Thanks for the suggestion. I'm having a lot of people telling me to get a IP68 Android phone and use Giai GPS. I've been trying to research that out and it seems a lot more confusing than just running a handheld GPS. What do you guys think?
While using a smartphone as a GPS can be wonderful, smartphones eat battery for lunch especially when GPS is active. I'd look very closely at anticipated power consumption and availability of power sources before using it as my only option.
If you are only going to be out a few hours or have decent access to 12V power to keep it topped off, a smartphone can work. However, I think standalone handheld units do much better for rugged use. I remember going out on kayak trips and hiking, and running a handheld GPS all that time, for 6 hours+ on a few AA batteries.
Smartphones can also get glitchy. Older handhelds usually have extremely stable software and internal mapping, meaning if it does goof up, with just a reset or taking out the batteries, and it's probably going to come back around and probably won't loose any data. Also touch screens and dirty hands is probably a bad combo, tactile buttons are easy to manipulate even when they are filthy.
I'm not saying a smartphone is a bad idea, I use mine as a handheld GPS and love it. But if I was going out away from a vehicle for the day, and wanted to keep the unit on most of the time for checking progress and recording a track, I'd probably stick with a rugged IP rated handheld clipped to my backpack strap, and leave my phone powered down in a waterproof container safely inside the pack saved for an emergency.
A good quality dedicated handheld can take a beating, I used to Geocache a lot and more than once dropped them on pavement, had them out in the rain slinging water off them wet, even fell down once and caught myself with the GPS in my palm screen down in the gravel, and they always kept on ticking. My main Geocaching unit was waterproof, and I put on a screen protector and had it in a fitted case with a belt clip and lanyard on it, it looks beat to hell but take it out of the case and put a new protector on it and it's like new.
All depends on your use, if you stay close to a vehicle and won't be endangering the unit excessivly, you can go a lot more fancy and modern. If toughness is key, I'd keep it old school.