iPad Using a Wi-Fi & Cellular iPad from 2017 for navigation without SIM card

[desertman]

Hello Forum,

I only realized today that Wi-Fi only iPads don't have built-in GPS capabilities. I would not have bought an iPad 10th generation if I had know this before. My mistake, of course.

My previous iPad is a WiFi & Cellular 5th generation model from 2017. According to Mactracker it has "Assisted GPS." Newer WiFi & Cellular iPads have just "GPS."

It still has a FreedomPop SIM card installed, but I don't had any data plan for this old iPad since at least 5 years (and cellular data is always turned off).

Can I use this 5th generation WiFi & Cellular iPad from 2017 without data plan for GPS navigation? What does "assisted GPS" mean? Is "assisted" equal to, or better, or worse than not assisted, "normal" GPS?

Thanks,
desertman

 

[sparksd]

aGPS explained here -

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5552447?sortBy=best

aGPS and GPS should work the same in that iPad.

 

[klasma]

See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assisted_GPS. I assume they dropped the explicit reference in the specs because nowadays all cellular “smart” devices use it. Assisted GPS (as opposed to plain GPS) requires some sort of internet connection. I don’t know if it works with tethering (using an iPhone as a wifi hotspot), but it very well may. Navigation does work without a data plan if you use a navigation app designed to work without an internet connection, i.e. with offline maps.

 

[desertman]

Thank you! I'm glad I didn't give away my old iPad. (And I find it ridiculous that Apple doesn't put GPS modules into all iPads; they are not exactly starving.)