Is GPS feature in phones reliable for geocaching?

[pjynx]

I'm thinking about getting into geocaching (been doing letterboxing and loving it, so I figured I may as well try this too since there are more hidden caches). I don't have a GPS unit so I was trying to decide between a handheld unit vs. getting a new cell phone with the GPS feature.

 

Has anyone used their phone? How does it compare to an actual GPS handheld? Thanks!

 

Pam

[davnig]

I have a nokia e71 which i use with Trimble's geocache navigator, this sw was free, but now costs 15 euros Still worth it tho, makes caching much easier.

 

I find the GPS is as accurate as it needs to be - it's designed to work for sat nav which gives pretty accurate turn instructions. It has always got me to the cache site and pretty darn close, don't see how a dedicated GPS unit could get me closer tbh!

Edited August 26, 2009 by davnig

[+Prime Suspect]

I'm thinking about getting into geocaching (been doing letterboxing and loving it, so I figured I may as well try this too since there are more hidden caches). I don't have a GPS unit so I was trying to decide between a handheld unit vs. getting a new cell phone with the GPS feature.

 

Has anyone used their phone? How does it compare to an actual GPS handheld? Thanks!

 

Pam

Battery life and accuracy both stink. I'm sure some will chime in with anecdotal stories about their phone taking them to within 4 inches of the cache. But even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

 

A phone GPS is okay for occasional, impromptu caching. But you'll want the accuracy, ruggedness, and long battery life of a dedicated hand-held GPS unit if you really want to get into the sport.

[davnig]

 

Battery life and accuracy both stink. I'm sure some will chime in with anecdotal stories about their phone taking them to within 4 inches of the cache. But even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

 

A phone GPS is okay for occasional, impromptu caching. But you'll want the accuracy, ruggedness, and long battery life of a dedicated hand-held GPS unit if you really want to get into the sport.

 

Disagree on both your main points, my e71 has always lasted me a day and always got me close enough to find the cache, nothing anecdotal about it.

 

Ruggedness may be an issue, agreed, but otherwise my e71 is ideal, always with me, if i've got some spare time wherever i am, just whip it out - geocache navigator, quickcache listing and robert is your mother's brother. Did that once whilst parked up waiting for an appointment to find a cache was on the lamppost outside my window!!

Edited August 26, 2009 by davnig

[davnig]

Oops, double post!

Edited August 26, 2009 by davnig

[NordicMan]

Some cellphone GPSr's are way better than others, they're not created equal! In fact, some phone's don't even have a "true GPS" receiver.. instead they use cell tower triangulation to determine your location. That sort of design works fine if you just need to get within sight of a store, but no good at all for Geocaching!

[+Tahoe Skier5000]

 

Battery life and accuracy both stink. I'm sure some will chime in with anecdotal stories about their phone taking them to within 4 inches of the cache. But even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

 

A phone GPS is okay for occasional, impromptu caching. But you'll want the accuracy, ruggedness, and long battery life of a dedicated hand-held GPS unit if you really want to get into the sport.

 

Disagree on both your main points, my e71 has always lasted me a day and always got me close enough to find the cache, nothing anecdotal about it.

 

Ruggedness may be an issue, agreed, but otherwise my e71 is ideal, always with me, if i've got some spare time wherever i am, just whip it out - geocache navigator, quickcache listing and robert is your mother's brother. Did that once whilst parked up waiting for an appointment to find a cache was on the lamppost outside my window!!

 

Ugh, geocaching with a phone...

 

Phones are O.K. for urban caching, or like Prime Suspect said, impromptu caching. However they have some severe disadvantages compared to a stand-alone GPSr that make them terrible overall:

 

- Rechargeable battery pack (YUCK! no easy or convient way of fixing this problem if your battery dies unexpectedly out in the middle of nowhere)

 

- Battery life is lousy since you're sharing system resources with other phone functions like the phone itself and any data transfer in the background.

 

- Durability a major issue

 

- Update rate is usually too slow

 

- Maps used by the apps require data connectivity, which, if you're out in the middle of nowhere where the fun caches are and usually no cell service exists or is too slow, you're screwed.

 

I could go on, but this is only a short list of things I hate about caching with a phone, the battery issue being the biggest. I know because I have the iphone 3g and bought the geocaching app and regret it. If people think that thing is fun to cache with, they have no idea what it is like with a stand alone device.

 

Bottom line IMO, using a phone to geocache is like cooking a thanksgiving dinner in a microwave. You don't know what you're missing.

Edited August 26, 2009 by Tahoe Skier5000

[+Tequila]

 

Battery life and accuracy both stink. I'm sure some will chime in with anecdotal stories about their phone taking them to within 4 inches of the cache. But even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

 

A phone GPS is okay for occasional, impromptu caching. But you'll want the accuracy, ruggedness, and long battery life of a dedicated hand-held GPS unit if you really want to get into the sport.

 

Disagree on both your main points, my e71 has always lasted me a day and always got me close enough to find the cache, nothing anecdotal about it.

 

Ruggedness may be an issue, agreed, but otherwise my e71 is ideal, always with me, if i've got some spare time wherever i am, just whip it out - geocache navigator, quickcache listing and robert is your mother's brother. Did that once whilst parked up waiting for an appointment to find a cache was on the lamppost outside my window!!

 

I bet you can't compete with a GPS 60CSx in a real heavy canopy.

 

I would never risk survival in the woods on a cellphone GPS. Maybe in a Walmart parkign lot.

[+user13371]

To answer the OP: Yes, some cell phones are usable for Geocaching. Groundspeak has sold (as of a few months ago) at least 700 copies of their app for the iPhone and lots of folks use BlackBerry, Android phones, etc.

 

To address some concerns that routinely come up...

 

...some severe disadvantages compared to a stand-alone GPSr that make them terrible overall:

 

- Rechargeable battery pack ... no easy or convient way of fixing this problem...

Sure there is. I carry spares in an external pack. I'd carry spare batteries for any GPSR in the field, don't you? I typically get more than a full day's use out of my GPS with my little pack of 4 AA rechargeables -- and that pack is barely larger than the batteries themselves.

 

- Update rate is usually too slow

Refresh rate is controlled by the application you're running on the iPhone. Motion-X, Google Maps and the GC apps all seem fine to me for a walking pace. GMap by XRoad is fine for freeway driving. In what activities have you found it to be too slow?

 

- Maps used by the apps require data connectivity,

Again, this varies by application. I have most of the western US roadmaps loaded offline through (GMap), no data feed required. I preload full USGS Topo quads with Phil Endicott's Topo map application. What maps do you want that you can't get loaded to the phone?

 

- Durability a major issue

Ah, you got me there. Even though there are stories of iPhone's being run over by 18-wheeler's and surviving, I'm sure if you drop it in a lake without an AquaPak you would run into a problem. Or you could USE a protective case and be careful not to drop it in the lake

 

...I know because I have the iphone 3g and bought the geocaching app and regret it.

Oh well... Wanna sell your iPhone? There's a fine grey market for used ones Edited August 27, 2009 by lee_rimar

[+user13371]

I would never risk survival in the woods on a cellphone GPS.

The OP asked about Geocaching, not survival situations.

 

I would never risk survival in the woods with only a cellphone -- or any other handheld GPSR. I want real maps and a compass - and as many other tools I had the foresight to bring. If I end up in a survival situation unintentionally, I'll use whatever I have or can find.

Edited August 26, 2009 by lee_rimar

[+Tahoe Skier5000]

disregard

Edited August 26, 2009 by Tahoe Skier5000

[+Styk]

Good point Lee. I recently got a BB Tour and have tried it out for caching. Works goods in the open but not so good under heavy cover. However, I always have it with me whereas I don't always have the handheld GPS. What I really like is that I can load a gpx file and have the paperless thing working for me but if I have problems and I have a connection I can go on the site and check the latest status of a cache.

[Wanthuyr Filho]

I don´t do geocaching, but I have a SE W760i and I think it´s quite an interesting GPS device, even though way inferior to the Oregon 300 in many aspects.

Drawback examples in my opinion: battery life, ease to scratch/damage, satellite acquirement time too long (sometimes it´s actually fast if aGPS is used), sensitivity not that good (I´d say it´s between the Oregon 300 and the old eTrex Euro), update rate so lazy (even configuring it to update every second, in one of the maps application that I installed in it).

One thing that I like about it: versatility, such as the ability to install several applications (satellite imagery, fixed maps - or a mix of both, vector maps - either online (paying for Internet usage) or offline (putting everything into the memory card), record tracklogs, speed limit alerts (visual/aural) and a few others.

 

Rgds,

 

WF

[+RosenhanClan]

I use a Palm Treo 800w with the GCzII free software installed. Im not going to say I can get within inches but the sat maps are certainly better than the drawn maps on my garmin gpsmap60csx.

Plus with my smartphone...as was stated earlier...you can cache on the fly. The SW I use allows me to log my finds directly to the website, view the logs, the hints, descriptions and even cross reference it with terrain and sat images. Not to say its perfect...It is limited to the area where I can get cell signal. A down flaw. I have been told it will work without cell service and pick up GPS sats on its own...but Im not as smart as a treo. Just my .02

[+suhplar]

i've only found 60 caches so far, but 57 of them have been with my blackberry curve. it jumps under heavy tree cover so i got an etrex vista hcx that i'll be using as my main device now, but caching with my 'berry worked just fine. i have a zagg invisibleshield on it and also have it in a bodyglove hard case so it's pretty well protected. it's been dropped several times and banged around and the case is scuffed but the phone is fine. the only thing i really have to worry about is water getting on the keyboard. i have a car charger that i use to keep it charged, battery life has never been an issue. i started out using blackstar (which is 100% free) then moved to cacheberry. i load my .gpx files onto the phone's microSD card and then open them in cacheberry so i'm not constantly using data unless i'm looking up a cache on the gc site (which is rare as cacheberry uses the hints and logs from the .gpx files so it's all on the phone already). i tried using geocache navigator but it just didn't seem to work as well as cacheberry (cacheberry added a radar function today, so it's very similar to GCN anyway), plus the battery did drain quicker as GCN requires a data connection. overall my blackberry worked very well unless i was way out in the woods with heavy tree cover, so i'd say caching with a phone as a primary device is definitely doable!

[pjynx]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Since it looks like the opinions are well-varied, I guess I have more research to do

 

Pam