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A Barometer is present on a few other Androids, so I assume it comes free as part of another chip. It's rarely listed as a feature though, which makes me think it's only enabled because it's there.

Has anyone checked the calibration/reliability to see if it's actually worth using?

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Quite a while ago, I remember seeing an article on HN about Google encouraging new Android phones to have barometers, and some reasons for it (possibly something to do with faster/more accurate GPS fixes).

That's correct. As I understand it, you can get a reasonable altitude estimation from the barometer.

I'm pretty sure it was in the S3 as well.

Yep, and the Nexus 4 has it too.

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