Sony Confirms GLONASS Support for Newest Xperia Phones

Sony has recently announced that its latest Xperia smartphones will feature GLONASS support for better positioning while on the go.

According to Sony, the Russian radio-based satellite navigation system is a better alternative to GPS and is already fully supported by the recently announced Xperia ion and Xperia S smartphones.

But why is GLONASS a better alternative to GPS? Sony explains that the Russian satellite supports both systems in a receiver, which leads to a higher number of available global satellites.

GLONASS should be able to increase the number of global satellites from 31 to 55, Sony claims, which means more geographic locations are able to receive four or more signals from satellites.

This is why GLONASS is the better alternative when it comes to accuracy of the calculated positions in various environments. More details on GLONASS support for Xperia phones can be found at Sony Ericsson’s support site.