What is the advantage of having a dedicated phone vs using your everyday phone?
this post was submitted on 23 Dec 2023
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I've seen a few people online talking about having a dedicated GPS device for mapping, since I don't need a dedicated GPS device for the type of mapping I'm doing, I thought of possibly getting another phone. That's why I came here, I wanted to get another opinion on it and see if it would actually be beneficial.
That was like 15 years ago, wasn't it?
Probably
The everyday phone doesn't run out of juice.
I rather recommend a powerbank then
I rather recommend a powerbank then
And be tethered to a cable all the time? In my case, the GPX recording phone is in my backpack (where there's also a powerbank) and the main phone is for listening to music and taking photos without the annoying cable in the way all the time.
I do not, but I've seen people do this. Why can't you use Street complete?
There isn’t a version for iPhone unfortunately
There's https://mapcomplete.org/ that is all web-based if that helps.
I’ll give that a go, thanks for sharing!
Also, there's work going on to get StreetComplete working on iOS: https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/5421
I usually map from a tablet (which I also use for other purposes), not phone. I find Vespucci pretty much unusable on a phone screen.
Definitely nothing wrong with that. People have spent way more outrageous amounts of money on other hobbies so just go for it.
If the expense is worth it to you, there is no reason not to. And you'll likely find other uses for the secondary phone too.
If you ever want to do more serious surveying, look into what people are doing with RTK antennas and their smartphones. There are definitely some interesting options for very serious centimeter-accurate surveying that can be done with just a smartphone and an external RTK antenna.
The antenna sounds interesting, I’ll have a look into that!
I have got a second one mainly for mapping, because i want to use a stylus during cold winter (with gloves) and hot summer with sweaty fingers. I hate touch inputs and with the stylus it works easier. This phone also has an SD card slot for all the different map apps, their map data and the OsmTracker photos.
I didn’t think about that but that would actually help a whole lot during winter
I have a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE which has a lange screen and battery (it works fine for me, only charging to 85%). I have a bulkier spigen case on it, and have dropped it several times yet, no damage.
I have been thinking about buying an S23 Ultra or a Galaxy fold, but I would just risk to destroy more money.
If I would buy an additional device it would be a used 10" tablet for mapping.
Also an interesting approach would be a #NexDock which I never tried, but might even work like a tablet but as screen and input device for my existing phone, which would make switching during mapping more easy.
At the moment I only do #StreetComplete on the go, and maybe #mapcomplete while sitting in a restaurant for example.
Why don't you get a proper android phone?
What do you mean?
You wrote that you want to get a cheap android. Why not getting a more expensive one and replace the iphone?
I don’t have a need to replace the iPhone outright yet, I’ve only had it for just under a year.
If anything happened to a cheap phone while I’m out, I won’t be overly concerned
You can think about getting an 2nd hand Android Phone. If go for one which has broken sound/microfon/camera you may can get a pretty solid device for cheap money.
Recommondation for sure is Google Pixel Phone which have long term updates and you can play arround with alternative Android versions like GrapheneOS.
You can do whatever you like.
Following are thoughts about it.
When I go to a POI and have a spare second, I check if it's up to date. You have to have your second phone with you at all times in order to do that.
When walking around and mapping the world, you have your phone in your hands. Usually it doesn't just fall down. In case, there are covers for the glass and the case which protect the phone.
For the price of the iphone you get an equally powerful android and a good side phone. It doesn't need to be powerful for mapping but it helps if it has good specs to show data in osmand. SC doesn't need too much ressources