Choosing a GNSS receiver is an investment that dictates your field crew’s daily efficiency and your company’s bottom line. Before you buy, evaluate your options against these industry benchmarks.
Challenge: Standard GPS devices only track U.S. satellites. For modern field operations that are often conducted under heavy canopy or in urban canyons, you need a true Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) device.
Recommendation: A minimum of four global constellations tracked: GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou. If you want your GNSS receiver to be reliable for years to come, ensure it handles regional enhancements like Japan’s QZSS (built to fully operate with civilian GPS L1, L2C, and L5 frequencies) or India’s new L1 NVS-series.
How Asteri Compares: The Asteri X4i features 965 channels, tracking all major global and regional constellations simultaneously so your crew never loses a fix.
Challenge: Some manufacturers use proprietary binary formats that lock you into their ecosystem, forcing you to adopt their specific field software and/or pay monthly subscription fees to export your data.
Recommendation: Look for a receiver that outputs standard NMEA-0183 protocol and offers dual-mode Bluetooth (compatible with Windows, Android, and Apple iOS core location services).
How Asteri Compares: Asteri communicates via industry-standard NMEA-0183 protocols. The Asteri connects via dual-mode Bluetooth or a built-in standard serial port, allowing you to pick the hardware and software that fits your workflow, whether you use Android, Windows, or iOS.
Challenge: Don’t get lured in by low hardware costs only to discover you have to pay extra later to unlock engineering-grade accuracy or specific correction formats.
Recommendation: Look for built-in sub-meter accuracy (SBAS) out of the box, with the free option to leverage Galileo HAS or BeiDou B2b PPP services.Ensure the hardware supports RTK and DGPS corrections in industry-standard RTCM2.x, RTCM3.x, CMR, and CMR+ formats without artificial software gates.
How Asteri Compares: Tri-Global maintains transparent pricing with no hidden upgrade costs. Each Asteri X4i comes with sub-40 centimeter SBAS, sub-20 centimeter PPP, and full centimeter-level RTK (8 mm + 1 ppm) by default. Optional RTK corrections available for additional charge.
Challenge: If a battery is permanently sealed inside the device, you can’t swap it when it dies in the middle of your field work. And when the battery eventually degrades over time, you have to mail the entire receiver to a repair center, if available. In most cases, you have to replace the device because repair services are unavailable.
Recommendation: Look for receivers with a field replaceable battery and that has a low draw paired with a high-capacity battery to ensure you can spend a full day mapping in the field uninterrupted.
How Asteri Compares: The Asteri X4i runs for 12.5+ hours on a single charge (calculated at 85% efficiency, and can reach up to 14+ hours under optimal conditions). It uses low-cost, standard camcorder style lithium-ion batteries, meaning your crew can field-swap them in seconds and keep working.
Challenge: Most GNSS receivers are ruggedized, but that doesn’t mean they’ll never break. When the inevitable happens, you don’t want a “disposable” receiver that is unable to be repaired.
Recommendation: Protect your investment by finding a manufacturer that provides repair services or offers a warranty for your purchase.
How Asteri Compares: Every new Asteri GNSS receiver comes with a 1-year limited hardware warranty with the option to renew that warranty for 4 years, totaling 5 years of coverage. We also offer full repair services for every Asteri.
Challenge: Slow initialization times and poor performance in inclement weather or heat.
Recommendation: Look for a minimum of IP65 Ingress Protection (dust-tight and water-jet resistant) and wide operating range (-4F – 140F). Ensure the receiver has a “hot start” reacquisition time of under 15 seconds.
How Asteri Compares: Built for realistic field conditions and high-velocity data, the Asteri X4i boasts a less than 15 seconds hot start, less than 1 second signal reacquisition, and a less than 10s RTK initialization time to get your crew moving instantly. Further, the Asteri X4i supports up to 20Hz collection rates as an available option, capturing assets instantly whether your crew is walking a job site or driving at highway speeds.
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