What Smartphone / GPS for touring UK/France ?

[thelawnet]

Average is great, its all you need for cycle navigation. Spending hundreds of £s on a phone with only slightly better features and many features isnt necessary. I appreciate that some peoples lives and their whole world revolves around their phone but not to me, its a tool for certain tasks, a communication device and handy bùt rather poor camera.

I have a slightly cheaper device than that but I will try to spend a bit more on my next phone. Around £200 maybe, in order to get usable photos in darker situations.

[thelawnet]

The G7 Power (and some others) focus on battery, but it's quite average in all other respects.

Care to highlight any particular issues?
I must admit to being quite keen on "average" stuff.

More money will get you a better camera (good), higher resolution screen (not a huge deal), faster CPU (not really a big deal for most people, this one is enough), faster wifi (not really an issue), faster charging (maybe), other material than plastic for the body (I don't care), and possibly better water proofing.

Also some people may not like the size and weight of the device, though that's more of a preference thing than anything else/

[francovendee]

Average is great, its all you need for cycle navigation. Spending hundreds of £s on a phone with only slightly better features and many features isnt necessary. I appreciate that some peoples lives and their whole world revolves around their phone but not to me, its a tool for certain tasks, a communication device and handy bùt rather poor camera.

Al

I'm amazed with adverts for high end phones. They seem to extol camera features on the phone above all else, no mention of being very stable in poor reception areas. To me this is paramount, it's a phone!
I do take photos on my phone but if I want to take a decent pic I pick up my Panasonic camera.
My £100 Chinese phone does everything I need and I won't be changing it until the battery dies.

[mercalia]

Average is great, its all you need for cycle navigation. Spending hundreds of £s on a phone with only slightly better features and many features isnt necessary. I appreciate that some peoples lives and their whole world revolves around their phone but not to me, its a tool for certain tasks, a communication device and handy bùt rather poor camera.

Al

I'm amazed with adverts for high end phones. They seem to extol camera features on the phone above all else, no mention of being very stable in poor reception areas. To me this is paramount, it's a phone!
I do take photos on my phone but if I want to take a decent pic I pick up my Panasonic camera.
My £100 Chinese phone does everything I need and I won't be changing it until the battery dies.

And thats the trouble most phones esp the expensive ones, bar the most cheapest are stuck up with glue making it hard to change the battery, the ultimate consumable possession - I just cant bring my self to spend much money on them, why I am more than happy with my £20 windows phone, good reliable wifi/gps/4G & voice and adequate apps for traveling.

[iandriver]

It depends what you are using it for, but that's bright sunshine and an easy task for a camera. If you are trying to take things in low light, or say a squirrel in a tree or something, then you will find a phone that has more spent on its camera will do a much better job.

I'm happy with the low light performance. Sorry, I'm just not having these perceived problems. As a 200 odd pound phone, I just can't fault it. 64Gb memory, no performance issues with multiple apps. Vast battery. If super detailed wildlife photography is your thing, I wouldn't suggest a phone as a camera. It's picked up the falling water in the last photo rather well I think.

[RickH]

I'm amazed with adverts for high end phones. They seem to extol camera features on the phone above all else, no mention of being very stable in poor reception areas. To me this is paramount, it's a phone!

It is like you don't see car adverts saying "reliable engine". I think it is pretty much a given that they will work well as a phone, the very few that that don't (one of the iPhone models, can't remember which) being notable but rare exceptions.

My £100 Chinese phone does everything I need and I won't be changing it until the battery dies.

So far I've never had battery problems it has usually been the screen that I've cracked that has sent me down the replacement route.

[thelawnet]

And thats the trouble most phones esp the expensive ones, bar the most cheapest are stuck up with glue making it hard to change the battery, the ultimate consumable possession - I just cant bring my self to spend much money on them, why I am more than happy with my £20 windows phone, good reliable wifi/gps/4G & voice and adequate apps for traveling.

It depends where you are; my son broke the screen on his phone, which is a Chinese £100 job, in the UK it would be tossed in the bin, but he brought it to Indonesia and I ordered a new screen (£10), and paid a bloke £2.50 to disassemble it (which necessitated removing the battery) while I waited. The glue is there, I think he used white spirit or some such to remove it, and then he had some more glue to re-stickit.

TBH you can dissemble it yourself, the glue is not the end of the world, but it makes more sense here to pay someone to do it.

[mercalia]

And thats the trouble most phones esp the expensive ones, bar the most cheapest are stuck up with glue making it hard to change the battery, the ultimate consumable possession - I just cant bring my self to spend much money on them, why I am more than happy with my £20 windows phone, good reliable wifi/gps/4G & voice and adequate apps for traveling.

It depends where you are; my son broke the screen on his phone, which is a Chinese £100 job, in the UK it would be tossed in the bin, but he brought it to Indonesia and I ordered a new screen (£10), and paid a bloke £2.50 to disassemble it (which necessitated removing the battery) while I waited. The glue is there, I think he used white spirit or some such to remove it, and then he had some more glue to re-stickit.

TBH you can dissemble it yourself, the glue is not the end of the world, but it makes more sense here to pay someone to do it.

You might be alarmed they use hair dryer to melt the glue so you have to be very expert not to melt the whole shebang. I dont think you would get some one to do the job for £2.50 here in the UK I remember reading how to do it for a mini android tablet I was thinking of getting, and I seem to remember no glue involved but back held on with fragile tabs which are really put-together-once-only-snaps, you had to prise off using eg a thin knife, then god knows how many screws I think it was about 20 to undo to dismantle the device to get to the battery. crazy. All I have to do with my £20 phone is to flex the back with thumb on the back, and off it comes, it all feels very solid when put back together.

[andrew_s]

It depends what you are using it for, but that's bright sunshine and an easy task for a camera. If you are trying to take things in low light, or say a squirrel in a tree or something, then you will find a phone that has more spent on its camera will do a much better job.

It's often not so much the performance of the camera (whether it's phone or a proper camera with no viewfinder), but the problems of trying to use it in bright sun.
Somewhere like summer Spain, with no available shade and parched pale brown grass behind you, it can be difficult to see anything on the screen other than the reflections of what's behind you. That leads to framing the shot by guesswork, and being unable to rescue a good image later because you can't straighten the horizon without cropping off something important (or whatever).

[mercalia]

It depends what you are using it for, but that's bright sunshine and an easy task for a camera. If you are trying to take things in low light, or say a squirrel in a tree or something, then you will find a phone that has more spent on its camera will do a much better job.

It's often not so much the performance of the camera (whether it's phone or a proper camera with no viewfinder), but the problems of trying to use it in bright sun.
Somewhere like summer Spain, with no available shade and parched pale brown grass behind you, it can be difficult to see anything on the screen other than the reflections of what's behind you. That leads to framing the shot by guesswork, and being unable to rescue a good image later because you can't straighten the horizon without cropping off something important (or whatever).

The same applies to any out door use? eg mapping. One reason I still use a very old windows pda from about 2006, it has a screen like the old original Kindles that use ambient light to light the screen ( it also has a backlight) for maps.

[al_yrpal]

The same applies to any out door use? eg mapping. One reason I still use a very old windows pda from about 2006, it has a screen like the old original Kindles that use ambient light to light the screen ( it also has a backlight) for maps.

Sounds like the embryo of a technology museum

Al

[Sweep]

no glue involved but back held on with fragile tabs which are really put-together-once-only-snaps, you had to prise off using eg a thin knife,.

I wouldn't use a knife.
You can get plastic tools off ebay for delicately forcing open bits of electronics.

Though you maybe know that.

[francovendee]

My SIL has a part time business repairing mobile phones. He started of by repairing his own phone when he broke the screen. He watched Youtube videos and learnt from there. Four years on he can repair most things on a phone and micro solders components into phones with circuit problems. He doesn't like repairing Samsung phones because of how much you have to remove to get a screen out. New screens are relatively cheap, £10 upwards but no replacement screen is of the same quality of a new screen.
Lots of his work comes from phones that have been dropped into water. His advice is don't turn it on and get it too him asap. About a 50% success rate with these.
He uses a Chinese phone himself that retails at around £500. He had it given to him as it was broken, fixed it and is very pleased with it. He thinks it's a lot better than the newest iphone.

[Rouleur126]

Hello

I've cycled in France (Provence and Languedoc) using an iPhone and Ride With GPS. Never let me down! Best to plan your routes on a computer beforehand but it can be done, with patience, on the phone.

[Graham]

I've bought a Motorola G7 Power, via GiffGaff.

I may be calling for more of your generous advice in due course . . . . .
e.g.
Should I be buying a micro-SD card immediately for . . . storing data & applications ?

* Std 14-day return if not delighted. Fingers-crossed.