Originally Posted by
Dan333SP
I don't know how long everyone else rides, but I use a GPS app on my iphone (cyclemeter), tuck it into my jersey pocket, and run Pandora as well, yet I can ride a century and still have ~20% battery remaining. I guess the battery life would be a problem if I were doing double centuries, but who here is really doing that? For my average 25-40 mile rides, it's a non-issue.
Some people, myself included, like to have some in-ride feedback. Having the screen on for that is a major drain. Besides that, phone GPS has never given me terribly accurate results (though I haven't used a phone for this purpose in 2-3 phone generations) and most phones aren't compatible with the Ant+ HRMs and speed/cadence sensors. I think that phones will close the gap even more (hopefully we'll start seeing more BT LE phones/peripherals, soon), but even so, there's something to be said for dedicated devices.