Samsung or Amazon Android Tablet for TRD

Hey TW. Longtime lurker, first time poster.

I recently upgraded to RAM mounts over my radio and am considering aN inexpensive ($200) smaller tablet to live Inside the truck and to be pulled out when necessary or desired on a longer road trip.

My inexperienced thoughts would be to use it for:
-media (music, movies, etc)
- OBD
- WiFi via iPhone hotspot at the campsite

couple questions for the experts:
- could I just use my iPhone 11 and make it less complicated?
- how are you using a vehicle specific tablet?
- what brand OBD do you love?
- what other vehicle specific apps would be good? I am a moderate outdoors person and novice off roader

 

I know that you can get Samsungs with GPS that don't require cell data service. I tested my TAB-E and Gaia GPS works fine.

 

I ran into this gps problem this past week. I loaded Gaia on my iPad, thinking the gps would show me on the map. Didn’t work. Could be me, could be tech.

 

Were you in a no cell area? You can download Google maps ahead of time to if it's just an imaging problem

 

The LTE iPads have a GPS chip. The WiFi ones do not.

if you don’t have an LTE iPad, you can get a Bluetooth gps unit.

 

I'd probably look into a new head unit that has android auto or Apple play.

Better integration

 

Can't believe you passed up on a chance to use the word "Dongle"

 

That was definitely a missed opportunity

You can buy a Bluetooth GPS dongle

 

Alright, so I'll do the Dongle for sure... the truck's head unit has GPS. I honestly don't feel like replacing it and the pliability of the tablet is really easy for me. Couple hundred bucks, RAM mounted, removable, etc.

I use Gaia for backpacking and would definitely use that. This would be my first Android product, believe it or not.

 

IIRC, iPads do not have a non-cellular GPS feature. A bluetooth GPS dongle should resolve that, though.

 

Absolutely. Whatever works for you.


Tablets can take up a lot of space, provide poor visibility to the screen in certain light depending on product quality (certain levels of the Samsung tabs), can bounce around a lot even in ram mounts which make it hard to see and can cause damage, and they typically obstruct either the view of the terrain or the head unit.


Just a matter of what you're looking for and how critical the performance needs to be. An example being is that a tablet in a truck will drop GPS satellites and have a much harder time gaining a lock than a designated GPS module with and antenna to the exterior due to the sheet metal shielding the tablet.

 

It’s a non cell IPad, ya I was up in the spencer Bay Area for the week.

I look into this.

 

Nice.

Yeah you'll either need a data connection via cell Hotspot or wifi to actively scroll through the map.

Or download it ahead of time.

+ GPS dingle.

 

A couple times I have downloaded the offline maps and ran into a problem when trying to get a new route or refreshing an existing route. No bueno. This was a while ago, but since, I have only relied on Gmaps offline for info, not routing.

Plenty of great offline options though. CoPilot GPS has a cheap, one-time subscription and okay-ish FS road coverage. If I was off road more often, the Gaia subscription would be worth it since their maps are much more extensive.

 

Look into a Kyocera Duraforce Pro cell phone. Android OS, GPS works without cell service, waterproof, shockproof, freezeproof militarized cell phone. Hugely popular with ADV motorcyclists and has a huge thread about them on ADVRider.com. I have one as my cell phone and these things are awesome for WAY less money than most smartphones today. I prefer the Verizon based unit as it already has a sapphire glass screen so you don't even need a screen protector.

 

Yup I'm a Gaia fan.

Apple carplay integrates with it

 

I had downloaded, just didn’t gps prep. I thought about hot spotting, but used the head unit map gps and compared with Gaia on the iPad and even once had google maps as well. All 3 had different names or unlabeled shit. Thinking about it now, should have linked to my phone.

 

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab A 10.1. It has built in GPS. It's a really nice tablet, but it's not small. Approx 6 X 10 inches. On sale it's around $200.

 

Cool. Thanks! I was looking at the 8” galaxy as the primary option because of its smaller screen than the 10.1”

Do you have issues with the speed of the droid tablet for your use?