GPS Why not a smart phone?
I am curious as to why a stand alone GPS still seems to be so popular. What with smart phones and tablets being readily available I would think that the stand alone units would sort of fade away. I me...
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JaxDad wrote:toedtoes wrote:JaxDad wrote:toedtoes wrote:JaxDad wrote:toedtoes wrote:SCVJeff wrote:toedtoes wrote:and with real GPS navigation software with the map files resident in the device, your display using a iPad/ tablet is far larger than most stand-alone GPS devices.
I believe that's what 04fxsts was saying. The phone screen is too small to be able to quickly see what needs to be seen. A device with a larger screen allows for a quick glance to check your bearings.
That's why I said "device" - I don't have or want a tablet, so the standalone GPS gives me the biggest screen possible. Others have/want a tablet.
It's like that MasterCard commercial.
Garmin 760LMT RV GPS with 7" screen, $648 at Wally-World.
Samsung 7" tablet $148 at Wally-World + Co-Pilot Live at $6.99 = $155
Saving $493 and having something useful when you're NOT driving......... PRICELESS.
I paid $180 for my GPS with forever map updating. I don't have to pay $30-$80 per month for connectivity with it.
As for something useful when i'm not driving, I don't find that the tablet does anything more than what the devices I already own do. So why buy yet another device?
What is priceless for one is no need for another. Doesn't make either of our choices wrong. The only wrong choice is basing your purchasing on someone else's reality and not your own.
Why (and for that matter, how) would you need to pay for "connectivity" for a tablet?
If I can only access the Internet on it at home or where I can find free WiFi, it isn't going to be very useful for all those "other things" for me. That means I have to pay more money for the 3g/4g connectivity to make it useful for me. To use it just as a GPS, I find the screen too big for my dash whereas I find the standalone a good fit - big enough to quickly see, not so big it gets in the way.
Again, I am not saying my way is the only way, or even the best - I am saying it is the best for me.
I must say, I'm not any less confused after your explanation. A stand-alone GPS can't connect to the Internet, free wifi or otherwise.
There's lots of memory-resident programs / functions / apps you can load on a tablet that you can't do so on a GPS.
What am I missing?
I don't need Internet for the GPS to do what it is meant to do. For a table to be useful to me for "those other things" that make it better than my standalone GPS, it needs to be able to connect to the Internet. Without the Internet, the tablet does nothing more for me than the standalone GPS - and the standalone GPS is a better size to fit on my dash than the tablet is, so there's no reason to go with a tablet.
