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Which Smartphone for Sailing

7K views 32 replies 21 participants last post by  Minnewaska 
#1 ·
I have tried to search for updated information on sailing apps and adaptability, but much of the information on non-iPhone apps and phones on these forums is old, and the market has jumped ahead in the last year.

So, my question is.... Which smartphone do you prefer for general use while sailing? This includes not only the availability of apps and map programs, but also the ease of use while sailing, screen brightness and limitations in the bright sun on the water, durability on the boat, and adaptability to any on-board electronics you may be connected to.

I have used the iPhone for several years, but with the new OS have found it slow, difficult, and buggy, and an now considering switching to an Android, or even a Windows phone, but don't know what is available for these platforms. I use navigation and charts on my phone as a convenient back up, multiple weather and wind applications, and even compass and race timing apps.

Any suggestions? Happy with your? Unhappy? Tell me why.
 
#5 ·
Which navigation app do you use on the Nexus? I assume the app could be used for any android phone as well.

I tend to agree with Chef. When it first came out, the iPhone was a great alternative to carrying about the larger iPad, but now there are so many options in that intermediate range around 7" that are much easier to view than the iPhone, and not as bulky as the iPad. Maybe that's the way to go for now.
 
#8 ·
Thanks. Read that article and the ideas are helpful, but phones have come a long way since the Palm OS and Blackberry talked about in that article.

Also considered the Samsung Note. I'll have a look at the navigation apps for that phone.
 
#9 ·
Windows Phone is sadly a little light on sailing apps. It doesn't have a Navionics port for instance or iNavX, or anything quite similar.

On the other hand it does have the "Nautical Charts" app, which is a phone version of the deepzoom.com website. It requires data access but is extremely useful for planning and checking tides. That website and the phone app have my favorite view of tides and currents by far.

I like my inexpensive Nokia 521 quite a bit, and by being inexpensive insurance was also dirt cheap ($20 for 2 years, which includes replacement if I get the device wet). That is pretty handy for sailing.
 
#10 · (Edited)
I use an IPad down stairs @ nav station only for pre-departure route planing, race instructions, etc. I do not use it for actual navigation, the GPS does that.

Few phones/tablets will take a splash without a third party case. None that I know of are sunlight viewable.

Re: the apps, I care most about waypoint and route management. Entry of course info from a race circular, loading all that into the GPS. Of the several charting apps I've tried, I've found most seriously lacking re: sensible waypoint and route management (lack pick lists, instead heavy on often gratuitous graphical eye candy). My current choice is iSailGPS. Waypoint and route management approximates a reasonable chart plotter, it can export to a GPX file.

I've also found I prefer raster charts. Chart features will not appear/disappear with zoom level.
 
#11 ·
If I wanted a smartphone for sailing or any "water" use I'd buy on the rare few that are waterproof, i.e. Motorola Deny, Samsung Rugby Pro, with the intention of using it as a phone. If I wanted a device to run apps, I'd by a 7" tablet with a bright screen and probably slap a waterproof housing on it. There are a few sold as water resistant but again not many. The extra screen size helps but they're still small enough to stick in a cargo pocket.
 
#12 ·
I believe the Apple devices still have the most apps available in general. I also like the seamless integration between my iPhone and iPad. Most of my apps work on both and I don't pay more for it.

Screen and device size are personal. For example, I don't want a large phone, even the 5S is becoming borderline to me. I want my phone to easily fit in a pocket and my hand. First and foremost, it's a phone to me.

Not many have extensive experience with many devices, including me. However, many insist that their choice is the best one. You'll just have to sort out the relative pros and cons.
 
#14 ·
I've got a Samsung Galaxy phone which is I reckon pretty damn good. While I've never used it for chart plotting, simply having a basic GPS function is no bad thing if your plotter goes down, you are coastal and have paper charts. Not much use offshore but that's another story.

Recently added a Nexus 7 tablet. Primarily bought it for e books but it does provide a half way decent screen for charts. I've been playing around with Plan2Nav. Seems pretty useful.
 
#26 ·
I've got a Samsung Galaxy phone which is I reckon pretty damn good. While I've never used it for chart plotting, simply having a basic GPS function is no bad thing if your plotter goes down, you are coastal and have paper charts. Not much use offshore but that's another story.

Recently added a Nexus 7 tablet. Primarily bought it for e books but it does provide a half way decent screen for charts. I've been playing around with Plan2Nav. Seems pretty useful.
Who is this Wombat fellow ? The man is a complete and utter moron. Any fool knows that the GPS function has absolutely nothing to do with cell phone range.

Of course I already knew that and was simply testing the rest of you.

:eek:
 
#15 ·
I have a galaxy s3 and love it for sailing. I use SailFlow for realtime wind data, Radar Now for realtime doppler and weather/wind forcasts, U.S Tides for tide data, and Marine Navigator Lite (free version) which uses NOAA charts and your phones gps for navigation, speed above ground etc..

The S4 is out now, but is not really worth the extra $$ as it is almost the same exact phone and not much of an upgrade.

I would not "rely" on my phone as a primary tool, it is more or a convience for me. I am in the Puget Sound so the vast majority of my navigation is dead reckoning in waters I am farmilliar with, but it is sure nice having all these tools in my front pocket.
 
#22 ·
I would not "rely" on my phone as a primary tool, it is more or a convience for me. I am in the Puget Sound so the vast majority of my navigation is dead reckoning in waters I am farmilliar with, but it is sure nice having all these tools in my front pocket.
I agree. I primarily use my iPhone (currently) and iPad as a back up to my chart plotter, but I have learned the hard way to use up to date paper charts when going into a harbor or area I'm not comfortable with, since many of the charts for the hand-helds are not accurate enough or not up to date.

Still, it is nice to be able to pull out the phone and check position (GPS function) as well as call up weather reports, radar, and even AIS at times. Plus I use the smartphone for racing rules and apps, and to take photos of certain points on land or lighthouse/buoys for later reference. In an ideal world, I'd buy a smart phone that integrated nicely with a good quality chart plotter..... I'm not sure we're there yet.
 
#16 ·
Galaxy S4. Very nice smartphone. Amazing camera quality. There were some differences over the S3 that pushed me to the S4.

I rarely use the laptop anymore, spend most of my online time on the S4. Wife uses samsung note tablet which is also nice and makes for a good back up chartplotter.
 
#18 ·
mine-
I would submit that any Apple device used on a boat, MUST be placed in a waterproof case. While this is a good idea for electronics on deck in general, it becomes mandatory for Apple products since Apple cleverly seals the battery inside and makes it relatively impossible for the user to remove the battery. Ensuring that if the phone gets wet, the user can do nothing to stop it from galvanic reactions destroying the phone internally.
First rule of a wet electronic gizmo: Pull all the batteries, immediately, to prevent them from chewing themselves up. By the time you get to a Geek Bar...it will be too late.
 
#20 ·
This is an interesting discussion for me as I am in the same process of looking for a best smartphone/tablet to be used on a boat. If I am not mistaken the GPS feature works as part of the 4G/cellular connectivity, so I guess it won't work on the open where there is no cellular reception, am I right?

Any experiences with using boating apps on KindleFire, compatibility issues etc? I like the new HDX, it has a nice hi-res screen and it looks to be pretty fast as well.
 
#23 ·
If I am not mistaken the GPS feature works as part of the 4G/cellular connectivity, so I guess it won't work on the open where there is no cellular reception, am I right?
I can only speak for Apple products, but for both iPads and iPhones this is *not* the case. The iPad model that comes with 4G also comes with a GPS receiver, but they are not related. It will use cell towers and WiFi networks to establish a position quicker, but the GPS works fine without them. In fact when I'm on a trip I turn off 4G and WiFi to save battery.
 
#21 ·
Washing machine? A thousand year ago I sent a cheap Bulova Caravelle wristwatch through the wash, still in my bathrobe pocket. Once I snapped the crystal back on it ran just fine, but that doesn't mean this is a recommended procedure.

Standard advice, with good reason, from every (every!) electronics maker and repair shop, is if you get electronics wet, pull the battery AT ONCE to prevent damage. A particular device may or may not suffer immediate damage, but you've got no way to tell that unless you te$t a couple of them. And bear in mind, salt water is a much better electrolyte than the potable water in your washing machine. Much greater potential for damage.
 
#24 ·
"If I am not mistaken the GPS feature works as part of the 4G/cellular connectivity, so I guess it won't work on the open where there is no cellular reception, am I right?"

Five year ago, that could be said of most or all of the phones on the US market. While the rest of the world was using phones that directly accessed and resolved GPS data, the US cellular carriers (the carriers, not the phone makers) all required the GPS sets to be crippled in the US version of the phones, so that US phone suckers, ergh, customers, had to pay an extra $10 per month to the carrier to use the GPS data. Since the phones only contained the GPS receiver, they had to connect to the carrier network to resolve the data and give you a position.
Nice way to pick your pockets, isn't it? And they swore that would never change.

Then the carriers found out they didn't have enough data capacity to deal with a stream of GPS requests, so they allowed US-market phones to carry independent GPS capabilities. Now, pretty much all of the smartphones in the US use multiple AGPS (assisted-GPS) modes when they can, and direct GPS (standalone) mode when the network is not available.

I'd assume that means the older iPhones were all carrier-compliant and required AGPS, while the newer ones certainly do not. Maybe the change came in around the 3rd generation?
 
#28 ·
"If I am not mistaken the GPS feature works as part of the 4G/cellular connectivity, so I guess it won't work on the open where there is no cellular reception, am I right?"

Five year ago, that could be said of most or all of the phones on the US market. While the rest of the world was using phones that directly accessed and resolved GPS data, the US cellular carriers (the carriers, not the phone makers) all required the GPS sets to be crippled in the US version of the phones, so that US phone suckers, ergh, customers, had to pay an extra $10 per month to the carrier to use the GPS data.
That's not true at all.

The calculations to get an initial GPS position fix are very complex. If you had a dashbord GPS navigation unit from the mid-2000s, it took a minute or two to do those calculations. Even on the 2010 Garmin I bought my parents, it takes about 30 seconds. Phones, which are designed to stay on for 16-24 hours vs. a few hours for a handheld GPS, simply didn't have the processing power to do those calculations in even a couple minutes.

Rather than force you to wait a a few minutes every time you turned on the GPS, the phone companies came up with assisted GPS. In A-GPS, the phone transmits the GPS satellite data to the tower, a big computer there does the difficult calculations in a couple seconds, and transmits the coordinates back to the phone.

Then the carriers found out they didn't have enough data capacity to deal with a stream of GPS requests, so they allowed US-market phones to carry independent GPS capabilities.
The GPS data needs to be sent to the tower only for the initial position fix (when you first turn on GPS in a new location). After the phone has the intial position, the relative position changes are a lot easier to calculate and are done on the phone. Even an early-2000 phone can do those calculations on its own in real-time. Once the phone had its initial position, you could turn off its data and (provided you had the maps pre-loaded) it could track your movement just fine. That's how I used my 2004 flip phone with A-GPS to navigate to a destination in Canada, where I had no data service there. I just made sure not to turn the navigation app off after I'd crossed the border.

So A-GPS has almost no impact on data capacity.

I'd assume that means the older iPhones were all carrier-compliant and required AGPS, while the newer ones certainly do not. Maybe the change came in around the 3rd generation?
Processors are a lot faster now and the phones can calculate the initial position in a reasonable amount of time.
 
#25 ·
I have a Sony Xperia (Android). Waterproof to a meter or so, plenty good enough for use in the cockpit. Nice size, not too big, not too small, nice bright screen, pretty tough (have dropped it onto stone floors a few times now with no visible damage). Proper GPS, I like it. I have the Navionics app on it, along with a few generally useful GPS applications, forecasts etc.
Only issue I have found is the GPS can take an age to get a fix.
I wouldn't use it as my primary tool on the boat, anything handheld is always at risk of going for a swim, but as a "pull out to look at other areas of the chart without messing with my plotter/paper", or a check on the forecast device it's great.
 
#27 ·
I pad for integration and second Chartplotter also downloads to my Raymarine Chartplotter through Bluetooth.

I prefer Droid HTC One. Big, bright clear screen much lighter, thinner, and larger screen than I phone. Use it mostly in discussions at table as I pad is larger and easier to use on the bat as a secondary source.

Navionics on all three devices, I Los have Grmin blue charts on I pad for active captain, but I like Navionics charts better, epecially the currents feature.
 
#29 ·
Just to add to Solandri's post, if you have no cell coverage or just don't subscribe to a cell plan at all, the GPS receiver will still work with the same precision. It simply takes a bit longer to make that initial fix, then you would never know the difference.

I'm sometimes amazed at how much misinformation there is on this. I think there are a couple of reasons. First, early generation smart phones had the ability to estimate your location based on cell towers, or something like that. Very inaccurate, but in the day, it was amazing to see that the phone even knew what town you were in! Second, devices like the iPad only include the GPS receiver in the model that has the cell receiver. They are completely independent, but bundled together, so some think one is necessary for the other to work.
 
#32 ·
if you have no cell coverage or just don't subscribe to a cell plan at all, the GPS receiver will still work with the same precision.
...
I'm sometimes amazed at how much misinformation there is on this.
Agreed. Part of it may come from people not realizing that you have to download the charts while you have WiFi so that the GPS will work when you're out of range.

I also wonder if Garmin et al don't subtly encourage this thinking... After all, they have single-purpose devices to sell that are being rapidly made obsolete by phones and tablets.
 
#30 ·
I used an HTC Evo 4g for over a year with good results until it died. Replaced it with the Galaxy S3 last November. I like the processor's speed but prefer the HTC user interface. I use Marine Navigator ( purchase version) and am quite happy with it. I've got all the NOAA charts for the Chesapeake Bay in raster form on the phone's micro SD card. Marine Navigator exports and imports .gpx files, so I can pre-plan races or set waypoints on my computer and then move them over or vice-versa. It also has a rouge editor, route follower and track capability but they're a bit cumbersome at times. I have run the phone with all the radios turned off except for the GPS receiver and got over 12 hours of use in the cockpit. I also use Windfinder (free version), Marine Traffic (free), Raindar (free) and Marine Tides (free). I've also got a bookmark to the Annapolis NOAA buoy real-time data page. With all that said, I minimize my phone use whilst at the wheel, I prefer to navigate using my eyes, the compass and shore references. Speaking of compasses, phones and tablets will cause significant deviation in the ship's compass readings.
 
#31 ·
Whichever one you get, get a waterproof case for it.

My Iphone went tits up this weekend when I soaked it in salt water. Crap!
 
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