Good value Android phone to run Komoot whilst touring

[lazytyke]

I think it may be an issue with Komoot rather than the Garmin. When I used Komoot on the iPhone app it really doesn't like you deviating from the route and being forced to reroute on the fly. It seems to be more geared towards you stopping and redesigning the route, then proceeding. I think this then sometimes conflicts with the Garmin's propensity/ability to reroute on the fly.

You might be on the right track there - if you’ll pardon the pun. All my freezes occurred directly after missing turnings

 

[Crackle]

It runs quite well on my G5, lazytike.

I'm quite impressed with it. It's routing is not necessarily my first choice but it's not far out and I'd take it in an unfamiliar area and with some fiddling I Managed to get the route from Komoot into my 810 using only my phone.

 

[Crackle]

Want a free region?

Thanks but no. You don't get much in a region and I wouldn't know which one to go for, so I think it'll be all or nothing. You get the one free one anyhow which is all I need for evaluation

 

[Blue Hills]

[QUOTE 5276583, member: 259"]We've used it a bit for walking and I really like it. It's based on Open Street Maps, which is both a good - and at times and extremely bad - thing.[/QUOTE]
Out of interest, why bad? I use it on my garmin and on an android tab install of osmand. Never had a significant problem.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Thank you all, I just joined, on the strength of your recommendations. We've sure come a long way from the 70's, and hand drawn maps and cue sheets. (although I still draw those roughly in case of malfunction.).

 

[climo]

Komoot is good but I ditched it in favour of Osmand. You're stuck with their choice of POI's and can't waymark off route, say to mark campsites, shops, etc. Online there's something flaky about creating / editing routes which causes the map to show the entire route when you don't need it too, though I can't remember what I did to cause that to happen. You then have to zoom in again.
It's got a sort of social media side to it which I find irritating.
Routing is reasonable but not as good as cycle.travel.
Osmand is a more comprehensive solution but it's a complex interface

 

[Blue Hills]

I use osmand and find it excellent, though agree about a somewhat odd interface and still trying to get my head round "markers". Easy to import my own gpxs generated elsewhere. And to import my own POI files. Both of which can then be displayed on the mapping offline. Wil explore but struggling to seevwhat komoot offers that it doesn't. Also plus one for cycle.travel.

Oh, sod social media, why o why? When cycle touring I am happy to talk to the folk I meet.

 

[Crackle]

Osmand ran like a pig when I tried it, really laggy.

 

[Blue Hills]

Osmand ran like a pig when I tried it, really laggy.

Is it possible your phone/tab was underpowered? I first ran it on a 10 inch samsung tab with 1gig of memory. Now on the 7 inch cheapo lenovo tab i use when touring (also vastly better battery life) it runs fine - 2gig. 3 would maybe be optimal. You also need to check that you have android permissions set properly or it will have trouble getting at the files it needs. It also has problems, as do many progs, with some earlier versions of android.
In short i think it,'s brilliant and a bargain - lifetime continuously updated maps for anywhere I am likely to cycle in this lifetime. For a one-off charge. It is even half price sometimes.

Note, i don't use it for live navigation, i use my garmin for that.

 

[climo]

Osmand runs badly on iphones apparently. Apart from it's complexity it suffers from not working online which is a real benefit of Komoot, however iirc you can't create & plan a route totally offline in komoot and the map files are very large. The seamless way komoot transfers to the phone is very good.
I've not found a really good seamless planning & navigating app working on a mac offline and transferring to an android phone by bluetooth / wifi. Seriously thinking of getting a large android tablet just for that but that is crazy.
Has anyone got the answer?

 

[Crackle]

Is it possible your phone/tab was underpowered? I first ran it on a 10 inch samsung tab with 1gig of memory. Now on the 7 inch cheapo lenovo tab i use when touring (also vastly better battery life) it runs fine - 2gig. 3 would maybe be optimal. You also need to check that you have android permissions set properly or it will have trouble getting at the files it needs. It also has problems, as do many progs, with some earlier versions of android.
In short i think it,'s brilliant and a bargain - lifetime continuously updated maps for anywhere I am likely to cycle in this lifetime. For a one-off charge. It is even half price sometimes.

Note, i don't use it for live navigation, i use my garmin for that.

My first phone was but this is a G5, which runs everything else really well. I wasn't comparing for cycling but car navigation, so the comparator was Google maps. There was no real contest in terms of functionality and speed. I also found osmand virtually impenetrable, very 90's in it's interface. I guess the bottom line is it didn't do anything for me I needed, others may have different needs which it manages well.

 

[Blue Hills]

Ah, google maps? So you were online? I prefer offline. You can download google maps of course but the sods inexplicably (to me) insists that you redownload them frequently.

 

[HobbesOnTour]

OSMand is clunky and not particularly picky about how it routes you. Just out of interest, I plotted a walking route from Newmarket to home on both Komoot and OSMand. OSMand ignored virtually every footpath/bridleway etc. and instead routed me down main roads. Komoot, on the other hand, reduced the time on roads to the bare minimum. It resulted in a slightly longer - but much more pleasant - route.

Well, this is the thing, really. In my view there are 2 aspects to the gps navigation on a bike.
The first is planning.
The second is navigation.

In my experience (which is really not a lot because I just tend to wander around) there is no killer app that does both well.

And what "well" is depends on your own specific needs.

Yes, OSMand is not the greatest route planner and it is not the handiest to plan a route on using a phone or even a tablet - but it will allow you to do it offline (so long as you have the maps downloaded in advance). For me, that is the huge advantage of OSMand.
And it will give you turn by turn navigation and voice navigation if that's your thing.

I use OSMand as an emergency navigation device. If I find myself in the middle of nowhere and I need to get to point A asap, it will get me there. At those times, I'm not too bothered about how it gets me there, just that it can get me there irrespective of phone signal/data allowance or wifi.

It's also handy for those times when you find yourself somewhere and want to mark the location to come back to.

I wouldn't trust Google maps to plan a route at all. It is handy though, for downloading a map and marking off places that you may need, such as campsites etc. That way you have reasonably accurate info on your area offline.

Having had lots of "fun" with my Garmin whilst touring, I'm keen to try running Komoot directly on an android phone instead. I already have I phone for day to day use and comms, so just looking for a cheapish android, with good battery life that would run Komoot. Any experience/suggestions welcome. I'd rather maintain a separate phone for the navigation and comms etc.

I tested a Garmin Touring device for about a month and thought it was totally unreliable. It crashed regularly. Had issues going off route and very poor battery life.

You could also consider a cheap tablet instead of a phone. A bigger screen makes it easier to see. There are a lot of Chinese manufacturers of pretty good tablets and phones. I have a Cubot phone and no issues. Good battery life, no problem running Osmand and takes surprisingly good photos. Previously I used a cheapy tablet and prefer that for navigation. But it's not in use all the time on the bike, only when I really need to be somewhere.

Just remember than phone/tablet screens can be difficult to see in some weathers and you do need a good mounting system and weatherproofing.

 

[Blue Hills]

I tested a Garmin Touring device for about a month and thought it was totally unreliable. It crashed regularly. Had issues going off route and very poor battery life.


.

+1 to your comments on OSMand.

And loved your comments on the Garmin Touring. Must admit I have never used one (have the Etrex20) but have read plenty. A sick humour in something branded (and I stress "branded") touring having poor battery life.

As far as I can see the Etrex series is the best for "touring".

 

[NorthernDave]

+1 for the Motorola Moto series.
I've had several, currently running a G4 which is all the phone I could possibly need.

Will probably upgrade to a G6 once the price comes down a bit.