Android phone GPS For walking.

brian ireland

A friend of mine asked me about an Android phone he was thinking of getting for day to day use and also for walking using GPS. He walks where he lives in the forest and hills. He asked me about this phone because he is new to android.

My experiance from android is if you use your device for any period of time the battery dies very quickly. I can't imagine this being any different.

Does anyone have experience of this phone or any other Android which is good for navigation while walking. He needs a new phone and was trying to combine the two into one. My main worry is battery life.

Chris O Donoghue

I have a HTC Desire with GPS functionality but as you say, the battery life is poor. I don't think I'd rely on it for navigation in hills. Your friend might be better getting a cheap Garmin Etrex instead. I reckon if you use a phone as a GPS you run the risk of losing GPS AND phone when the battery dies, not a nice sensation out in the wild

a148pro

I have the earlier version of the Xperia. For some reason the GPS is hit and miss on it, may be because I dropped it a few times. When it works it works great, when it doesn't it either doesn't work at all or tracks me as smashing world records while running.

Either way as already pointed out the battery life of ALL smart phones, not just Androids, is poor. You would be doing well to get more than six or seven hours out of GPS I think. However, if you were only turning the phone or the GPS on at certain points, rather than tracking your full progress, it would be fine.

Sagittarius

I use my Samsung Galaxy S2 with viewranger software for hillwalking. The viewranger software is fantastic and coupled with the Galaxy S2 its actually far better than many stand alone gps sets I'v seen. Large screen, full colour mapping, lots of features! The phone you have linked seems perfect for it aswell as i do worry about the rain with my one!

But yeah, battery is definitely any issue. Having said that, I regularly leave the gps going for the full hike to track my route and by the end of the day Id have a good 30% or so left. Often I'd get a fix at the start of the day and then only turn on the gps again periodically to confirm my position. Once it's gotten a fix once, It will regain one very quickly for several hours.

The real danger is as Chris has pointed out. You run the risk of being stuck in a nightmare situation of having got lost after being dependent on the GPS and then when the Battery goes, you cant even make an emergency call to mountain rescue or whoever as your phone is gone too!!

Its for that reason I keep a cheap as chips nokia tucked into my first aid kit.

mann

I also found the battery died too fast so i ordered a couple from ebay for my galaxy mini from a chap called telegaming and they work fine... 2 batteries + charger + usb and case for under €20

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290634929647&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:AU:1123

rolion

I use a solar panel charger (bought from local shop),fitted on top of the back pack.It gives me around 5W at 12V,then is linked to a car charger,having full charging capability for my smart phone !