Tablet or Garmin, what's your poison?

[JBThompson]

What's yours? I'm playing with the free/trial version of Backcountry Navigator on ky phone right now, seems like a decent app, albeit a little confusing. We don't live anywhere near trails so I can't really test it out, either. We have an iPad and an LG Android tablet so we're thinking we might want to use one of those with an external GPS receiver and load up the maps we need - forest service maps, Moab, Colorado, etc. We have a Garmin Nuvi 2757 for main roads but from what I've read we should be able to load the other maps as well so we're just weighing our options. Either way we'll have to load maps of the places we want to explore, just looking for the best option.

 

[Tazman]

I searched a year ago and came across Scenic for my iPad. I love the program, but more importantly for me, I love the big screen. Garmin offers 7" and an iPad is ...? I have been using it for a couple of adventures and find it superior to what I had used in the past. I got a nice mount for my truck and it works great.

 

[LocoCoyote]

Lowrance HDS-7 Gen3 with a Point-1 Baja unit. I just turn off the fishfider stuff....

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

I find it kind of hard to justify the cost of Garmin or Lowrance. They are both excellent quality and great at doing just one thing.

I recently purchased a new Lenovo Tab 2 A10 10" tablet for less than $200 to test it for navigation use offline. So far I am very pleased with it but have yet to try it offroad. I do know just using Google Navigation all the fire roads and truck trails as they are labeled here do show up. I will have to find a good Android app for topo or the offroad trails.

I like that I can connect to the OBDII port of the truck and use it as a trouble shooting or additional gauge panel. One aspect I really like is the incentive to drive more economically. You can learn to hone your driving skills for better fuel economy.

I figure for $200 I can't go wrong. Is it equal to what Garmin or Lowrance does. No but what it does is good enough for the average person. I can slip it into a back pack and with 8-10 hours of battery time could use it on the trail if needed.

 

[C-Fish]

iPad Pro running Gaia GPS Pro works flawless for me...

iPad had ~40gigs of maps loaded.

Bonus, I can use the iPad to surf the web and edit photos from my iPhone and DSLR in the field.

 

[diluted]

I use both depending on what I'm driving.

Tablet in the truck, garmin on my UTV

 

[stageracer]

I'm running iPad with a Bad Elf GPS dongle and Navii for my map. Just used it for 2 weeks in Baja.

 

[1Louder]

Tablet
Way more options for apps
Way more useful.

I use Gaia (Pro)
MyRadar Pro
Maps.me
Pocket Earth
And lots of other stuff. Proprietary device limits you.

 

[Airmapper]

Tablet
Way more options for apps
Way more useful.

...Proprietary device limits you.

I see a benefit to both. While mobile devices (tablet/smartphone) offers a lot of customization and app selection, one thing that really bothers me is configuration complexity, and reliability.

There is a trade between Flexibility and Reliability. You don't really get the best of both in a quality device, it either does exactly what it is meant to do without fail, or it lets you tinker with it and works fairly well as long as you stay ahead of it.

A dedicated device usually has extensive mapping storage pre-installed. Even if you can update it, you generally cannot screw with it's content or coverage. All of the USA for example. While you can load large maps to a mobile device, will you (the operator) do so reliably? Will it work when the device looses network connection? Will it be recoverable if the device software crashes and requires a reset? Can you get it back on the fly if data becomes corrupted?

My experience with mapping apps on mobile devices is while they work well most of the time, they are prone to occasional glitches and user error. Supposedly downloaded maps suddenly are not available offline, features don't work as expected. Accessing mapping files is clunky and haphazard. While this stuff can be sorted, in a travel situation you neither have the time or patience to figure it out at that moment you need it.

Also consider risk. You use a multi-purpose device for multiple things, thus it spends time on your person or transferred from your vehicle to your lodging arrangement. It is more likely to be damaged, lost, or stolen while being transported more frequently.

I use a variety of devices and software for different situations. One thing that is consistent though is a Garmin dedicated road nav GPS is in my vehicle when I'm traveling, regardless of other devices in use. Should all else fail that device will work and has mapping for any location I'll be in. Even if it's not in use, it is a reliable backup with a low likelihood of malfunctioning simply because it only does one thing. It has a simple and robust operating system software that is uninfluenced by outside parties.

I could go into long lengthy detail, but I typically have access to both a tablet and a dedicated GPS when traveling, and use whichever one is more suitable for the situation.

 

[Hillbilly Heaven]

It is the age old adage. One is none two is one.

 

[Gallowbraid]

Why not both?

 

[Burb One]

$40 on Amazon, can't beat it. I have had the garmin, etc., which for durability are 100% better, but this thing never leavers it's cradle on the dash- not going to break there. The amount of options of google play and downloadables in unbeatable.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00THEMRX8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There must be a newer version too, I got it a year ago and it was prime. Only downside, is every onve in a while the GPS gets an error (maybe has happened 4 or 5 times) and it needs to be restarted. I also got a dedicated external bluetooth GPS receiver that's super accurate, but honestly have used it once when I was in some serious storm conditions and the geography made it couldn't get a lock (my Galaxy s7 couldn't either)

 

[Kerensky97]

We have a Garmin Nuvi 2757

Those standalones are good for road navigation but once you go off on a trail I prefer Backcountry Navigator. But I dropped the proprietary GPS a while ago for Garmin maps on my phone because I like having it re-route me around traffic and accidents. But the idea is the same, Google Navigator for the roads out to the trail, then switch to BCN for the trail.

One big benefit I can see to keeping the standalone Garmin is the battery life is so much better; phones and tablets drain so much faster. If you're smart you switch to airplane mode while out in the bush, and bring external batteries just in case, but invariably you'll forget one or both and have a dead phone right when you need it (also why it's good to have paper map backups).

 

[Herbie]

Android tablet and Backcountry Navigator for me.

There's a small learning curve to understanding BCNs system for storing maps and databases, but once you learn it and have it setup, it's really powerful and flexible. I love being able to overload multiple maps for the same area and then switch between trail maps, topo, and Satellite imagery - something that you can't really do with a dedicated Garmin. I have a 64GB micro-SD in it, and just keep downloading maps left and right.

As others have mentioned, there's also the plus of using the tablet for "other things". I use mine for on-road navigation as well (Navmii for offline on-road navigation), not to mention a host of other "tablet" things.

One thing from your 1st post: You don't need an external GPS for Android devices (or many iPads for that matter). This is a persistent misunderstanding created by early Apply cost savings. Any Android tablets built in the last 7+ years all include GPS chip and antenna. All wireless(cell)-data-equipped iPads include a GPS chip as well. (Contrary to beliefs, they don't rely solely on cell data for location, just to speed up acquisition). Only the WiFi-only iPads do not include GPS. Otherwise, you only need external GPS puck if you have reception problems or plan to mount the tablet in a very shadowed location. I mount my older Galaxy Tab 3 very low on the doghouse in my van (below dash, far from windows, etc.) and it locks onto GPS just fine. At $120 for a brand-new Tab A 7.0, you can't really go wrong.

 

[Herbie]

One big benefit I can see to keeping the standalone Garmin is the battery life is so much better; phones and tablets drain so much faster. If you're smart you switch to airplane mode while out in the bush, and bring external batteries just in case, but invariably you'll forget one or both and have a dead phone right when you need it (also why it's good to have paper map backups).

Are you talking outside the rig or while driving? I have a separate handheld GPS for hiking, but my phone and tablet are always plugged in 100% of the time while driving. Leaves me free to run full brightness for daylight viewing, capture GPS logs whether I need them or not, etc.