated MT GPS chip there is a good chance it is currently the best consumer-grade receiver around.

[Greg @ May 9th 2008 3:25AM]

Silly marketing, but I bought one of these, after reading up on GpsPasSion.com, and it's good: sensitive enough that it often works indoors, long-running, and with a replaceable (Nokia cellphone) battery.

[Greg @ May 9th 2008 3:35AM]

To be precise, I got the BT-Q1000p a few months ago, but the basic design looks unchanged (the MTK chip may be new).

[Dennis Mooren @ May 9th 2008 4:04AM]

Looks pretty much the same as the Ascen 730 BT-GPS and has the same specs to, only the top cover is a bit different:

http://www.ascen.com.tw/730MTK.php

I have this one and it is superb.

[Dries @ May 9th 2008 6:05AM]

Impressive! I'd like to get my hands on this one and test it in difficult areas.

[MyFirstMoniker @ May 9th 2008 8:15AM]

said the actress to the bishop

[foxdie @ May 9th 2008 7:01AM]

I've got a QStarz BT-Q810, upon manufacturer release it was locked to 1Hz updates, but with a small resistor mod (details available on the gpspassion forums, google for gpspassion resistor hack) you could now send commands to it and enable 5Hz mode. It works indoors too, providing you're not in a large or a lead lined building. Don't bother though if you're gonna use it with TomTom or other SatNav software on a PDA, there's not enough processor power to handle that many updates per second. Its only really useful if you're walking around, ie. geocaching.

If the BT-Q818 is gonna be better than this then sweet :)

One thing always bugs me though, mine was sold as 32-channel tracking, and this one is sold as 51-channel tracking, but at any given time providing you're not on Mt. Everest you can't see more than around 10~ satellites at once, seems overkill having support for 32, or even 51 channels at once.

[jeff @ May 9th 2008 8:26AM]

Now what we need is more GPS satellites.

[HankS @ May 9th 2008 8:58AM]

QSTARZ is clearly concerned about how they word their claims. Here is an example of a review of another one of their products that they quoted on their website (http://www.qstarz.com/):

"As GPS without wrongly and blames, combination of Datalogger, GPS and Geotagger for photos momentarily singularly at the market, around it absolute recommendation".

Perhaps "most powerful" is just a mistranslation?

[ryan @ May 9th 2008 9:34AM]

Err....there is only 31 GPS satellites....don't know what you need the other 20 channels for. Anyways, there is thing about the earth being round, so you can't lock onto ones on the other side of the planet, messed up eh?

[jswilson64 @ May 9th 2008 2:04PM]

Maybe it [b]can[-b] lock on to satellites on the other side of the world, hence the "most powerful" claim...

[Sam @ May 18th 2008 12:44PM]

I just got the freedom keychain one... http://www.freedominput.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=111&Itemid=107
and its got virtually identical spec apart a shorter battery life, same 51 channel and if you switch it on first then go to the phone its picked up signal before tomtoms is up and running, claims 33 secs or someting from cold and 1 sec from warm, and the main thing is its tiny, thank god the days of huge 16 channel pieces of crap are gone which picked up signal after u'd arrived at your destination.
oh and hands up all those who want to kick nokia in the nuts for putting the worst gps module in their N95 ever.

[Ankan Bhowmick @ May 9th 2008 8:30AM]

*waves arm wildly*