Originally Posted by
cafzali
My only "knock" against smartphones for navigation is there often seems to be a slight lag between where you actually are and where the phone puts you. In most cases, it won't be big enough to make much of a difference and/or cause you to turn early, but it seems funny given the processing power of a typical smartphone that that happens. I still think nothing beats a Garmin Edge, especially when it comes to battery life. I like that I don't have to think much about charging it and it works pretty effortlessly. Whether it's worth having a separate device for this purpose is a subjective thing, obviously.
The advantage of the Garmin GPS units is generally size, the ability to handle inclement weather and battery run time. Not to mention they are designed for use with bikes. As was mention by others the 800 series units offer a bit more bling factor and a more advanced UI.
I don't know how fast the 800's are but when I load routes into my Garmin 705 it does take a couple minutes for the route to load. I remember reading of other people mentioning the same thing so this is not unusual.
The "lag" you mention with smart phones is mostly due to the design of the app. The phone's themselves work fairly fast. Most of the lag is based on, "How often the app is sampling the GPS signal". Different apps do this differently. The "Google Navigation" app I use for work is likely sampling at a very high rate. When using it there is almost no discernible lag. One of the other apps I use for cycling ( Locus (free) ) allows the user to set the sampling rate ( based on either time ( secs ) or distance ). I have mine set for every ten seconds. The less time involved the more power the phone has to provide because it is working harder. This gives more accuracy ( less lag ) but will use more battery power. When ever I use any of my cycling apps I really don't consider "lag" to be a major issue. Sometimes when I approach a turn on my bike the app will prompt with , "Make right turn in 200 ft." , although in reality I am more closer ( like 100 or 150 ft. ) depending on how fast I am riding. If I really wanted more accuracy I could change it but then it would use more battery life.