GPS phone

nipon

I am just about to upgrade my mobile phone and was thinking about one with gps, are they any good and can anyone recomend me one.Chears.

amaferanga

Any good for what?

bompington

Drove round europe last summer with nothing but the gps maps on my Nokia N95, the screen's a bit small but it worked fine. There are a lot more gps phones out there now which I assume are at least as good if not better.

bikedude

o2 xda orbit 1 or 2 have windows mobile as the operating system, I use one and have tomtom installed, works really well...

any smartphone with windows OS 6+ will suffice, just choose your preferred style....

HTH

MontyCC

N95 8GB!!!

I use it with a sporting app called Nokia Sports Tracker. It's simply awesome as it tracks and maps your ride and spits out lots of useful stats. Can be used in place of a cycle computer but haven't found a bike holder for it yet so I just keep it in my pocket!!

My stats: https://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/use ... u=MontyN95

The Northern Monkey

the iPhone has an ap called Trails - MTB that can track, map, load GPX files etc etc.

Can also load recorded rides onto mapmyride to monitor progress

bikedude

MontyCC wrote:

N95 8GB!!!

I use it with a sporting app called Nokia Sports Tracker. It's simply awesome as it tracks and maps your ride and spits out lots of useful stats. Can be used in place of a cycle computer but haven't found a bike holder for it yet so I just keep it in my pocket!!

My stats: https://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/use ... u=MontyN95

Sounds great that application.... but looking at your stats, you either are able to ride through gardens and over houses or the mapping is not too accurate!

If the mapping is not accurate then are the stats reliable?

MontyCC

bikedude wrote:

MontyCC wrote:

N95 8GB!!!

I use it with a sporting app called Nokia Sports Tracker. It's simply awesome as it tracks and maps your ride and spits out lots of useful stats. Can be used in place of a cycle computer but haven't found a bike holder for it yet so I just keep it in my pocket!!

My stats: https://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/use ... u=MontyN95

Sounds great that application.... but looking at your stats, you either are able to ride through gardens and over houses or the mapping is not too accurate!

If the mapping is not accurate then are the stats reliable?

It's as accurate as any GPS device is going to be! Normal GPS devices (satnavs) uses the software to cover this up by approximating and fixing your location to the roads. But obviously this doesn't do that as you're not always on the road.
But I also have tomtom, garmin and copilot and they all approximate your location to the nearest road for eg when I'm on a train

But yeah, I don't always stick to the roads either

lfcquin

Sportstracker on the Nokia is as accurate as any other computer. I use it to track my rides and when riding with the club, speed, distance etc are all in line with others standard computers, garmin devices etc.

Don't be fooled when you drill into the maps on the website they don't always track the road, but it doesn't mean its not accurate.

JonS123

I own a htc kaiser (same phone just different name as the o2 xda I think) and I use some software at : http://aeguerre.free.fr/Public/PocketPC ... /index.php the software should work on any windows mobile phone with a gps unit

This then lets me export the data as a gpx file to plot/log it as I please

One thing to think about is how long you will want it to be tracking for, my phone can do around 90 min's ish before it starts to complain about having a flat battery, though you can get extended batteries for phones, or phone chargers that take AA batteries etc


+ if you goto www.navizon.com you can download some software that logs the location of every wifi hotspot & phone mast that you pass, then pays you 10$ when you get so many logged, it wont pay mega money but if you cycle different routes etc...

micken

+1 for Windows Mobile 6+. I have htc Touch HD running Tom Tom and Memory-Map, can go down the Google Maps route too! I normally ride planned routes that I've got in my head and simply use the phone for checking when needed so I can't really comment on battery life. M-M has been flawless when logging routes on 50k and 25k maps. I use bikeroutetoaster for online mapping and it's easy to transfer data. There's even software and bike hardware available to do full on training data-logging, analysis and online tracking if you wanted to take that route.

Then you've also got media player etc., the list is endless. I stick it in one of those Pour and Store freezer bags, put it in my back pocket and hope I don't fall on it.

I use it day in day out at work as a diary/planner and to synchronise emails etc. The fact that it is so flexible makes it an essential tool for me. I previously used an xda2 in a similar way but with far less punch and flexibility.

bigbelly

+1 for Nokia, but the 5800. It's the touch screen nokia. Sports tracker works brilliantly and I just used it for the Dragon ride Sportive in Wales. On tracking and uploading my position realtime, it lasted for the full duration of the ride, 7+hours. I reckon it could have lasted another 2 hours given how many bars on the battery were left.

I haven't mounted it yet, but will try to attach to the stem. The phone works perfectly in my pocket.

And, took pictures during the Dragon, and it can upload your pics along the route.

Highly recommended.

micken

JonS123 wrote:

I own a htc kaiser (same phone just different name as the o2 xda I think) and I use some software at : http://aeguerre.free.fr/Public/PocketPC ... /index.php the software should work on any windows mobile phone with a gps unit

This then lets me export the data as a gpx file to plot/log it as I please
..

Great software find JonS123, NoniGPSPlot adds great functions such as big compass and on the fly info, compliments TT and M-M very well indeed. I'm looking forward to using it.

A BIG thanks

amaferanga

Any GPS device will work better if mounted properly i.e. on the bars or stem. That could explain the dodgy tracking from MontyCC.

And there in lies one of the problems of phones with GPS - getting good quality mounting bracket. I spent ages looking for one for my blackberry, but nothing existed that was unobtrusive and secure looking. Then there's the issue of waterproofing while maintaining the ability to actually use the phone.

And then there's battery life.

I gave up and spent £130 on a mapping GPS from Garmin (Etrex Legend HCx). I get 20h from a pair of AAs, its fully waterproof and has proper mounting brackets.

I also think the GPS receiver is significantly more sensitive than the GPS receiver on my blackberry.

disgruntledgoat

I have the Google Phone G1 thingo and the My Tracks app (free). Pretty decent, will give you all your info and even draw a profile, all uploadable onto the net via googlemaps.

Only downside is it eats battery.

cyclistbruce

N95 gets my vote as well. Not only do you get the Sports Tracker, but you can buy an application call Viewranger, which allows you to create and tehn follow your own route using GPS, rather than having the software create its own route, which is good as they generally go for the shortest car orientated route.

Also used a free piece of software called Nav4All, which is like a stripped down satnav, it gives you the turn left/right commands and arrows etc but no map. However, even though it creates the route for you it does give you the option to request a bike orientated route, which tends to avoid trunk roads etc. I found it useful for finding a route to work which avoided all the major roads.

alfablue

I use a Nokia n85 with sportstracker - it's brilliant. Battery life is about 4 hours when using gps/sportstracker, and I have an external AA battery charger to extend this when touring (about £5 from eBay or Maplin). Battery life has therefore never been a problem.

The n82 is pretty similar to n95, but it is a candy bar rather than slider (which I prefer), screen is smaller but adequate, camera is better, and apparently the gps receiver is better positioned in the unit.

There is a new Nokia phone (n79?) which comes with a Polar HRM strap and all the data integrates with Sportstracker.

Nokia MAps is also an excellent navigation system, though it is a bit pricey as you need to buy a time limited licence (£50 ish for 2 years) if you want voice nav. A great aspect of it is, however, that you can buy a monthly licence to include navigation and maps when you go on holiday, so for £6 I got a licence for Italy when I toured Tuscany earlier this year - it was invaluable for going direct to each hotel at the end of each day. Nokia Maps has also been great for navigating on foot when exploring new cities, easily finding pubs and restaurants etc.

For "pay once" navigation, unfortunately TomTom doesn't work with the internal GPS unless you do a hack (works with an external bluetooth gps), however Garmin XT does work fine, though I prefer Nokia Maps which is much better software.

Best of all, I got the phone free on a £25 pcm contract on Orange.

MontyCC

Nokia Maps is great but not sure about the navigation. Even the "walk" mode limits you to roads i.e doesn't guide you through parks or roads closed off to cars. But it is a nice replacement for googlemaps.

If I switch my phone to offline mode, turn off all other apps, I can get 6hrs with Nokia Sports Tracker

cougie

Ooh interesting about the viewranger thing.

I find my N95 tracks perfectly well from my back pocket - but the battery is getting on a bit now - so only does about 5 hours with Sportstracker before dying.

Will prob upgrade to the N97 when thats available.

sicknote

For anyone one looking for a bike mount.

Try here and there was a Brodit one but cant seem to find it that is enclosed.

MontyCC

Thanks! Got one for N95 8GB?

amaferanga

I wouldn't let a monstrosity like that mount anywhere near my bike :shock: