Apple has supported GNSS since the iPhone 8/X generation in 2017. This is about L5 GPS which I'm not sure how well this is supported in general ATM as its pretty new
L5 support has been available in a number of devices for a couple of years now. Garmin was one of the first to use L5 in commercial devices, with their Fenix watches a while back.
The phone I'm currently using, the Pixel 6 Pro uses the L5 band. It's nice and I can definitely tell a difference, but it still struggles due to antenna size.
In my experience, for people doing significant outdoor stuff like backpacking, endurance running, etc, a positioning device from a solid company like Garmin is going to be a good bit better than an apple, Samsung, Google, etc device.
I had an LG phone that was one of the first in 4G (at least on my carrier) and the thing ran so hot it was often painful to touch.
My HTC thunderbolt was one of the first “4G” phones, but was barely useable more than a few hours.
Yes, Apple has made some insane design constraints in the past (butterfly keyboards, the whole thin-ness thing), but their chip choices are usually pretty sound and grounded in reality.
*edit: I wanted to throw in how frustrating the lack of push email was for so long (and still kind of is), but I get it. From their standpoint, they control APNS & can use that for energy efficiency benefits to make a grandma-friendly device
From my memory Apple is just often late to the party. Especially for 4G and LTE.
Qualcomm has had it since the Snapdragon 855 though, so basically every flagship Android phone since 2019.
https://support.garmin.com/en-IE/marine/faq/9NWiPDU4gM0JWMfd...