New GPS or iPad?

[Hardyakka]

I am looking to upgrade my GPS unit in my boat. I currently run a dedicated Furuno sounder and have a GPS/sounder as my GPS which I'm looking to get rid of. I'm wondering whether anyone runs an ipad as their main GPS and what are the pros / cons to this. I fish mainly ppb and Westernport but also a bit of offshore. Any model suggestions? Or any dedicated GPS models with a pretty decent sized screen that's not too pricey that I should consider?

[KeenAds]

A family friend uses Hema Maps for all his boating and 4wd trips. You can download maps off line so when your out of range or reception you can still access them.

You can also mark points of interest so if you see something when planning a trip you can mark it and come back to it when your on your journey.

Sorry I don't know much more about it or the cost but he swears by it and I will be looking at this next time I upgrade.

[Astarte]

I have a couple boats, a yacht (has an old chart plotter) and fishing boat (no plotter). I am finding more and more im using navionics instead on my mobile or ipad as they sync and you don't need mobile coverage just need a gps enabled device and to have down loaded the maps. I can easily take it from boat to boat too.

I have a friend running a B&G vulcan 7 which is great and it can mirror to your mobile device, but it about a $1000 set-up minimum. I am considering the same set-up for my yacht but not sure I can justify the cost as navionics does such a good job.

[SteveoTheTiger]

I have a Lowrance Elite 7 TI2 with CMAP on my boat which is a 7" screen combo unit that i have been using for charts, downscan and sidescan. So pretty similar to your setup i imagine.

However i have recently installed a Railblaza mount so that i can now mount my 10" Samsung Tab A which i run Navionics through. I plan on using this as my main chart plotter when im on that water so that it free's up the full screen on the Lowrance for sonar. Next i want to wire in a USB socket to keep it charged. But the Samsung Tab A is much cheaper than most ipads etc and is more than capable of running Navionics. The only real worry is how it will cope with the salt water environment, so i will be looking for a waterproof cover for it.

Due to the lockdown i havent been able to test it out yet, but im sure it will work fine as i used to just use Navionics on my phone before i had a dedicated unit on the boat. And it effectively more than doubles my available screen space.

[cobby]

The only real worry is how it will cope with the salt water environment, so i will be looking for a waterproof cover for it.

That's one of the issues when running a tablet over a dedicated unit. The other is also the constant vibrations and banging on a boat.

But how good is the 10" tab A. $299 compared to $550 for an iPad of similar spec...

[Kestrel]

Interesting. How does it work with IPAD. Do you download the charts in the normal way or are they accessed online?
Cheers
Kestrel

[SteveoTheTiger]

The only real worry is how it will cope with the salt water environment, so i will be looking for a waterproof cover for it.

That's one of the issues when running a tablet over a dedicated unit. The other is also the constant vibrations and banging on a boat.

But how good is the 10" tab A. $299 compared to $550 for an iPad of similar spec...

Ive had my Tab A for probably 5 years so its a bit old now, my misses just bought the new model. Ive never had any issues running any apps on it and Navionics certainly doesnt have any problems running. In my opinion, unless you are running games or image editing or something then the Tab A is fine for most things.

Kestrel, Navionics runs as an app that you download from the app store. You then have to pay a yearly sub which i think is about $30 for the Australian charts. Then you download the area of the chart that you want onto your device. So long as your device has a built in GPS then you do not need any network connectivity to use it when you are on the water, just a GPS signal.