True, I should have added YMMV. For me it works well, as my phone lasts 2 days tracking GPS ~12 hours a day in airplane mode (plus taking a few photos), but I know battery life can vary a lot between phones. It probably would last 4 days if I only used it to check GPS occasionally instead of tracking distance. I also don't tend to play games on my phone when backpacking, although I think if you get lost because you ran out your phone's battery playing games while hiking, a dedicated GPS unit may not be whats lacking...
I noted that he was talking about a 7-day trip, which was my reason for the battery not lasting. On a GPS you can dial-down the tracking, I know on mine I can drop down to one point every couple hundred feet. Gives enough of a track to be able to find my way back.
One other option, that I've used in the desert, is to mark the location of the car, then using dead reckoning to track my way back to the car. That way I only need to turn the GPS on at the car and mark its location, then turn it on when I'm ready to head back. From there I just make sure that I stay on track for where the car is parked, works pretty well. You don't use a lot of battery because you don't have the tracking feature turned on, you're just adjusting your hike back, making sure your pick the "right" trail.
Yeah, sometimes I feel like just leaving them there and improving the human gene-pool.
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