What’s far superior about the dedicated GPS? I have both btw.
Sorry, just about to set off on a walking holiday in Devon. I'll let you know when I get back...
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Our week of walking on Dartmoor reminded me of two advantages that my dedicated GPS (a Satmap Active 20) has over my phone (a Samsung Galaxy 7)...
The first advantage is its ruggedness. I dropped the Satmap while climbing onto the summit of a tor; it fell at least 2m onto the rocks below. It didn't bat an eyelid and there's not a scratch on it. I realise of course that some people never drop their handheld device. I thought I was one of those who don't, but I did.
The second advantage is that it has both a touchscreen
and physical buttons. I've found that touchscreens (whether on watches, phones or GPS devices) can behave badly in the rain. I find that being able to switch the touchscreen off on the Satmap and use the buttons instead means that it works perfectly however wet the screen gets.
It seems to me that while a phone can run very similar software to a dedicated GPS device, it's probably the hardware that makes the latter superior in use. I could have mentioned the Active 20's excellent battery life too, but phones vary tremendously in that respect so I won't...