The above video was from my iPhone 12 Pro Max. The very wide screens on these newer phones work well with the app, plenty of room on the side for the map menu. One of my goals is to always keep the map on the screen. Notice that when the menu is open, the map window is re-sized (instead of being covered up) and your position remains in the center of the smaller map.
After so much testing on iOS, I felt I needed an Android device. Have been interested in Chinese rugged Android phones for awhile, so this was the perfect excuse to get one.
BlackView is one of the better-known brands, but their cheaper phones have under-powered processors and have not gotten good reviews. After comparing different brands until my head was spinning, I got an
Ulefone Armor X7 Pro from their company store at Amazon. I think it was $139 - there are cheaper sellers, and you can save a lot if you don't mind ordering direct from China. But the instant gratification from next-day delivery was just too tempting.
I really like this phone, it has a 5" screen and the width and height are about the same as my Montana 600 but only about half as thick, and of course, the Montana screen is only 4". The rugged construction has a nice feel and the IP68 rating means it has been tested at depths over 1 meter for an extended period - you can take underwater pictures with this phone, but I have not tried the camera and the reviews were bad. 4gb RAM and 32gb internal storage, which is pretty decent for a cheap phone. Storage can be extended with an SD card.
Of course the screen doesn't fare too well in bright sunlight. Definitely not as bright as my new iPhone, or even my 5 year old iPhone. Will be using it in the coming weeks to get a feeling for how much of a problem that is. But the price was (literally) 1/10 of a premium iPhone, so you can only expect so much...
What's better than a cheap, rugged phone? Answer: TWO cheap, rugged phones!
I just received this
Oukitel WP5 two days ago, Amazon was selling it directly as a refurb with full guarantee for $115 IIRC. Same processor as the Ulefone but a 5.5" screen and a HUGE battery (8000mAH vs 4000mAH for the Ulefone). It's bigger and heavier than the Ulefone, but still manageable. Also 4gb RAM and 32gb internal storage plus a card slot.
Haven't gotten any cell service for either of these, am using my iPhone as a wifi hotspot. This is also a nice phone, the bigger screen would be better for vehicle use. Brightness is about the same as the Ulefone, maybe slightly less. Guessing you might get 12 hours continuous GPS use out of that big battery? Will have to do some real world testing.
I have this crazy idea that I could install all my maps on one of these phones and flash it with my own custom software, so it would just be a GPS. Push power button, head into the pines. With a memory card and I could fit all my maps on the GPS for use with no cell signal. Could also use cell service for additional maps.
We shall see. For now, I'll just concentrate on putting a beta version of my app online by the end of the year. Don't expect too much from the beta, it will just have the basic functions as shown in the videos. I look at this as a 6 to 12 month project, and only started writing maptalks-based code on December 1. Garmin and Gaia certainly don't have anything to worry about.... yet.
