Using a phone instead of a GPS device

[GusGF]

There may well be a simple case of economics for Garmin vs Samsung.  Samsung make and sell literally millions of phones annually so can surely manufacture to an economy of scale that Garmin or other manufacturers of similar equipment simply cannot.

I disagree. How many units do Garmin sell worldwide of each model? I'd wager a bet it's enough of an advantage to avail of economy of scale for each and every model. They are an established company with a pedigree (or NOT if you're of my opinion on Garmin as an innovator). I'll stick with my mobile thank you.

[GusGF]

Speaking of Garmin...

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/confirmed-garmin-received-decryptor-for-wastedlocker-ransomware/ 


I guess Garmin will be kicking innovation into the long grass after paying that! 

[Polar Bear]

There may well be a simple case of economics for Garmin vs Samsung.  Samsung make and sell literally millions of phones annually so can surely manufacture to an economy of scale that Garmin or other manufacturers of similar equipment simply cannot.

I disagree. How many units do Garmin sell worldwide of each model? I'd wager a bet it's enough of an advantage to avail of economy of scale for each and every model. They are an established company with a pedigree (or NOT if you're of my opinion on Garmin as an innovator). I'll stick with my mobile thank you.

Garmin clearly makes millions of units but their market is more niche and restricted somewhat compared to the almost unbiquitous use of mobile phones.  I would reckon on Samsung being able to drive far greater economies of bulk manufacture than Garmin can.

[Lightning Phil]

The problem with screen on only at turns is that there are plenty of turns where the map doesn’t recognise it as such.  So you’ll drift right past the turn unawares.

[Lightning Phil]

As a general rule, I feel reasonably confident that my eTrex will have recorded a track at the end of the ride, where I'm never quite sure when I use the Strava app or similar.

On Sat I thought my etrex hadn’t recorded the first 40 mins of my audax restart ride.  Then in a duh moment remembered that it archived the current track at midnight, and that I’d started before midnight to get to the start.  It was all there in the previous day archived track.

[Kim]

As a general rule, I feel reasonably confident that my eTrex will have recorded a track at the end of the ride, where I'm never quite sure when I use the Strava app or similar.

On Sat I thought my etrex hadn’t recorded the first 40 mins of my audax restart ride.  Then in a duh moment remembered that it archived the current track at midnight, and that I’d started before midnight to get to the start.  It was all there in the previous day archived track.

As a regular (at least before 2020 happened) night rider I hated that behaviour.  "Archive when full" makes more sense, except what happens is that you rarely cause the track memory to become full, so on the odd occasion^[1] it does happen you panic and think you've lost the data.

With the old HCx, you only had to care about the copy on the SD card, where it was clear that it had started a new file at midnight because of the filenames.  (It was also a lot more idiot/gloves proof against accidental deletion.)


_{[1] Because I've turned the logging to point-per-second for track racing and then forgotten about it, usually.}

[Lightning Phil]

As a general rule, I feel reasonably confident that my eTrex will have recorded a track at the end of the ride, where I'm never quite sure when I use the Strava app or similar.

On Sat I thought my etrex hadn’t recorded the first 40 mins of my audax restart ride.  Then in a duh moment remembered that it archived the current track at midnight, and that I’d started before midnight to get to the start.  It was all there in the previous day archived track.

As a regular (at least before 2020 happened) night rider I hated that behaviour.  "Archive when full" makes more sense, except what happens is that you rarely cause the track memory to become full, so on the odd occasion^[1] it does happen you panic and think you've lost the data.

With the old HCx, you only had to care about the copy on the SD card, where it was clear that it had started a new file at midnight because of the filenames.  (It was also a lot more idiot/gloves proof against accidental deletion.)


_{[1] Because I've turned the logging to point-per-second for track racing and then forgotten about it, usually.}

Archive when full can still cause it to crash if you go beyond 10,000 track points in current tracklog. Had that happen on a 400 a few years back.  Hence why I have archive at midnight and usually have it also set to record less often.

[GusGF]

The problem with screen on only at turns is that there are plenty of turns where the map doesn’t recognise it as such.  So you’ll drift right past the turn unawares.

That's where the option to alert you if you stray more than x metres from your route comes in handy 

[frankly frankie]

The more I see of the 1030, my belief that the 705 was the Windows XP of Garmins is affirmed!

"Close, but no cigar" ??

[Kim]

The more I see of the 1030, my belief that the 705 was the Windows XP of Garmins is affirmed!

"Close, but no cigar" ??

"We all took the piss at the time, but in many ways it turned out to be the least worst version they came out with." ?

[Frank9755]

I hadn't thought of the crashiness thing.  Android things crash (or get silently killed by the OS) all the time, especially if there's Bluetooth involved.... 

As a general rule, I feel reasonably confident that my eTrex will have recorded a track at the end of the ride, where I'm never quite sure when I use the Strava app or similar.

This hasn't been an issue for me - I've done about 4,000 km with no crashes at all on my phone.

That may be because I'm using a dedicated phone with no other apps installed and which I don't use for any other processes apart from navigation, hence the OS doesn't ever get overloaded.

[Frank9755]

There may well be a simple case of economics for Garmin vs Samsung.  Samsung make and sell literally millions of phones annually so can surely manufacture to an economy of scale that Garmin or other manufacturers of similar equipment simply cannot.

I disagree. How many units do Garmin sell worldwide of each model? I'd wager a bet it's enough of an advantage to avail of economy of scale for each and every model. They are an established company with a pedigree (or NOT if you're of my opinion on Garmin as an innovator). I'll stick with my mobile thank you.

Garmin clearly makes millions of units but their market is more niche and restricted somewhat compared to the almost unbiquitous use of mobile phones.  I would reckon on Samsung being able to drive far greater economies of bulk manufacture than Garmin can.

The comparison I was making was Garmin vs Cubot, not Samsung. 

Granted, Cubot will buy their screens from someone with enormous scale, but their unit sales may not be bigger than Garmin