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Hi. I already have a Garmin 76CsX, a Magellan eXPlorist 3310, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, a HP Elitepad 900, an Asus tab of some sort and an Asus Zenfone2. My wife has an iPad 2 and an iPhone 6. We have "the app" on all. Whilst I love my dedicated gps units, we travel full-time and like travelling light when we are off our boat. This means, usually, using only our phones.

She's not giving up on her i-anything and I'm not buying any of their **** but my Asus phone, although 8 months old, has serious flaws already so I'm looking to replace it.

Any tips on a good Android phone for caching? Not interested in dedicated gps unit vs phone - I already know that. Just anyone's experiences with an Android that they think works well. Opinions gratefully considered. Hoges

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Hi. I already have a Garmin 76CsX, a Magellan eXPlorist 3310, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, a HP Elitepad 900, an Asus tab of some sort and an Asus Zenfone2. My wife has an iPad 2 and an iPhone 6. We have "the app" on all. Whilst I love my dedicated gps units, we travel full-time and like travelling light when we are off our boat. This means, usually, using only our phones.

She's not giving up on her i-anything and I'm not buying any of their **** but my Asus phone, although 8 months old, has serious flaws already so I'm looking to replace it.

Any tips on a good Android phone for caching? Not interested in dedicated gps unit vs phone - I already know that. Just anyone's experiences with an Android that they think works well. Opinions gratefully considered. Hoges

 

Through experience and hearsay I'd say any of the latest models are fine. Go high end Samsung. The cost is a one-time expense of a bit more, but you avoid the risk of disappointment. In fact, you'll be thrilled.

 

And you seem to own enough devices to conduct your own once-and-for-all definitive study to end all studies! :D

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Hi. I already have a Garmin 76CsX, a Magellan eXPlorist 3310, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, a HP Elitepad 900, an Asus tab of some sort and an Asus Zenfone2. My wife has an iPad 2 and an iPhone 6. We have "the app" on all. Whilst I love my dedicated gps units, we travel full-time and like travelling light when we are off our boat. This means, usually, using only our phones.

She's not giving up on her i-anything and I'm not buying any of their **** but my Asus phone, although 8 months old, has serious flaws already so I'm looking to replace it.

Any tips on a good Android phone for caching? Not interested in dedicated gps unit vs phone - I already know that. Just anyone's experiences with an Android that they think works well. Opinions gratefully considered. Hoges

 

I have the Samsung S6 and it is great. I do not use the Groundspeak app; I found it much too limited. I have been using CacheSense for years, and really like it. There are some other good apps for Android that work very well, too. I usually use my Garmin for navigating and the phone for reading descriptions and logs, posting, satellite views, etc. For impromptu caching, I'll just use the phone and it has always been very accurate.

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do you prefer:

 

replaceable battery

sdcard slot

5" /4" smaller/larger display

$$$$$ or $

waterproof

rugged

and lastly, which carrier?

 

I thought I had this set to notify when I got a response but obviously I didn't. Sorry for the delay, I just saw these when I went to find out why I had no responses and found them.

SD Card Slot. Screen not that important. Waterproof don't care. Rugged - not so much. No carrier - use prepaid, constantly changing countries - back in Spain now from Ireland and headed to Morocco in a couple of weeks, weather permitting.

Hoges

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Hi. I already have a Garmin 76CsX, a Magellan eXPlorist 3310, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, a HP Elitepad 900, an Asus tab of some sort and an Asus Zenfone2. My wife has an iPad 2 and an iPhone 6. We have "the app" on all. Whilst I love my dedicated gps units, we travel full-time and like travelling light when we are off our boat. This means, usually, using only our phones.

She's not giving up on her i-anything and I'm not buying any of their **** but my Asus phone, although 8 months old, has serious flaws already so I'm looking to replace it.

Any tips on a good Android phone for caching? Not interested in dedicated gps unit vs phone - I already know that. Just anyone's experiences with an Android that they think works well. Opinions gratefully considered. Hoges

 

I have the Samsung S6 and it is great. I do not use the Groundspeak app; I found it much too limited. I have been using CacheSense for years, and really like it. There are some other good apps for Android that work very well, too. I usually use my Garmin for navigating and the phone for reading descriptions and logs, posting, satellite views, etc. For impromptu caching, I'll just use the phone and it has always been very accurate.

 

I can't put a card in a Samsung - if they made a slot for one, I'd buy it. Thanks for the other hint on CacheSense. I'm not a fan of the App either and have been known to complain about it in the past (given up trying to get a response now). I'd use the same combo as you in an ideal world but when we travel off the boat we really, really, really cut down what we take so that we board planes with carry-on only for 10-day trips even. (not on US airlines, though!)

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Hi. I already have a Garmin 76CsX, a Magellan eXPlorist 3310, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, a HP Elitepad 900, an Asus tab of some sort and an Asus Zenfone2. My wife has an iPad 2 and an iPhone 6. We have "the app" on all. Whilst I love my dedicated gps units, we travel full-time and like travelling light when we are off our boat. This means, usually, using only our phones.

She's not giving up on her i-anything and I'm not buying any of their **** but my Asus phone, although 8 months old, has serious flaws already so I'm looking to replace it.

Any tips on a good Android phone for caching? Not interested in dedicated gps unit vs phone - I already know that. Just anyone's experiences with an Android that they think works well. Opinions gratefully considered. Hoges

 

Through experience and hearsay I'd say any of the latest models are fine. Go high end Samsung. The cost is a one-time expense of a bit more, but you avoid the risk of disappointment. In fact, you'll be thrilled.

 

And you seem to own enough devices to conduct your own once-and-for-all definitive study to end all studies! :D

 

The Garmin would be a world beater for me if it had better connectivity but obviously it's very old now. Still works great. The Majellan is a bit small for my hand/s; I thought it would be ok but it's better for my wife to use. The tablets are a bit unwieldy but OK. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 is good. My ASUS phone is not so good, mostly on refresh rates. A Samsung phone with a slot would be my choice but they refuse to put a slot in a phone. Hoges

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do you prefer:

 

replaceable battery

sdcard slot

5" /4" smaller/larger display

$$$$$ or $

waterproof

rugged

and lastly, which carrier?

 

I thought I had this set to notify when I got a response but obviously I didn't. Sorry for the delay, I just saw these when I went to find out why I had no responses and found them.

SD Card Slot. Screen not that important. Waterproof don't care. Rugged - not so much. No carrier - use prepaid, constantly changing countries - back in Spain now from Ireland and headed to Morocco in a couple of weeks, weather permitting.

Hoges

 

a regular old Samsung Galaxy s2 will work fine for you then. it has replaceable battery, sdcard slot, and tmobile radio frequencies, if you ever care to put a sim in it. the gps antenna and compass are very good. about $50 on eBay

 

if you decide you want waterproof, check the Casio c811 or Samsung rugby pro. they both are waterproof, sdcard, replaceable battery. about $30 on eBay

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do you prefer:

 

replaceable battery

sdcard slot

5" /4" smaller/larger display

$$$$$ or $

waterproof

rugged

and lastly, which carrier?

 

I thought I had this set to notify when I got a response but obviously I didn't. Sorry for the delay, I just saw these when I went to find out why I had no responses and found them.

SD Card Slot. Screen not that important. Waterproof don't care. Rugged - not so much. No carrier - use prepaid, constantly changing countries - back in Spain now from Ireland and headed to Morocco in a couple of weeks, weather permitting.

Hoges

 

a regular old Samsung Galaxy s2 will work fine for you then. it has replaceable battery, sdcard slot, and tmobile radio frequencies, if you ever care to put a sim in it. the gps antenna and compass are very good. about $50 on eBay

 

if you decide you want waterproof, check the Casio c811 or Samsung rugby pro. they both are waterproof, sdcard, replaceable battery. about $30 on eBay

 

Thanks for that. Will look for one in October when we are back in Oz

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I have been curious about the Blackview 6000 - not as a primary phone but as something to take camping, kayaking, or traveling out of the country. GPS + GLONASS, IP68 waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, 4.7 inch Gorilla Glass, 4200 mAH battery, 13 MP camera, 2.0GHz Octa Core. I am not sure I need to get anything beyond what I use now, but I have looked at this and wonder about it.

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I have been curious about the Blackview 6000 - not as a primary phone but as something to take camping, kayaking, or traveling out of the country. GPS + GLONASS, IP68 waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, 4.7 inch Gorilla Glass, 4200 mAH battery, 13 MP camera, 2.0GHz Octa Core. I am not sure I need to get anything beyond what I use now, but I have looked at this and wonder about it.

 

the specs sound good, but the high production run phones (Samsung /iPhone) will usually have more aftermarket support (batteries/cases/screen protectors/etc)

 

i am curious though since it's LISTing Android latest. (auto complete said it was HANGing Android latest, funny but wong ;-)

Edited by ohgood
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I have been curious about the Blackview 6000 - not as a primary phone but as something to take camping, kayaking, or traveling out of the country. GPS + GLONASS, IP68 waterproof, shockproof, dustproof, 4.7 inch Gorilla Glass, 4200 mAH battery, 13 MP camera, 2.0GHz Octa Core. I am not sure I need to get anything beyond what I use now, but I have looked at this and wonder about it.

 

the specs sound good, but the high production run phones (Samsung /iPhone) will usually have more aftermarket support (batteries/cases/screen protectors/etc)

 

i am curious though since it's LISTing Android latest. (auto complete said it was HANGing Android latest, funny but wong ;-)

 

I went ahead and decided to try the Blackview as a wi-fi only device. It seemed a bit frivolous since its use will be limited, but I told myself it was much cheaper than a new Oregon or a Monterra. Very fast. A good display. The large battery was more than enough for a six hour kayaking/caching adventure. I started using it along side of my Oregon 600 but there was little or no difference between the two devices. I ended up leaving the Oregon hooked on the yak (like a dashboard gpsr) and used the Blackview when I needed to hop out of the boat to get a cache. The caching app (GCDroid) and offline mapping that I use worked seamlessly with it.

 

Its rear camera is listed as 13 mp but the photo apps report it as being 18 mp. I like the pictures I took with the Blackview when I was island hopping or out on the water. I don't think it did as well as my iphone under very low light conditions. We finished the trip with a float through a marble tunnel that had been cut by a stream -- I took a picture or two with the Blackview but cautiously used the iphone instead.

 

It came with an extra screen protector, some extra parts (like another cover for the charging or headphone plug that will keep it waterproof if the original gets damaged), and extra screws in case one is dropped while changing a SIM or SD card). Although the battery is not user-replaceable in the field, separate batteries are sold. I may eventually get one since this appears to be a keeper.

 

Its heavy and bulky for a phone. The drop-protection acts like a separate case. Still, that came in handy. As I was getting out of the boat at the end of our second day on the water, I dropped the Blackview into the lake. The last time I did that with the iphone, I had to get a new phone. This time, I just picked it up and went to help my wife get out of her kayak. No issue.

 

It will not replace the iphone. I have not found anything I like as well as the caching app I use on the iphone, not to mention various photo apps. But its nice on the water. I'll take it with me hiking or when outdoors in the rain. And I will use it with a SIM card on our next trip abroad, although sadly there are no plans for that anytime soon. In fact, I liked it so much that I am being tempted by a relatively inexpensive data-only plan that works with the Blackview -- I am just not sure whether I would use enough data to justify it.

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it's pretty rare to hear an iPhone user praise an Android device, so i was surprised by your review being so positive. (thanks for the review)

 

was the display good enough to use in full sunlight?

 

did you check to see what it's normal gps accuracy was while caching?

 

was the compass reliable?

 

have you tried using it with a sim card yet, and did it support lte when you did?

 

thanks!

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it's pretty rare to hear an iPhone user praise an Android device, so i was surprised by your review being so positive. (thanks for the review)

 

was the display good enough to use in full sunlight?

 

did you check to see what it's normal gps accuracy was while caching?

 

was the compass reliable?

 

have you tried using it with a sim card yet, and did it support lte when you did?

 

thanks!

 

I just went outside to do a direct comparison with the iPhone. The Blackview screen has more glare in direct sunlight and is a little harder to read, but when I was out on the water I simply moved it within my own shadow or that of a tree. It was usable in the direct sun, whether taking a picture or looking at the caching app, not as good when compared to the iPhone or Oregon. Otherwise it has a very sharp screen.

 

It's reported accuracy was very good - in the caching app the compass is now showing +/- 7 feet in an urban environment with tall buildings. The Blackview shows where I am on the map. When I used the Blackview in the field, the app's compass was consistent with the Oregon in terms of direction and distance.

 

I think I will end up trying the data only SIM card. Where I live, the Blackview should work fine with T-Mobile or AT&T - or the various services that use their networks. Wiith a vacation coming up, it might be handy to have data service in addition to wifi. Mostly it is probably just an excuse to play around with it since I am not relying on it as my primary device.

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Hi. I already have a Garmin 76CsX, a Magellan eXPlorist 3310, a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, a HP Elitepad 900, an Asus tab of some sort and an Asus Zenfone2. My wife has an iPad 2 and an iPhone 6. We have "the app" on all. Whilst I love my dedicated gps units, we travel full-time and like travelling light when we are off our boat. This means, usually, using only our phones.

She's not giving up on her i-anything and I'm not buying any of their **** but my Asus phone, although 8 months old, has serious flaws already so I'm looking to replace it.

Any tips on a good Android phone for caching? Not interested in dedicated gps unit vs phone - I already know that. Just anyone's experiences with an Android that they think works well. Opinions gratefully considered. Hoges

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I started geocaching with an Etrex Legend 12 years ago. Loved geocaching, but it was definitely a challenge having to manually or cable download caches into the unit. I had not done a lot of geocaching the past 3-4 years for medical and other reasons. Though I love technology, I did not start using my smart phone till about 1 1/2 years ago. I initially had the Geocaching Classic App. I was not real happy with that app and then started using the Groundspeak app this summer and have been very happy with it. The one thing I have not been able to figure out is how to mark waypoints or get coordinates for a cache that I want to place. I occasionally have had to shade the screen to see it, but other than that it has been great. It makes finding the hundreds of micros that are now out their much easier.

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You need a separate app for getting coordinates. If you own a GPS, particularly a newer GPS with waypoint averaging, you might get better readings for placing caches. But any app on your phone that allows for waypoint averaging will do too. As I use a GPS, I don't know what those apps are (Locus pro maybe?).

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I started geocaching with an Etrex Legend 12 years ago. Loved geocaching, but it was definitely a challenge having to manually or cable download caches into the unit. I had not done a lot of geocaching the past 3-4 years for medical and other reasons. Though I love technology, I did not start using my smart phone till about 1 1/2 years ago. I initially had the Geocaching Classic App. I was not real happy with that app and then started using the Groundspeak app this summer and have been very happy with it. The one thing I have not been able to figure out is how to mark waypoints or get coordinates for a cache that I want to place. I occasionally have had to shade the screen to see it, but other than that it has been great. It makes finding the hundreds of micros that are now out their much easier.

 

for getting better coordinates, try "GPS averaging" on the market.

 

for awesome, every day usable mapping while completely offline (handles caches in a very slick database, along with map overlays, tracks, routes, waypoints, etc) try locus or locus pro. it's NOT a subscription based app, you user it for free, or pay only once, and you can continue to build your database over the years, without worry of ever running or of room, and transfer it to the next device very easily.

 

for geocaching specific stuff, check out "geocaching tools"

 

for more maps, see " locus map tweak"

 

for offline routing, everywhere in the world "brouter"

 

it just goes on and on, better and better, the more you use it, and your waypoints/caches/stuff is yours, no matter what happens to the official app.

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Currently using a Samsung mini S3 (nice and compact). Touring Spain and Portugal I am using 'gdak' with a database of 14425 of caches. Really easy to use and pretty good accuracy. Impressed with 'gdak' as to how quickly it logs into geocaching.com to post 'found it' logs.

Using a 'windows' tablet and 'gsak' with the same database to transfer small gpx files to my etrex. but the phone setup is working well.

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Currently using a Samsung mini S3 (nice and compact). Touring Spain and Portugal I am using 'gdak' with a database of 14425 of caches. Really easy to use and pretty good accuracy. Impressed with 'gdak' as to how quickly it logs into geocaching.com to post 'found it' logs.

Using a 'windows' tablet and 'gsak' with the same database to transfer small gpx files to my etrex. but the phone setup is working well.

 

cool, when you get a chance, do a write up of the transfer process between the tablet and stand alone. there are still plenty of people looking for how to do stuff like that :-)

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Hi. Fairly new to this and loving it! I currently find traditional caches on my Samsung Galaxy using the Geocache app, which works great. However, I would like to start finding multis / mysteries etc so need to be able to plug the coordinates into my phone. Do you have any recommendations of the best apps to do this? Thanks! Oh, I'm in the UK.

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Hi. Fairly new to this and loving it! I currently find traditional caches on my Samsung Galaxy using the Geocache app, which works great. However, I would like to start finding multis / mysteries etc so need to be able to plug the coordinates into my phone. Do you have any recommendations of the best apps to do this? Thanks! Oh, I'm in the UK.

 

You can enter additional waypoints in the Geocaching app.

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$30 Optimus Fuel phone works very good for geocaching and Wherigo. Picks up both GPS and GLONASS, electronic compass and balance sensor, unlimited geocaching storage or live geocaching when you have 3g access. It's incredible for the price. I can only imagine a higher end unit being better.

 

The one thing with cellphones is making sure to turn off the battery saving modes because that will shut down your GPS and it will have to reacquire the satellites. And of course, having the ability to keep your phone charged out in the field.

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My Droid Turbo 2 is good for geocaching. Screen can NOT be cracked if dropped. I put a 200 GB microSD card in the phone so there is definitely plenty of storage. The phone gets me every bit as close as my dedicated 78s. (Still have my 76CSx but I left it on the hood of the truck a few too many times when driving away and the compass freaks out so I have to turn it off and back on again to find out where the dang cache is.)

 

My only complaint with using the phone is the "new and improved" geocaching app. I liked the old one. The new one pi$$3$ me off.

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