Originally Posted by
bbbean
Using your criteria, of course.
Personally, I prefer Root Beer to Coke. It would never ocur to me to write a post about how silly it is for people to drink coke when they could be drinking Root Beer.
Err... OK? I was specifically targeting the "battery life" issue. My last sentence was specifically to avoid making this thread about "Garmin vs smartphone", which I have little interest in debating, as I see pros and cons on both sides.
But since you brought it up, battery life is a major reason I prefer my 510 to my iPhone for a bike computer. While I see your point, I don't always start a ride with my phone at 100%. There isn't always a charge available at the end of a ride. Sometimes I stop for lunch and want to use my phone to email/facebook/makecalls/generally burn battery life. I like to use my phone for a camera. Etc, etc., etc.
Yeah, this is never an issue for me. Horses for courses I guess. I don't set out on a ride with 20% on my phone as a rule, and 10% drainage per hour means I don't get near full battery drain unless I ride for a long time. Typical rides for me are 1-3 hours. It's never an issue.
Also, if my Garmin runs out of power mid ride, I'm annoyed, but I'm not in danger or seriously inconvenienced. If my phone goes out on me mid ride, I could conceivably be stranded or worse.
My answer to this is that if your phone is such a life-and-death thing, invest in a small and cheap portable battery charger for emergencies. I've had my phone die in my pocket when I thought I wasn't using it because some app decided to go into a death spiral and drain the battery. If your phone is your lifeline, then a backup battery should be part of that. They don't weigh that much. They are cheap. Check Monoprice or Amazon.
Put me in the Bike computer beats iPhone by a mile category.
Again, that is not what this thread is about at all.