What concerns me about the GPS on the SGS is the wildly varying SNR readings. I see mine vary by 10-15 on each satellite even in locations where external background noise should be relatively low, which pretty quickly explains why it has trouble locking on to, or staying locked on to, a signal. I can use a similar device in the same location and the variation is only 3-6. It’s a simplification but that kind of suggests that most of the noise is coming from other circuits on the device itself and is of a periodic nature.
It's not just the GPS signal that bounces around. It's wifi and 3G/cell also. I have a wifi monitor app installed to prove what thought I was seeing, and the signal randomly gets better and worse with the phone in a fixed un-held position. You can see the same behaviour in signal level if you monitor the phone status screen for your cellular dbm while the phone is in a fixed position.
Numerous people have exhibited their bars "bouncing up and down" and the wifi signal indicator doing the same.
Would not all the signal discrepancies point to some kind of antenna issue or noise/interference issue? Your point about capacitors for instance also explains why exchanging a phone with no or very poor signal sometimes you get a new one that "just works". For instance my first phone couldn't talk to any cell towers at all and only got -100dbm when placed literally on top of a microcell. A replacement one worked so-so with signal bouncing around +/-50. My newest one only swings back and forth +/-25 which is good enough to actually get something done with (but still should be better since it freaks out my wifi!)
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