Android vs iOS

[Cayenne Redmonk]

Which do you have ?

Do you carry it everyday or backpacking only ?

Do you use a GPS app ?

Do you use the camera ?  Movie camera ?

[Stephen M]

Personal phone is Android and work one is IOS, much prefer Android.

[Paul Wagner]

Droid.  Don’t take it backpacking.  I go backpacking to avoid cellphones.

[Jeremy and Angela]

iOS, everyday, yes (Gaia), yes & yes.

Reasons:

1. Apple’s walled garden keeps me happy and coddled.
2. In terms of security, I am less than enthused with Android.

Waitaminute… you can also make calls on these things?  Huh!  Learn something new every day…

-J

[d k]

I use an Android (Galaxy S5), carry it with me most but not all days in “normal” life; I have taken it backpacking lately to use 1) Gaia GPS, and 2) the camera, which though not super high IQ (though at 16mp it’s better than any point-and-shoot cameras I’ve used up until the RX100) has a nice wide angle that is nice for scenery shots.  If I’m not that into doing photos on a trip, it’s the only camera I’ll take.  I do not use it for anything else on trips other than camera, GPS, and an alarm if I need one.  I don’t generally shoot videos.  I have extra batteries for the phone, though I mostly turn it on airplane mode so it doesn’t use a lot of power during the day.

 

[Dean F.]

I forced my wife to “go Apple” a few years ago so that I could get a rest from being her tech support.  (I love her, but that woman should never touch anything electronic.)  So now we have Macs, iPhones, and iPads, and she has one hell of a support account at the Genius Bar.  I got an iPhone, too, for consistency.

I carry the phone as an emergency backup GPS using Gaia, a camera, a rare music source, and of course a phone.  (I otherwise sort of enjoy map navigation, so the GPS is exactly that- for emergencies.)  It’s my everyday phone, but I’m certainly not leaving it in the car!

[Peter Boysen]

I use Android (Galaxy S6) for every day use, and Gaia for backpacking (mostly canoe camping trips in my case). The camera is decent enough for casual use (and WAY lighter than my Canon 5Dmk2 + lenses, though for more work-like trips where I need photos I’ll bring that anyway). Movies are decent, though I really only shoot video of my kids so not a pro user in that way.

I came from a Galaxy S3 with a huge add-on battery (it was a  much larger battery built into the phone case) that lasted forever, so battery life feels short to me, but the old battery lasted 4 days of daily use without recharging, so I was somewhat spoiled in that way.

[Shawn McDonald]

I’ve used every mobile platform there is over the years. I currently use Android for both daily use and on backpacking trips over iOS for a variety of reasons. The camera is good enough in most situations. I’m not interested in bringing along another camera. I don’t take videos because it drains the battery. I keep my phone in airplane mode most of the time to conserve battery life. I carry an Anker battery pack to charge my phone when needed. I use Gaia and/or Arcgis maps on rare occasions, but prefer to use paper maps and a compass the majority of the time.

[Ken Thompson]

All Mac all the time. Since the early Macintosh with tiny screens before the Internet. 1988 at least. Always works.

[Mike In Socal]

iOS.  Every day and backpacking as well.  I use Gaia GPS as well as Topo Maps.  I shoot lots of photos on my phone as well as movies in HD.  I can edit and publish on my phone as well.  I don’t try to escape from my phone when I go backpacking because I’m not a slave to my phone; my phone is the tool that lets me do the things I love to do: run, hike, backpack, take photos, share.

[Dale Wambaugh]

I carry an iPhone all the time and use the Gaia app for hiking and biking.

I have used an Android phone for work and it wasn’t as freindly or stable as the Apple. Android is much more tweakable if you like to play with such stuff.

 

[Garrett McLarty]

Use Android, but only Nexus.   Samsung has way too much bloatware and rarely updates their phones.  Same for most other non-nexus phones.

Oruxmaps is my go-to for maps and gps.    Free and open source and as far as I can tell, better than Gaia, Backcountry Navigator, etc.

At the same time, I am truly curious if those who use Gaia have tried Oruxmaps and Gaia and found Gaia to be better, or if they 20 cost of Gaia made them think it was better?

Gaia vs Oruxmaps, thoughts?

Peace

[Cody Hallenbeck]

I’m a big fan of using smartphones backpacking. I personally use Android devices mostly–a personal preference, honestly iOS devices are plenty appropriate as well. I’m using an LG G4 right now–picked  because it has a very good camera, SD card support, removable batteries, and charges fast, all good features for backpacking.

They just do so many useful things, and I never really feel tempted to dork around on them an inappropriate amount.

I use Backcountry Navigator for maps (Caltopo for planning and creating waypoints). Very useful and much better than a dedicated GPS unit in terms of screen quality and map quality. I of course also bring paper maps and a compass.

I am a big reader backpacking and the weight savings over paper books is substantial, and the slightly worse battery life over a dedicated e-reader is offset by the weight of the e-reader itself–there’s no comparison, this is definitely the lightest way to read lots of books on the trail. On airplane mode and with the text black on white, dimmed until its almost gray, battery life is really pretty excellent. I use Aldiko and the Kindle app for what its worth (I use a Kindle when not backpacking).

I’m not huge on music on the trail, but occasionally it can be very nice. One of my most sublime moments this year was listening to Frank Martin’s Mass for Double Choir in the Trinity Alps solo hiking off trail at an extremely windy lake sipping tea.

The camera quality on better smartphones is really pretty excellent, and tends to do pretty well with landscape photography. I found I particularly liked taking photos when solo hiking–gave me a reason to slow down occasionally instead of relentlessly mashing forward. I also found it useful to take pictures of various crux sections of cross country from different angles to help me route plan later.

I also have started hiking with a DeLorme Inreach SE and the ability to send messages with the linked phone is a lot more convenient (though I don’t really send noncritical messages when backpacking).

[Roger Caffin]

Usually, no phone at all.
Usually, no connection out there anyhow.

Cheers

 

[Justin Baker]

Roger, an iphone or android device is not just a phone. It’s a pocket sized computer with a camera and GPS capabilities that also happens to be able to make phone calls.

[Mike M]

Iphone 6 w/ a lifeproof case – 5.7 oz- has replaced my point & shoot camera (6.9 oz) and my handheld gps (5 oz); battery life is pretty good- after a 3 day trip I’ll usually have around 50% life left- using the gps 4-5 times a day and taking 100-ish photos; I’ll also use the alarm if I’m wanting to get up in the dark

 

oh and like Roger said it’ll make phone calls when you have service :)

[Mark]

Galaxy S7 Edge, usually with me all the time as my work involves being on-call a lot.

Don’t like not being able to swap out memory cards or batteries, so Iphone was a no go for for, saying that you can’t swap the battery on the S7 either.

[Mike M]

Iphone 6 w/ a lifeproof case – 5.7 oz- has replaced my point & shoot camera (6.9 oz) and my handheld gps (5 oz); battery life is pretty good- after a 3 day trip I’ll usually have around 50% life left- using the gps half a dozen times a day and taking 100-ish photos; I’ll also use the alarm if I’m wanting to get up in the dark

 

oh and like Roger said it’ll make phone calls when you have service :)

[Edgar H]

Garrett, I’m going to try Oruxmaps and get back to you about it compared with BCN. I’d love to try Gaia too but I’m not ready to pay for a redundant offline map app yet.

I upgraded to a galaxy S7 edge from an S5, the waterproofing was a good enough compensation for losing the removable battery feature,  for now.

Using Backcountry Navigator to double check position a few times a day,  and using the camera casually for maybe a half hour a day,  in airplane mode,  it seems that I’ll lose about 25% battery per day.

From what I’ve consistently heard, iPhones have a little bit better battery management.   Maybe it’s something about having one manufacturer for all iPhone models,  and walled garden of apps all optimized for the same device, consistency and optimization vs Android fragmentation.  Anyway, no matter,  I could never go iPhone and lose the free market of app designers, better a million monkeys developing apps and the market of users ranking their work then a small pool of geniuses deciding what to allow into the garden… Android has had USB host mode for years and years after all.  I think last year iPhone Finally came out with a pricy proprietary flash drive that allows an iPhone to see the drive in host mode, so better late than never.  – and I wouldn’t want to go without expandable  storage,  got an offline snapshot of Wikipedia (with images) from May 2016 that’s 52 Gb… Kiwix is the wondrous provider of that little gem. If I never recommended anything else, I’d want to recommend Kiwix and their multi platform, offline wiki browsers,  and various wiki snapshots. It’s wonderful if you like to play the Wikipedia game, starting with one topic and wandering through the links.

[Arthur]

I have loved these Apple/Windows/now Android conversations since the 80’s.  Kind of like discussing religion. Lots of opinions, no answers.

The people I meet on the trail with their phones remind me of my young kids with their security blankets. Just can’t leave home without them.

[Author]

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