Is the iPhone GPS 'real' GPS?

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I live in frontier Australia and when free time permits I often go four-wheel-driving and camping in far away places. As a navigational aid I always take a GPS with me. I had a Navman GPS for the longest time but it went missing out of my car a few weeks back (stolen), so I need to fill its void.

I'm thinking I may be able to use my iPhone instead, but I need to confirm the true GPS capability of an iPhone (4S). Does an iPhone have real GPS (ie satellite based, Tom Tom or Navman style) or is it some sort of quasi GPS based on wi-fi? I'm reading both ways online.

I need a 100% definitive answer as my travels take me well outside the realm of phone reception. I don't really want to find out the hard way when i'm five hours out of town, it's dark, and i'm up an unknown track needing to get my bearings!
 

Raz0rEdge

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All phones have a real GPS chip in them driven by the satellites. What IS, however, driven by an Internet (cellular or WiFi) is the maps in the built-in apps..

So you are going to be out of cell or WiFi coverage, you will have no maps to know where you are going.

There are likely 3rd party applications that use the GPS capability within the iPhone and then download the maps and hold them thus not requiring an active network connection..
 

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