Quote:
Originally Posted by ken0042
To simply answer your "why"- I would say that any time I have been in a position where a failed GPS could cost me my life, I have had at least one backup. And the big thing with any of the GPS only devices- they aren't depending on cellular data to give you the map information. Sure the maps are only as accurate as the last update, but I find that is most often relivant in an urban setting.
|
I didn't originally understand your post - I thought you were saying a dedicated GPS is better than what you get on a phone, for the kind of people asking you which phone to get based on mapping. What you were actually saying is that if the differences were that critical, or that significant between models, to those people, they should be using hardware, since it barely matters for 99% of the GPS using population.
I do agree with you on the hardware front now that I understand what you're saying - I wouldn't use a phone for backcountry work either - not the least of which would be because the phone isn't rugged enough, waterproof, or capable of running for 24+ hours. I have a pair of Garmins for that, and truthfully should be carrying paper as a backup as well.
The phone also doesn't have a barometer for detecting shifting weather patterns. In fact, I've yet to see a phone based map that even has a freaking scale on it, something I don't understand at ALL. There would obviously be some issues with dot pitch and resolution independence and rounding errors drawing at the pixel level, but even something approximate would be useful.