Cell phone GPS app

I have recently acquired a new smart phone, a Samsung Galaxy IIIS. I would like to use it as a GPS for backpacking. It is an Android system phone.

I have done some research here and elsewhere as well. It appears there are four likely contenders: Backcountry Navigator, MotionX, ViewRanger and GPS Test. Reading descriptions and reviews, they all look good, and not being very tech savy, I don't know what some of it means and I don't know what is not being said.


Does anyone here have enough tech savy or experience to know which of these I should be looking at? Many thanks. best, jcp

I suspect that few have experience with more than one, or at most two of these, hence it's difficult to get a good comparison. And your personal biases as to what is "best" might be different too (else we would all drive exactly the same car and wear the same clothing, etc etc).

One you didn't mention is what I use, GaiaGPS. http://www.gaiagps.com/
I find that it works pretty good. I think the other that I've heard the most about is Backcountry Navigator, so if I were looking fresh I'd probably consider that.

It might be that you can download a somehow-limited version for free to try out of some of these, so you might consider that to try them out for yourself.

GPS Test --- I think this is a free App that I do have installed? If I recall correctly, it's good for a couple of things but isn't at all the same type of product as Backcountry Navigator or GaiaGPS.

I use Gaia. You don't need a phone signal to use it. Just download the maps at home before you leave. It's user friendly and the learning curve is pretty shallow. But there are downsides to any phone GPS app. Lots phone's displays wash out in the sun. On and extended trips, you will need to carry extra phone batteries (expensive) or some source of USB power. Most cell phones are not waterproof. I did use the cell as a GPS on several trips but for my needs a dedicated GPS unit works better.

Thanks guys, I'll have to take a close look at Gaia. I had not even noticed the name in my research up to here. It's a good thing I asked.

Power for a gps is my next challenge. I find that there are 5400 batteries available for the Galaxy (though they require a new back), and I suspect that having two of them would get me through at least four days, and I can still use the original battery for another day (the batteries weigh very little, charge in a two-battery external charger fairly quickly, and are reputed to hold their charges for as much as ten days unused. Unfortunately, they ain't cheap. The price I saw was about a hundred bucks each, plus another forty or so for the two-battery charger.

But so far, that's the best I've been able to figure out on logistics for long trips. If anyone has better ideas, let me know, pls. thanks.

Without the GPS app, I have been able to go ten or twelve days with just two regular batteries by the simple expedient of turning it on only one hour each day (plus when I want to shoot pix). It may be that I can figure out how to use the GPS only for short periods as well, but suspect that may obviate some of the purposes for which it's attractive to me.

All reflections welcome. Thanks, best, jcp

I have backcountry navigator. I don't have experience with any other "backcountry" GPS apps. I tried myTracks and it was just a battery hog. BCNav allows me to download map sections to access offline, and I can use it with the GPS antenna off even setting waypoints without the antenna on, as long as I know my location. I can turn on the GPS antenna for the brief moment if I wanted to verify location. I do not use the GPS to track my route, only for specific location ID, extra map, and a means to store locations of things I find.

I think that if you spend some research time, you can find various things to do to keep power drain to a minimum. I keep my phone "on" with screen off all day on long trips, and find that one or two conventional batteries do it between town stops. That plus being alert to opportunities to recharge and not using the phone for things you don't really need to --- that makes it work out fine for me.

On a previous phone I got a couple of those fatter extended batteries that required replacing the back plate on the phone. They were less expensive than what you're talking about, made in Asia somewhere by a third party and worked okay. There can be gotcha's with that approach as I recall; I think one mount or charger or something would no longer fit the phone, and a case I had for the phone no longer fit it. The replacement back plate was a PITA to get to click firmly and reliably into place --- an artifact of coming from a third-party no doubt. Indeed it is nice, however, when in a trail town to be able to plug the phone in somewhere and forget it for a while and the result is that you end up with more charge. And then on trail not having to power down and swap batteries as often (or ever).

I wonder if the issue here is how (and how often) you use the GPS? I can't imagine just leaving the GPS on, unless for a moderate period of real trail confusion, or on a day hike where power wasn't an issue. For me, at least, a GPS on a cell phone is good for infrequently getting a "where am I right now" fix and then turning it off.

On thru-hikes, I use my phone most often as a camera and to type up a journal entry at the end of each day. Very infrequent use as a GPS, as a telephone, not quite as infrequent use to get a weather report or upload journal entries (text only while on trail). Once in a while as a voice recorder. Almost never to read books (exception: hiking in late Oct or Nov).

I imagine that the particular model phone you have makes a difference too, but just figuring out what sort of background processes are sucking up battery power is worth some time before doing a long trip IMO.

Ditto for me. I have been using this on my Samsung Galaxy III for 3 months now. It works very well. The menu's are not the most intuitive. Always a bummer going thru them to get where you thought you remembered while your hiking buddies are impatiently waiting for you. But once its up and running. No problems. Unless you end up hiking off the downloaded map you made the night before lol. We got lost that way once. Coudlnt figure out why the Arrow was so far off on the map.