I have both, both have pros/cons but where I live (Florida) OnX is so limited in value. If you go elsewhere with legitimate trails its great but not here, also the fact that its not compatible with Android Auto yet is a dealbreaker.
It's fixed now
Honestly, using both Gaia and OnX interchangeably might be a good option, but they aren't going to be complete or have all the information that exists. Not until communities populate the databases with more information, anyways. Think how Google Maps in the early days wasn't perfect in route selection. It'll take time. OnX seems to have more in CA and CO than Gaia, but Gaia has US Topo maps in addition to the typical topo. If I'm not mistaken, Gaia is what we used in a mountaineering course to save our own custom made strip maps with routes we created and printed them for use as an overlay on our phone while away from a cell signal. OnX has that capability as well, but I've never used it. Honestly, a thorough write up of each is needed and I don't have the time nor patience for that on my phone haha. But what I'm getting at is any app that has topo or forestry map data will be great because all that info already exists, just not with a detailed write up of trail info like you'll find on those apps.
I think the advantage of the apps is that they have crowdsourcing to help populate the maps. I believe Garmin relies solely on map services.Okay, I maybe going against this entire thread and ask if anyone here also considered one of the larger handheld GPS dedicated Garmin units. I am leaning toward the Garmin 750i with a ball type mount on my BYOD type mount (Archetype). That way I can have a decent size screen and use my cameras in the Bronco, plus the unit can then be removed for hikes. I actually like the larger size screen of this over the smaller handhelds. This thing is built tough (to military specs) and can take getting wet and thrown around. It has an SOS function too that connects to satellites.
Before you say use your smartphone, I have already went down that route. For the past couple of years I have been a paid subscriber/user of GAIA on my Android phone. Granted I don't play with it often enough to be an expert, but when I do, I find it very frustrating and it has a huge learning curve. I won't even touch on the toughness of this vs regular smartphone or the concern of killing your phone battery while out hiking. For me, using my phone for hiking just didn't work well as it seemed the maps I wanted to use would lock it up (I downloaded a lot of high-quality detailed maps. That last point is another problem. I had almost to many choices of maps to choose from thru GAIA and there were many similar types that made me feel like I had to try them all. You would think is a good thing but in the end, it was a negative as I spent more time trying to pick which map to look at than actually hiking or off-roading. Switching between these similar map layers was very slow and also caused lockups, which shouldn't be a problem for the Samsung 9S. All those map options ended up making me just get frustrated and put it in my pocket. I did try to use it with Android Auto once and felt it was doing the same buggy things. Sometimes less is more I think applies here. So, just curious if others have thought of going this route too. I just think a dedicated unit always works better than a jack of all trade options (i.e. Smartphone). Maybe one day they can do everything but I don't think they are there yet.
Pros/Cons? I already know pice is a con but am willing to overlook that if I actually use something as intended. Thanks!
