Anybody used the Sony Experia Z1 smartphone as a standby plotter?

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lampshuk

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My current contract is coming to an end and I am considering whether to get a Sony Experia Z1 (maybe z2). It looks nice and has a larger screen than my Samsung S2. Plus it's supposed to be waterproof(doesn't float, though).
I got Seaclear for my laptop and I can also run it on Android devices, so I am hoping it will make a useful backup.

Anybody tried it? Is the GPS on the Z1 reliable?

Thanks,

Lampsh.
 
I used one briefly, before it broke in everyday usage three months into a 24 month contract. The aps were useful but the same as you'd get on any android phone.

Screen costs around £200 to replace

Battery lasts about a day.

I wouldn't buy another given the cost of replacing the very vulnerable screen.

edit..

It is waterproof in the sense that neither manufacturer nor retailer will honor water related claims, including rain.
 
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obmij said:
I used one briefly, before it broke in everyday usage three months into a 24 month contract. The aps were useful but the same as you'd get on any android phone.

Screen costs around £200 to replace

Battery lasts about a day.

I wouldn't buy another given the cost of replacing the very vulnerable screen.

edit..

It is waterproof in the sense that neither manufacturer nor retailer will honor water related claims, including rain.
Click to expand...

Ouch! Given that they advertise the phones being washed with a hose I would have expected them to honour water claims, unless you take it scuba diving. If I go that route it's definitely something to check with Vodafone.

I was planning on getting a gel case which would help for some impacts, not if it falls on its lovely flat glass face, though.

1 day battery life is about par, I suppose, especially if the GPS is in constant use. I am wondering about rigging a USB charging point in the instrument panel under the spray hood. There is just about space to insert one. Need to figure out how to waterproof it.

An S4 was my default choice, skipper. Nice big screen (almost too big), loads of performance and Samsung definitely know their stuff with Android (so why do they have such a pathetic, lame, unusable backup system in Kies??? Sorry. Sore point.) I just like the idea of a phone I can use without a cumbersome waterproof satchel round it.

Thanks for your comments, both.

Lampsh.
 
I have a Z1 (for its ability to deal with a dunking) and I am delighted with it.

"Waterproofing" a mobile phone with a few ports is bound to be a bit hit & miss. All the ports have covers with rubber seals that look the business - but they won't work if you haven't bothered to close them. Which is probably why they won't guarantee against submersion.

One thing I like is that you can get a desk cradle for charging that uses two contacts on the outside of the case so I don't need to keep opening & closing the micro USB port wearing out (or damaging) the seal. The screen is big & clear enough for me to read (I need glasses to read most smartphones). Memory size is much better than my previous phone (Orange Monte Carlo) which struggled to load the apps I wanted.

No problems with the screen at all, but I haven't tried sitting on it & it does have a scratch guard film on it. One thing that concerned me initially was that the sealed case means that you can't easily swop the battery. I have in the past carried a couple of charged batteries with me to extend the time between charges. But the battery lasts several days with light use anyway & by the time it needs replacing I am likely to be switching to the next generation phone.

The GPS and compass work well, fast fix & accurate, despite its small size (compared to a plotter) I would be happy enough to have it aboard as an emergency plotter. The pinch zoom facility would mean you can use a small scale over view & zoom in as needed. That said I have not tried actually navigating the boat with it yet.
 
I use one with navionics and antares charts. Battery life is very good. The fact it is waterproof makes it ideal in the cockpit. I have a separate case with dual lock velcro to secure it to the instrument pod. I am very pleased with it.
 
Navigating? I use Navionics on either a samsung or a google nexus and in both cases I have used them in the cockpit to keep track whilst going through the inner passage round lands end or inside the manacles. But this is not navigating. You cannot sensibly do a route on such a small screen, for example. And whilst I know you are planning on a different system, you cant do CTS, BRG etc on navionics. Finally you wont get 24 hrs or anythinhg like than using the gps so you have to switch on and off to achieve battery life.

Same comments apply to my android tablet but at least a 10 inch screen is useable.

When I replace my phone I will go back to a basic phone with a several day battery life and no internet. The facilities of a smartphone are more imaginary than real.
 
bendyone said:
How do you run Seaclear on a Android device?
Click to expand...

Don't know yet. Bought the sea clear package from visitmyharbour.com and apparently there is support for Android. Haven't tried it yet, but looking forward to it. I have Navionics on my iPad and it is very impressive, but still much prefer the look and feel of Admiralty Charts - even virtual ones.

Not sure about the context of your comment re smartphones, Birdseye, but I use one 24/7 for work and "life" outside boating and would be lost (socially, professionally and geographically) without it nowadays. I do understand the comment about battery life of old phones, but disable all bells and whistles on a smartphone and they do pretty well, too.

Good point about the ports, Searush. I had not considered that. I think a couple of those cradles will be on the accessories list.
 
I have a experia z1 for 6 months works well with no problems but but I dont chuck it about . It has had a pint of beer washed over it with no problems
edit battery life was about a day and a half .After a weeks use that went up to 2+days and if I switch stamina mode on its about 4 days now
 
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lampshuk said:
Don't know yet. Bought the sea clear package from visitmyharbour.com and apparently there is support for Android. Haven't tried it yet, but looking forward to it. I have Navionics on my iPad and it is very impressive, but still much prefer the look and feel of Admiralty Charts - even virtual ones.

Not sure about the context of your comment re smartphones, Birdseye, but I use one 24/7 for work and "life" outside boating and would be lost (socially, professionally and geographically) without it nowadays. I do understand the comment about battery life of old phones, but disable all bells and whistles on a smartphone and they do pretty well, too.

Good point about the ports, Searush. I had not considered that. I think a couple of those cradles will be on the accessories list.
Click to expand...
Just to be clear, SeaClear doesn't work under Android. The charts from visitmyharbour.com
Needs "Marine Navigator" app by Ronald Koenig, about £5.50 from the PlayStore.
Click to expand...
SeaClear is available free of charge from the originator [URL="visitmyharbour.com"]visitmyharbour.com[/URL]
I run SeaClear under Wine on my Asus eeePC, with charts I scanned myself.
 
Ah, yes. That rings a bell. Sorry for any confusion caused.

Talking of confusion, your post seems to have got munged so it looks as though the visitmyharbour maps are free from seaclear. I don't believe this is the case.

I think the correct posting as you intended (please excuse my presumption, and do correct me if required) is:

Just to be clear, SeaClear doesn't work under Android. The charts from visitmyharbour.com
Needs "Marine Navigator" app by Ronald Koenig, about £5.50 from the PlayStore.
SeaClear is available free of charge from the originator http://www.sping.com/seaclear/
I run SeaClear under Wine on my Asus eeePC, with charts I scanned myself.

You may want to re-edit your posting.
 
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Last year I used both an iPhone 4 and an iPad for navigation, with paper charts inside as a backup. Both worked really well, iPad had at least 6 hours of battery with GPS, iPhone was normally plugged into power from inside the boat via a cigarette socket extension lead. I used both in armoured and waterproof cases (military spec) because I drowned my first iPhone and couldn't afford to drown another!. I now have a Sony Xperia Z1 and I think it will work just as well. I can't find a similar case for it, but as it is waterproof and I have it sitting in a gel case I am not too worried. Only proviso is that the manual does warn about not exposing it to SALT water. Oops! Still, I am sure a bit of spray and a lot of Scottish rain will be ok, the rain will rinse the salt off! The app I have is GPS Nautical Charts, which allows you to download charts for off-line access and also appears to allow route planning. I don't know when it is going to be tried out because I am currently hard of knee. Sailing might be a problem this year if I can't get on to the damn boat!
 
Thanks, Cappen.
Fingers crossed about the salt water! In principle I would have thought that salt water would be no more penetrative than fresh, though it will do more damage if it gets in.
Perhaps salt crystallizes in the covers and causes corrosion or other problems. In which case your strategy of washing it off with whisky sounds like a good one!
 
lampshuk said:
Ah, yes. That rings a bell. Sorry for any confusion caused.

Talking of confusion, your post seems to have got munged so it looks as though the visitmyharbour maps are free from seaclear. I don't believe this is the case.

I think the correct posting as you intended (please excuse my presumption, and do correct me if required) is:

Just to be clear, SeaClear doesn't work under Android. The charts from visitmyharbour.com
Needs "Marine Navigator" app by Ronald Koenig, about £5.50 from the PlayStore.
SeaClear is available free of charge from the originator http://www.sping.com/seaclear/
I run SeaClear under Wine on my Asus eeePC, with charts I scanned myself.

You may want to re-edit your posting.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't know what you mean.
 
lampshuk said:
Thanks, Cappen.
Fingers crossed about the salt water! In principle I would have thought that salt water would be no more penetrative than fresh, though it will do more damage if it gets in.
Perhaps salt crystallizes in the covers and causes corrosion or other problems. In which case your strategy of washing it off with whisky sounds like a good one!
Click to expand...
Maybe the salt crystallises in the speaker and clogs it, the microphone as well, also the headphone socket is waterproof, but maybe the salt would corrode the contacts in there. Just my thoughts, I certainly don't want to put it to the test. I find the xperia battery life excellent by the way, in normal use with stamina turned on I get 4 or more days out of it. OK GPS will change that, but that's what charging cables are for,
 
Cappen Boidseye said:
Maybe the salt crystallises in the speaker and clogs it, the microphone as well, also the headphone socket is waterproof, but maybe the salt would corrode the contacts in there. Just my thoughts, I certainly don't want to put it to the test. I find the xperia battery life excellent by the way, in normal use with stamina turned on I get 4 or more days out of it. OK GPS will change that, but that's what charging cables are for,
Click to expand...

But stuff like headphones & charging cables immediately mean it is NOT waterproof. That's why you can get the charge cradles that act on the two (brass? gold?) external contacts that ARE waterproofed. With the seals all in place then it should be waterproof - they had it ringing out in a pint of beer on their TV ads. I would certainly want to wipe it dry before opening any seals regardless of what moisture is on it.

Having killed a previous smartphone that was in my pocket when I slipped in surf boarding my rubber duck is the reason I went for the Xperia Z. I reckon it would cope well enough with that, but I have no intention of following my Grandson's pleas to put it in a pint like the ad!
 
Just to throw a spanner in the works, the phones you are talking about cost roughly £400, which is quite a lot of money. I have always gone for the top of the range phones, but when my contract was up last month I came across the Motorola Moto G. Granted the screen isn't quite as big as the Z1, S3 or S4, but it is as big as my old S2, has more memory, and a better CPU. It also has the latest android OS on it without any of the other add ons interfering with the interface that you get with Samsung.

I have been using the phone with Navionics, and Memory Maps for OS maps and has been great. For a phone that costs circa £100 you can't really go wrong. There is no lag in use either. My point is, if I get it wet or drop it whilst on the boat I wont be too upset, but if broke a £400 S4 or Z1 I would be very annoyed to say the least. The Moto G is a brilliant phone IMHO.
 
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