Best current tough phone for gps plus smartphone use?

[TPMB12]

So plenty on here use phones for gps. But imho phones have many uses so GPS suitable features alone might never be enough.

So what are the best all round gps / outdoors phones with good features for standard smartphone uses too? I'm interested in budget,  mid range and flagship options to see what's out there that's good.

Any opinions on this?

[Oscar's dad]

I wouldn’t use a phone as a primary GPS device, I use a Wahoooooo! and have previously used a Garmin. Unless you can USB charge a phone off a dynohub the battery won’t last long enough.

However I have a Quadlock mount on my bike and use a Quadlock case on my iPhone so I can mount my phone on my bars. I can actually charge off a dynohub too. In the past I have abandoned my GPS and used Google Maps to find an obscure address so having the phone bar mounted is handy.

Many phones now are fairly weather proof, Quadlock do a poncho which goes over their cases to give water resistance. We recently went on a beach holiday and used waterproof iPhone cases so we could take our phones swimming and keep sand out, they came from Amazon and worked well. Quadlock do a universal mount which sticks to any phone case and would work with our Amazon cases.

Hope this helps.

[grams]

All iPhones 7 onwards are waterproof on their own so you just need a sturdy case to protect them from drops, which the Quadlock ones seem good at.

Google Maps assumes it’s plugged into a car and burns battery like nothing else. If you use an app that’s designed for low power consumption (cough BikeGPX cough) you can easily get 5-10 hours of runtime even with the screen on. GPS reception itself uses negligible power.

[Phil21]

Unless you can USB charge a phone off a dynohub the battery won’t last long enough.

There are ruggedised phones with much larger than average batteries, e.g. the Unihertz Tank or various Oukitel models (see Amazon). Alas I don't have one, but I've been thinking about it.

[TPMB12]

One has 11,000mAh capacity I believe.  When reviewers of phones call 5,000mAh as big batteries you'll see how big that battery capacity really is.

IPhone 7 has 1,960mAh!, 14 pro max had 4000 or so mAh.

[Lightning Phil]

Plus you can take  a usb c fast charging power bank of 20,000 mAh (or so) with you to get a modern phone back up to 50% (from near zero) in 30 mins. Perfect whilst stopped.

[TPMB12]

Are the rugged phones fast charge too? My a70 is not rugged as he only 20w charging. I think flagship Samsung are 60w or so.

[freeflow]

I've only ever used a normal smartphone (since around 2013) and had no issues.  The key is getting a holder that doesn't allow your phone to jump off when riding over rough territory.


I use something similar to this.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B087G6D572?pd_rd_i=B087G6D572&pf_rd_p=2fa5a177-ff58-47c1-b70e-97fbff1ec480&pf_rd_r=NQ5ZV869QAN8REFJ37V5&pd_rd_wg=GGX7b&pd_rd_w=XY0GT&pd_rd_r=4b94988a-c3ee-4bfa-b87f-8a272322c3a7&th=1


 Exceptionally large phone batteries may be useful but a battery pack in a top tube pack does the job just as well, and can have replaceable batteries.  I use a four battery version of this


https://www.amazon.co.uk/TrustFire-Rechargeable-Waterproof-Interface-Headlamp/dp/B07HNVLJSM/ref=sxin_16_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?content-id=amzn1.sym.ede10c6f-285d-4b9a-b52b-5a67018f02d9%3Aamzn1.sym.ede10c6f-285d-4b9a-b52b-5a67018f02d9&crid=JJMVW5B6OIR5&cv_ct_cx=18650+waterproof+battery+pack&keywords=18650+waterproof+battery+pack&pd_rd_i=B07HNVLJSM&pd_rd_r=b3c0df4e-98f4-48c0-8c50-f56789948c0e&pd_rd_w=4OYXR&pd_rd_wg=znX9b&pf_rd_p=ede10c6f-285d-4b9a-b52b-5a67018f02d9&pf_rd_r=FXSDZZTC1M1258Q465XZ&qid=1680865073&s=electronics&sbo=RZvfv%2F%2FHxDF%2BO5021pAnSA%3D%3D&sprefix=18650+waterproof+battery+pack%2Celectronics%2C83&sr=1-28-348cbd3d-5326-49d0-9a61-a07d46fb35bd-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9zZWFyY2hfdGhlbWF0aWM&psc=1



My phones die because they eventually get dropped or the internal battery loses the ability to hold charge after about 3 years or so.


For waterproofing I just put the phone in a plastic bag (if its raining) that is sufficiently long that it has good coverage of the usb connector.  You need to try and find plastic bags with a matt finish or put up with lots of reflections from the bag.  For the phone itself I always install a matt, antireflective screen protector.


I can ride a 200km Audax and still have 100% in my phone battery.  Two sets of batteries gets me through a 300km ride.  I use the battery pack to power one of my front lights as well (B&M 150 lux jobbie for e-bikes) and get over 5 hours for batteries and phone on a single set of batteries.

[Lightning Phil]

Are the rugged phones fast charge too? My a70 is not rugged as he only 20w charging. I think flagship Samsung are 60w or so.

20w is fast charge, the 45w-100w is what you call super fast charging.