@Con-Hennekens said:
why would you prefer a locked-in old-design one-purpose device over a modern flexible rugged and much cheaper phone or tablet? To be honest I can think of only one thing: glove operation. Which can be overcome with the right gloves or a remote control.
I can think of many reasons, from the perspective of a Garmin XT3......
At the physical device level. The Garmin doesn't overheat. It can tolerate Death Valley USA level heat and other abuses that a phone can't. Additionally, the Garmin screen is completely readable in glare, while the phone isn't.
Operationally, the Garmin utilizes 3D terrain maps that put any phone app to shame. It's like operating a video game watching you route progress through mountains, canyons and valleys. One of the crown jewels of the device are the dynamically captured Trip Data metrics which can be selected in different combinations and displayed on the screen. Another cool feature is the ability to start a secondary route to an unplanned search point and then easily restart your main route when you reach that destination. All of this happens without altering your main route at all. Then there are the off-route recalculation options that are a completely different subject.
Is the Garmin a one-purpose device? To a degree. I prefer to call it a specialized device that can perform navigation at the highest functional level. This isn't a knock on the MRA app specifically. Phones simply have limitations. If your navigation requirements exceed those limitations, the Garmin is your device.
Ideally, you mount your Phone and the Garmin side-by-side (I do). Then you get the best of all worlds to cover most possible situations
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