Best inexpensive device to run Osmand

[Peter Reynolds]

Hello

I am a 47 year-old Windows 7 computer user.  I've never had a tablet or a smartphone.  

However I have read online about Osmand and am wondering what kind of device would be good if I wanted GPS facilities for walking in the Scottish Highlands (I'm not talking remote mountains, rather I have in mind using in the countryside within 5 to 10 miles of a town), and wanted to be able to record a route to contribute footpaths (trails in US-speak?) to Open Street Map and/or whatever the Google equivalent is (WAZE? Map Maker?), possibly by uploading to my computer after I've walked.

My eyesight is not that brilliant and my fingers not that nimble - I honestly don't know which devices use a finger and which use a stylus of some kind.  Do I want an Android tablet (such as a Galaxy Tab 4) or a smartphone (such as a Moto E)?    What would be your best suggestions with ease of use and good battery life for under GBP 100 in BOTH categories?  I'm not interested in purchasing a very expensive device, and if it is not yet practical to do this stuff without one, I can wait a couple of years!

Support for Geocaching might be nice too.

Kind regards

Peter

[Max Erickson]

I've used a Nexus 7 while hiking. It isn't exactly convenient to carry, but the battery life and GPS work well enough.

I think lots of android devices in the price range you mention will work well enough as a casual hiking GPS. The bigger considerations are probably how you plan to carry it and along related lines, what size of screen you find most comfortable. If you want to stick it in a pocket, then the tablets are going to be awkward.


Max

[Akkana Peck]

Peter Reynolds writes:
> Do I want an Android tablet (such as a Galaxy Tab 4) or a
> smartphone (such as a Moto E)? What would be your best suggestions with
> ease of use and good battery life for under GBP 100 in BOTH categories?
> I'm not interested in purchasing a very expensive device, and if it is not

For 100 GBP (about $150 US?), your choices may be limited to off-brand
tablets and used devices on ebay.

Generally, tablets are a LOT cheaper than phones, at least in the US
(may be different in the UK). The phones that are cheap are usually
very small (like 3.5" or smaller) and you may find them hard to
use for mapping.

> My eyesight is not that brilliant and my fingers not that nimble -

I have a Galaxy Player 5 (sadly no longer sold) and I find the 5"
screen a good compromise for hiking. A 7" tablet would be too big
to fit in the pockets of any of the packs I normally carry.

Most Android device screens aren't very readable in full sunlight, so
having a big screen to see a nice big map might not matter much anyway.
Fine details like contour lines and labels are mostly invisible.
But a big screen might make it easier to hit those small buttons.
I do have some trouble with that, but it isn't really a big problem:
if I tap the wrong button I can hit Back and try again, and when I
make mistakes entering waypoint names I don't worry about it,
since I always review and correct my waypoints after I get home.

...Akkana

[john whelan]

You can pick up a Nexus 7 2013 for about 170 quid at Argos.  Amazon.co.uk have some around 140 but they are the older 2012 models.  The issue is the battery, it should be stored at 40-50% charge and topped up from time to time.  The 2012 model batteries won't be in such good condition and buying new good condition batteries if you can get them and having them installed won't be cheap, and don't try to install them yourself.  The price will be similar to a new unit.  When new the units were 200+.

They are no longer current, their replacement was the Nexus 5 and 9 both of which are over 300 quid and the Nexus 9 battery life isn't wonderful.  Anything of the same calibre will be in the order of 300-400 quid. The Nexus 7 was deliberately under priced by Google to show off the Android operating system.  Don't expect to see anything in the same performance range for under 100 for I'd say six to seven years.  It runs the latest version of Android and unlike some competitive products has the latest security updates installed when they come out.

There is a free app called powerbar I think which can be used to extend the battery life by turning of wifi etc when they aren't required.  You can also buy battery packs that will plug into the usb port.  Try to keep the battery charged up above 70%, at that level it can be recharged many many times, let it drop to 10% before recharging and the battery will die quite quickly.

I have two in storage at the moment and no they are not for sale, they were considerably cheaper than the UK price and I use one of them with moon+reader to read epub books set to black background with white letters, and yes I'm retired so I understand the issues and you will need a stylus, Amazon have some by Decrescent which are reasonably priced and I find work well.  You'll also need a case, they come with magnets so that when you close the case the tablet goes into sleep mode.

Tesco have something for 99 but how good it is or how accurate its GPS is I wouldn't like to say but the Nexus 7 I would recommend.

Cheerio John

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[Peter Reynolds]

John

By Tesco's "something" do you mean the Hudl 2?  I searched Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 vs Hudl 2 and folk were suggesting the Samsung Galaxy would be likely to be more reliable, and Tesco have those on offer at the moment at GBP 89.

Are they likely to be unreliable or unsuitable?

Kind regards

Peter

[Tomek Jablonski]

For Osmand I use Polish designed, China made ( :-) )  Kruger&Matz Drive 2.  

It has huge battery and excellent GPS chip.  I can ride bike almost all day with screen and data on. Without data it'll run the screen for 1,5 day. 

If You fully charge the battery and leave the phone connected without data or wifi, after 2 weeks it will still have half the battery. 

It has quite big screen but not very high resolution.

Con is that I had to root the phone to use sd card for data, otherwise it has 512megs only, or I don't know how to setup osmand to use sd-card on Android 4.3 or 4.4. 

Tomek

[Peter Reynolds]

So if I buy a mobile phone, can I edit and upload stuff from Osmand via a computer ?

[john whelan]

You can do this from any Android device that has wifi or can connect via a carrier.  The Nexus 7 for example, wifi is considerably cheaper to use than a phone companies network.  Dell.com have an Android tablet for 89 quid, they also have a 14 inch windows laptop for 169. The laptop would allow you to run JOSM which is the tool most serious OSM mappers like to use.  ebuyer.com might be worth looking at.  Be very careful with options when starting these up, basically do not agree to anything.  Lenovo has been installing software by default that compromises trusted https connections.  Used or refurbished laptops are available for around 70 quid certainly on Amazon.co.uk.

Cheerio John

--

[alay...@gmail.com]

If you are planning only on recording a track, it would be better to buy a dedicated gps receiver+logger. They are smaller, and have long battery life. Try here. In case you carry a tablet or phone, these devices provide better and faster gps fix.

[john whelan]

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/GPS_Reviews the Garmin/eTrex series traditionally have been popular with OSM mappers, they're rugged, very accurate typically much more so than the phones or tablets, and take a couple of AA batteries so you don't hit the battery problems you have with tablets, phones and laptops.

If you are just thinking of adding tags to existing features the very low cost way is called walking papers and it works well.

Cheerio John

On 7 April 2015 at 23:48, <alay...@gmail.com> wrote:

If you are planning only on recording a track, it would be better to buy a dedicated gps receiver+logger. They are smaller, and have long battery life. Try here. In case you carry a tablet or phone, these devices provide better and faster gps fix.

--

[RJL]

Peter, this is a really great question.

Your input...

>47 year-old 

>Windows 7 computer user.  

>never had a tablet or a smartphone

>GPS for walking in the Scottish Highlands

>not talking remote mountains, using in the countryside within 5 to 10 miles of a town

>wanted to record a walked route & upload to Open Street Map / Google (Map Maker) / WAZE / my windows PC

>eyesight is not that brilliant

>fingers not that nimble  (stylus?) 

>do I want an Android tablet or a smartphone

>ease of use

>good battery

>under GBP 100

>Support for Geocaching

First off, I'm remembering the backpacker's saying - an ounce going out in the morning is a pound coming back in the evening. I'm going to assume you are having a wonderful easy walk, not climbing through 1000's of feet of vertical ups and downs, and that a few ounces of weight will be of no concern, otherwise recommendations would change. 

Next I'm assuming you have Internet access at home for your Windows PC and are not charged based on how much data you use per month. Ideally you have WiFi at home too. (which will enable cordless file transfer between your existing PC and this new device.) Otherwise you will use a USB cord between the device and the PC. Alternatively to Internet connectivity at home you can take your device to any free WiFi hot spot, library, most McDonalds, etc. 

You have gone a long time without a cell phone or smart phone so perhaps an "all in one" solution might be ideal? I'm going to recommend a 7" phablet (combo of phone & tablet), with GPS capability. 

* Does all you require above

* at 7" its easy to see

* has a quality touch screen so no need for a stylus

* very bright display for outdoor use

* could be used as a cell phone (recommend you start with a low cost, prepaid plan - about 5 cents per minute for calls and no surprises)

* always free to use in any WiFi area

* the GPS system is free to use any time

* fast (as in fast map manipulation, fast GPS fix calculation, etc.

* can do a LOT more than just geocacheing and recording ways

* can easily be used with a windshield mount as a car GPS

* over time should be a LOT of fun

At 7" its a bit "clunky" as a cell phone however it will fit in a large/loose man's pants pocket. 

Remember all you need for geocaching are maps that you download and install at home, a charged up battery, and a CLEAR VIEW of the sky. You don't need to be "near a town" for it to work. However with ANY GPS you cannot be under a very heavy canopy of trees. A clear "line of sight" to the sky, with no clouds is ideal. It will however work quite well with very heavy cloud coverage, some trees, etc. Also, don't get this unit too wet and don't drop it on a rock hard surface, its not "ruggedized" or waterproof. 

I assume you can charge it up at night. If you are going on long treks with no power for multiple days this would not be a good choice. A solar charger could be used but all combined that is a lot to carry. 

I like the Cube T7 (http://www.cube-tablet.com/ for description but shop AliExpress and Internet shops for the best price. About 120 pounds or less if you shop around for it, with air express delivery (5-7 days total because getting stuff out of China always takes several days). 

As far as ease of use you will like Android. Apart from the occasional reboot that you may need now and then everything works quite smoothly. There is a ton of free, high quality applications for Android and they are a snap to download and install (whenever you are in a WiFI area). This is an "all in one" unit and although its not cheap it packs an amazing amount of technology into something you can put in (a large) pocket.

Rick

 

[P Wat]

Peter - Have a look at Motorola MotoG.  It gets consistently good reviews - "Best all round budget smartphone".  If you like the look of it, do buy the one with the extra storage (total 13GB or 16GB, not 8GB).  I've enjoyed using my 1st generation version in several foreign countries, walking, cycling and sailing.  (I'm "a bit" older than you)
PW (UK)
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