I lost my Garmin Montana (that was a very bad day) and decided to try phone/tablet based GPS app to see if it could replace my dedicated GPS unit.
I don’t do apple and therefore looked at android aps to use on my phone (Galaxy) or tablet (LG Pad 7.0). I have read lots threads regarding this topic but none really specifically compared dedicated GPS capability to that of a phone app. I ended up buying the Backcountry Navigator (BCN) app after reading several positive reviews and have been using it for several months on-road, off-road, on the computer, etc. Here is my opinion/thoughts/etc. specific to BCN.
Pros:
1. Low cost, $10. Some maps cost extra and/or require monthly/annual fee. These can add up quickly depending on what you purchase.
2. Bigger, higher res screen (based on phone/tablet) when compared to that of GPS unit.
Cons:
1. It will not route. I find this hard to believe, but yes, BCN cannot route to a POI, waypoint, etc. It will provide direct line of sight only without routing. This alone makes is basically useless.
2. The maps suck. They are raster images (bitmap) so they are huge unmanageable files. My Garmin topo West and SouthWest in 24K, CONUS topo in 100k and North Am. Navigator with POIs fit on a 16GB SD card, easily. I don’t think I could fit So Calif on a 16GB card in a bitmap with BCN. Garmin can route on all maps I own.
3. The maps suck. They are basically a scanned image that is being viewed on the display. It is not a vector based “active” map, meaning that when you zoom in/out, the text and other features do not scale with the zoom. So if you zoom out you cannot read anything. It is like holding a paper map too far away to read.
4. Did I say that the maps suck. Because they behave just like a scanned image, guess what happens when you are driving south with track up? Correct, all the text and features are upside down. I guess you could keep north up but again, the maps suck.
5. More on maps, it is not possible to download, purchase, etc. large regions like CONUS in topo, or western US, etc. The download process requires you to “select areas for download” on the screen. But after selecting an area and downloading, you get an error that the map size is too big. Apparently the limit is 4GB which is very small for a bitmap image. So, only small areas can be downloaded.
6. The color of the maps is odd and blends with text, features, roads, etc. They are generally difficult to read because a standardized color system is not used.
7. The Track log will not run continuously. It randomly stops so when you get home and want to use your track to create a route for your next trip, data is missing making it useless.
8. There is no night mode on the display.
9. There are many bugs in the app. Menus that will not scroll up/down, items that when selected do nothing, menus that do not operate properly when the screen is rotated, etc.
10. There are many basic GPS unit features that are just not included. I always used Trackback on my Garmin. This is not available on BCN. There is also no computer software other than the app. So creating routes requires other mapping programs and saving files in the correct format which is somewhat cumbersome. BCN buries its files deep the directory tree and many are not logically named. They discourage against moving all their files to your SD card which would be much easier and also allow you to move data between tablet/phone/pc/etc.
I had lengthily emails with BCN with questions, comments, issues, etc. and they blame much of the problems on android and the devices running android. Hummm!
IMHO, a $10 app cannot substitute for a dedicated GPS. It’s not even close. For highway routing, nothing beats Google Maps. Now, they just need to provide a complete GPS system of off-road and creating routes.
Guess I will be watching the webs for a new Garmin.
I don’t do apple and therefore looked at android aps to use on my phone (Galaxy) or tablet (LG Pad 7.0). I have read lots threads regarding this topic but none really specifically compared dedicated GPS capability to that of a phone app. I ended up buying the Backcountry Navigator (BCN) app after reading several positive reviews and have been using it for several months on-road, off-road, on the computer, etc. Here is my opinion/thoughts/etc. specific to BCN.
Pros:
1. Low cost, $10. Some maps cost extra and/or require monthly/annual fee. These can add up quickly depending on what you purchase.
2. Bigger, higher res screen (based on phone/tablet) when compared to that of GPS unit.
Cons:
1. It will not route. I find this hard to believe, but yes, BCN cannot route to a POI, waypoint, etc. It will provide direct line of sight only without routing. This alone makes is basically useless.
2. The maps suck. They are raster images (bitmap) so they are huge unmanageable files. My Garmin topo West and SouthWest in 24K, CONUS topo in 100k and North Am. Navigator with POIs fit on a 16GB SD card, easily. I don’t think I could fit So Calif on a 16GB card in a bitmap with BCN. Garmin can route on all maps I own.
3. The maps suck. They are basically a scanned image that is being viewed on the display. It is not a vector based “active” map, meaning that when you zoom in/out, the text and other features do not scale with the zoom. So if you zoom out you cannot read anything. It is like holding a paper map too far away to read.
4. Did I say that the maps suck. Because they behave just like a scanned image, guess what happens when you are driving south with track up? Correct, all the text and features are upside down. I guess you could keep north up but again, the maps suck.
5. More on maps, it is not possible to download, purchase, etc. large regions like CONUS in topo, or western US, etc. The download process requires you to “select areas for download” on the screen. But after selecting an area and downloading, you get an error that the map size is too big. Apparently the limit is 4GB which is very small for a bitmap image. So, only small areas can be downloaded.
6. The color of the maps is odd and blends with text, features, roads, etc. They are generally difficult to read because a standardized color system is not used.
7. The Track log will not run continuously. It randomly stops so when you get home and want to use your track to create a route for your next trip, data is missing making it useless.
8. There is no night mode on the display.
9. There are many bugs in the app. Menus that will not scroll up/down, items that when selected do nothing, menus that do not operate properly when the screen is rotated, etc.
10. There are many basic GPS unit features that are just not included. I always used Trackback on my Garmin. This is not available on BCN. There is also no computer software other than the app. So creating routes requires other mapping programs and saving files in the correct format which is somewhat cumbersome. BCN buries its files deep the directory tree and many are not logically named. They discourage against moving all their files to your SD card which would be much easier and also allow you to move data between tablet/phone/pc/etc.
I had lengthily emails with BCN with questions, comments, issues, etc. and they blame much of the problems on android and the devices running android. Hummm!
IMHO, a $10 app cannot substitute for a dedicated GPS. It’s not even close. For highway routing, nothing beats Google Maps. Now, they just need to provide a complete GPS system of off-road and creating routes.
Guess I will be watching the webs for a new Garmin.
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