Get one of the new fang dangled things but do not throw your old phone away. You can always swap your sim card back into it.

iPhones is iPhones and everybody who wants to be seen as being "on the pace and up to date" has to have one. Pffft.

If you want a serious bit of kit that you can really make use of on a yacht i suggest you do some research on the Samsung range of tablets.

Samsung is really going for the throat of Apple and coming out with some really good hardware and software, eg I know they have a tablet or two that will take a sim card and can be used as phones as well as high end tablets.

Also there are now WATERPROOF tablets on the market.

Navionics on a smart phone is nice but when you have it on a tablet which has more screen real estate than your average chart plotter, it is frigging brilliant. Of course make sure what you buy has a GPS chip in it as well. Navionics currently does not fully function (plot and track) on devices that do not have a built in GPS chip.

You can put Navionics on a lap top and view maps only. It does not recognize the signal from a puck GPS.

A month is a long time when you are talking about advances in technology so things might have changed but to my knowledge the above is correct.

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 phablet, now I don't know how far out to sea or how sensitive the reception on it is but I do know that I can make and receive calls in the middle of the Hay Plains. As Cisco points out the real estate you get on something that big is just magic when looking at charts or maps.

LooseChange said..

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 phablet, now I don't know how far out to sea or how sensitive the reception on it is but I do know that I can make and receive calls in the middle of the Hay Plains. As Cisco points out the real estate you get on something that big is just magic when looking at charts or maps.

Navionics on these devices just works so well. Most of the 5" or 7" chart plotters at certain levels of zoom, the screen is so cluttered with bold face sounding figures they are unreadable for navigation.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 phablet I believe is a top piece of kit and with Navionics installed on the device you do not need network connection for navigation. Google maps, yes. Navionics, no.

Whitworths have or had the Lowrance Elite 7 plotter/sounder, complete with all Aus charts installed with a choice of format (Navionics or ???? Seamap NT???) on special for $799 I believe. That is a good package.

Lowrance is owned by Navico who also own Brookes & Gatehouse, Simrad, Northstar (Navman) and another brand (Eagle??). Different levels of quality and or warranty from the same manufacturer. That is hardware and then there is software and it's user interface. If that is not right it does not matter how good the hardware is.

From my experience I have found Navinics on a tablet to be an accurate and reliable navigation tool. It has some gaps but a very good user interface.

Navigation is more art than science but like science requires precision.

Good thread, let's keep it rolling.

Ramona said..

On the news the other night there was a thread about phones. It seems there is a trend away from smart phones. The old Nokia 82** something or other have suddenly got more expensive on eBay. I have a Nokia E63 but I only use it as a phone!

I actually have 7 mobile phones all of which work. Three I bought and the other four came free when I renewed my phone contract each time. I can't bring myself to just throw them away.

One is a Blackberry Curve and another is a Nokia E63 which was Nokia's copy of the Blackberry, both with full QWERTY key board. Amazing technology in such a small package but I found neither of them comfortable in my pocket or easy to use for text messages.

My daily use phone is a Nokia 2720 fold, the pensioner's phone. A flip phone that is a nice easy fit in the pocket with big buttons on the key board. I only use it for calls, texts and calender reminders. It has a 1.3 mp camera which is handy on rare occasions.

For anything more sophisticated in a mobile device I go for a tablet with phone capability for Google maps and a GPS chip for using Navionics. Any mobile device with less than 8" screen I find is not very practical for Navionics.

Dear Breezers,

Right now I am reaching you via the wonderful www off the coast of Sumatra. The Banyak Islands to be precise.

As far as picking a phone to make calls with I'm not sure but when it comes to connecting to the world try this....
Pick a phone that has blue-tooth and or Wi-Fi.
I have a iPhone and when I want to use the internet I connect the phone to the computer via it's 'hotspot'
That's easy.....

But the trick to great reception...
And we do it all the time......
The phone goes in a little protective case and gets hoisted up the main halyard to the top of the mast. (a small rope allows us to retrieve it all down again later)
Bingo, reception to the laptop in the cabin via wireless!!!
Reception in the strangest places.

Beats trying to climb the mast.
Of coarse this doesn't work for voice calls but it does with Skype.

Cheers Dunedinite!

Yeah, we also hoist the first mates iphone to the top of the mast to get the ipad communicating in place where I can use my old faithful to voice talk from the deck. She who must be obeyed also tells me that when using the hot spot arrangement, all the text messages sent to the iphone appear on the ipad. (magic). It would be nice to have a phone that could do both on the deck. And then use the mast as a backup (and not the usual).

The other thing to consider beyond the phone and the antenna is the network you're on. By that I don't just mean Telstra vs. Optus; I mean 3G vs 4G and operating frequencies.

For example, I have a Nexus 5 (Android phone) which is all-singing, all-dancing in terms of networks and frequencies, namely 2G/3G GSM and 4G LTE @ 850/900/1800/1900 MHz. I find that I often get a 4G LTE signal at sea when I've long since lost the 3G signal. I don't know for sure why this is the case, since both signals use the same physical mobile phone towers. It could just be that the 4G network is still less utilized (for now).

That said, if you're serious about mobile phone reception at sea, you need to treat yourself to an external antenna, like this:
Laser 746 Marine antenna (www.laser-antenna.com/product.php?product_id=314).

What I REALLY want is a 4G LTE Android phone that is waterproof AND has an FME connector for an external antenna.

Anyone seen anything like that?

Ramona said...
I thought 4G was for internet, 3G for phone. And Telstra is better than Optus for coverage,especially in SA, I have Optus!

G is for Generation so as the G's go up so too should the connectivity and the bandwidth. You are right, Telstra is better Optus in terms of coverage, in some areas smoke signals and/or message would be a more viable alternative.

I had the motorola defy, only as waterproof as the condition of the rubber bung you religiously plug the charge port. Even then, touchscreen wont work when wet. Glitchy bugger as well. Had the external antenae port but youd need to drill a hole in the back cover.. then youd burn out the internal antenae rendering it useless without the external.
I suggest researching aftermarket waterproof phonecases and which phones they make em for..
Im set, with what a million plastic bags...

Ramona said...
Well I'm still not sure what 4G is but it seems its mainly data transmission in City centres only. I can remember reading about how there was trouble getting it going in Sydney. This article may not be much of a help! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G.

Telstra is rolling out their 4G "LTE" network pretty much everywhere around the country their 3G GSM network is today, and Optus is following as fast as they can.

As you say, 4G is about faster data speeds. That said, if I had to choose between reliable voice and reliable data at sea, I'd take data hands down! With data you can check weather, send emails, update Seabreeze, and even make calls using Skype, Hangouts, etc. With voice you can just make old-fashioned phone calls

cisco said...

Charriot said...
Sure Ramona, it is speed gimmick. Ideal conditions 4 G is faster but most location will drop automatically
to 3 G if the signal is marginal and tower congested.
a few articles mention, the actual phone varies from brand to brand dramatically To get reasonable
reception and speed.

Would that be a good argument to have a dual sim phone????

No, because only one sim will be the "active" sim. The internals of the phone are only one phone circuit, not two seperate circuits, when you go to make a call you have to choose which sim you want the call to go out on. For an incoming call the phone detects which number has been called and answers on that sim, effectively shutting down the other sim.