Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

[kepPNW]

I don't really care too much about the vertical element, so that has never really been a huge deal for me. Karl, have you ever used a program called TopoFusion? It has a "climbing analysis" option which kind of looks like what you might want.
...
So per the tool, it shows the raw GPS track showed 2242 feet of elevation gain and the "filtered" version showed only 1988 feet. At least that is how I read it.

Yeah, I do have a copy of that, and pull it up from time to time. It has some interesting results, but I've yet to feel it makes vast amounts of sense with some data. Anyway, a couple weeks ago I kept dual tracks on my Garmin and GS7, going up Table from Bonneville. The Garmin track shows "Straight GPS" of 6962' and "TopoFusion" of 5092', while the GS7 track is 13238' and 6323' respectively. (While the phone app, AlpineQuest, used barometric data to calculate a total of 4436' EG, and my Garmin's trip computer said 4981'. I think the actual number was closer to the latter, but somewhere in between.)

As was already mentioned above, I believe the main difference is that the S7 supports the GLONASS network, and is essentially working off twice as many satellites as a 60CSX

Oh, I didn't know the S7 could use GLONASS. (I'm still running an S4!) That definitely would make a difference. My 60csx goes absolutely nuts in tight canyons in the Gorge; pretty sure a newer unit would fare much better.

Yep! GS7 has full GLONASS support, but I do think it may chew up more battery in return.

[RobFromRedland]

My GS7 kicksass on my old Oregon 450 horizontally, but I've only found one app (AlpineQuest) that can dampen the wild vertical swings. It's convinced me to get a newer dedicated unit, probably either the 64s or Oregon 700. GLONASS rocks! And when they add Galileo support... oh boy!

Karl - what does Galileo support give you? I just looked up the S8 specs, and it is supposed to support it. Just curious.
- Location (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou)

[Guy]

Yep! GS7 has full GLONASS support, but I do think it may chew up more battery in return.

That's probably true but the battery in the 7 is also better than earlier models too.

With my old Galaxy 4 often I could not get through a typical day without topping it off. My Galaxy 7 will often give me two days of typical use off one charge.

[kepPNW]

My GS7 kicksass on my old Oregon 450 horizontally, but I've only found one app (AlpineQuest) that can dampen the wild vertical swings. It's convinced me to get a newer dedicated unit, probably either the 64s or Oregon 700. GLONASS rocks! And when they add Galileo support... oh boy!

Karl - what does Galileo support give you? I just looked up the S8 specs, and it is supposed to support it. Just curious.
- Location (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou)

Aside from more satellites, purportedly 1m vertical accuracy. (The system is actually designed to deliver 1cm vertical accuracy, but only for a price.) But it's all vaporware hooey until delivered, I suppose.

Yep! GS7 has full GLONASS support, but I do think it may chew up more battery in return.

That's probably true but the battery in the 7 is also better than earlier models too.

With my old Galaxy 4 often I could not get through a typical day without topping it off. My Galaxy 7 will often give me two days of typical use off one charge.

True! I went from GS4 to GS7 too, and it was a huge improvement! But the warning was more general. Look at the sports watches... Many feature the option to turn GLONASS on and off, and default to off because of the battery issue. Just not enough room in those for higher capacity batteries, yet.

[Lurch]

My GS7 kicksass on my old Oregon 450 horizontally, but I've only found one app (AlpineQuest) that can dampen the wild vertical swings. It's convinced me to get a newer dedicated unit, probably either the 64s or Oregon 700. GLONASS rocks! And when they add Galileo support... oh boy!

Karl - what does Galileo support give you? I just looked up the S8 specs, and it is supposed to support it. Just curious.
- Location (GPS, Galileo, Glonass, BeiDou)

In broad terms, GPS is US based global system w/ at least 24 active satellites, GLONASS is a russian based, also with 24, and Galileo is the EU version, with 15 operational satellites right now.

BeiDou is specific for China based nav with 5 geostationary satellites. It also supports QZSS, which is specific to Japan.

I believe the S7's chipset also supports SBAS, (WAAS), which the 60csx says it's WAAS enabled, but that's somewhat questionable.

[aiwetir]

I been running my iPhones (4S, 6, 6S, 7+) since 2014 against a Garmin 60CSX, Garmin 64, old Garmin eMap, Garmin Edge 500, Garmin Edge 520 (not all at once but usually a phone, a handheld AND an Edge device at the same time) and found in almost all cases the iPhone does better. The newer the better.

I'm not sure about Android, but I know iPhones seem to have a filter on them that isn't effective for activities comparable to geocaching (finding an "exact" point). It seems to stop the "jitter" when you aren't physically moving much and just shows you as stationary. On the other side, Android seems to have a much bigger lag in showing your actual position while moving.

I rode in a helicopter for 2 days recently and ran the iPhone, Garmin 64, and Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 side by side with great results from each of them (Tab gave the worst results). Granted you have a good view of the sky (but for the metal helicopter all around you). The lag on Android was comical because we'd be circling something tightly and you'd be chasing the point around on the map and not have any idea where you were. Battery life was best on the tablet, worst on the Garmin 64 and the 64 was left to sit with the screen off. Tablet and phone in constant use.

Battery life with GLONASS vs GPS only should really be negligible as whatever device you use, it's gonna last about a day. If you need more than that, you should bring spare batteries so you don't lose your data.

China has some strange scrambling they do on satellite navigation too and manufacturers have to abide by this. It's really hard to map things accurately in China with consumer satellite devices so whatever their systems are, seem unimportant to me, especially since I'm not there

Here are some photos from the helicopter stuff.

[RobFromRedland]

I got my Galaxy S8 last week and went hiking on Saturday. I did not do tracks with my S6 and my 60csx, but I did find one interesting thing when recording the track with my S8. When looking at the GPX file, the elevation gain that it shows is about 3200' (which seems exaggerated). But, Backcountry Navigator, in its "Stat Screen" shows an accumulated elevation gain of about 2300', which is probably pretty accurate. We started about 1700' and topped out about 3800' - so that would be 2100', but there was a bit of up and down as well, so I think the 2300' is pretty close. Too bad that value isn't exported anywhere.

I've also been experimenting with the Climbing Analysis options in TopoFusion and if you smooth the track and use the bicubic DEM interpolation method, it appears to be approximately the same as what BCN reported in its Stat Screen.

Next time I go out I'm going to try and do tracks from all 3 and see how they compare.

[miah66]

I've been using a Samsung Galaxy in some iteration in combination w/ several outdoor navigation apps in lieu of a dedicated GPS unit since 2013. They have been getting better and better. My first was a Galaxy S3, which did a fine job of tracking my location, but the elevation gain was not to be trusted. It did a good job of plotting your high and low elevations, but there would be wild swings in between, sometimes when you paused the track, or lost signal for a split second.

My current phone is an S6 and it does a great job. I've never bothered to buy a dedicated GPS unit b/c honestly, the smart phone just does it all. Battery life could be an issue if you aren't in airplane mode, and if you are using it as your primary camera, which I do. I still get 8-12 hours of use, but on a multi-day trip, you'll need a second battery or charging pack.

If I want better and more accurate elevation information, I use GPS Visualizer's "Convert a File" option and "add DEM elevation data" to create a .gpx that I can use to see my numbers.

I use Viewranger and I really like it, though to get the best map for hiking you need to purchase a $10 lifetime subscription to the USA Topo w/ Trails. Worth every penny.

[adamschneider]

If I want better and more accurate elevation information, I use GPS Visualizer's "Convert a File" option and "add DEM elevation data" to create a .gpx that I can use to see my numbers.

In the advanced options in the conversion form, there's now an unadvertised "Elevation gain/loss threshold" option. It's still experimental for now, because I need to do some more testing and try to figure out which values make sense for smoothing out gain/loss info.

[aiwetir]

I've tried the elevation data on GPS visualizer but it's always 50-100% off by too much. Is there something I'm missing?