Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

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Guy
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Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by Guy » April 17th, 2017, 4:35 pm

Since the pros and cons of phones versus dedicated GPS devices has been discussed of late I thought I'd compare my trusty Garmin 60CSX against my Galaxy 7 phone on Eagle creek Yesterday. While both had problems I was surprised how much better the Galaxy did over the Garmin. Galaxy recorded the same distance in and out to within a tenth of a mile while the Garmin was all over the place!

Blue=Garmin, Red=Galaxy
Garmin versus Galaxy.jpg
Garmin versus Galaxy - Eagle Creek.gpx
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retired jerry
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Re: Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by retired jerry » April 17th, 2017, 4:52 pm

thanks

that does it, I'm getting a Galaxy 7

at least I've been saying I'm going to do that for years. Plus the smart phone is a camera, phone, MP3 player, bigger screen,...

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adamschneider
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Re: Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by adamschneider » April 17th, 2017, 5:24 pm

I'm impressed. All three of the smartphones I've owned (two from LG, one from Samsung) have been crap in the GPS department.

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kepPNW
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Re: Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by kepPNW » April 18th, 2017, 5:50 am

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! :)
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Bosterson
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Re: Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by Bosterson » April 18th, 2017, 9:20 am

It would be interesting to see this repeated with the Galaxy vs a 64s. I think even the 62 is much more accurate than the 60csx, and I believe (per some testing Pablo did a couple years ago) that the 64 is even better than the 62.

Still impressive results from a phone though. How was the battery drain while you were taking the track? That's my biggest concern with using a phone as a main GPS unit.
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kepPNW
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Re: Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by kepPNW » April 18th, 2017, 9:26 am

Bosterson wrote:It would be interesting to see this repeated with the Galaxy vs a 64s. I think even the 62 is much more accurate than the 60csx, and I believe (per some testing Pablo did a couple years ago) that the 64 is even better than the 62.

Still impressive results from a phone though. How was the battery drain while you were taking the track? That's my biggest concern with using a phone as a main GPS unit.
Pretty sure the "real difference" is GLONASS support. More satellites, more luck keeping the signal in canyons. I don't prefer tracking with my phone because of the battery issue. On a 20-miler, taking a couple 360°s along the way and using a few other random apps, I need to recharge while hiking.
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RobFromRedland
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Re: Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by RobFromRedland » April 18th, 2017, 10:04 am

Very interesting - thanks for posting this. I will be getting a Galaxy S8 on Friday, so it will be interesting to see if it does as well or better than the S7.

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. Here is a screenshot of the analysis of a track I had:
TopoFusionClimbingAnalysis.jpg
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.

Not sure if that is the kind of think you are looking for, but it might be something to check out. TopoFusion isn't cheap to register, but it does have a free version that puts "holes" in maps as an incentive to register. I originally bought it many years ago to add GPS coordinates to photos - it will also produce one of those maps with clickable points to show the photo on the page (kind of like google earth does).
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Re: Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by Lurch » April 18th, 2017, 10:21 am

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

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Guy
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Re: Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by Guy » April 18th, 2017, 10:21 am

Bosterson wrote:It would be interesting to see this repeated with the Galaxy vs a 64s. I think even the 62 is much more accurate than the 60csx, and I believe (per some testing Pablo did a couple years ago) that the 64 is even better than the 62.

Still impressive results from a phone though. How was the battery drain while you were taking the track? That's my biggest concern with using a phone as a main GPS unit.
Agreed Nat, would really like to see this comparison with a 64. Re battery life I didn't do anything else with the phone but in Airplane mode it used about 25% of it's available battery power.
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Bosterson
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Re: Garmin 60CSX versus Galaxy 7

Post by Bosterson » April 18th, 2017, 10:27 am

Lurch wrote: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.
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