Going on trip, one of the questions I asked myself is: should I pack a laptop, a gps, a camera?
Now a new question: can a smartphone replace all these gadgets on a trip? The answer, based on my experience with my HTC Desire, Android based phone, is: yes, it can replace a laptop and a gps device on a city trip, but… Let me explain what I mean while I wait for my plane. First, by city trip I mean this is not a wilderness experience and you can find an electrical socket in need and definitely during the night (this is not a trekking gps lasting 24h on 2 AA batteries).
During such trip I have the following needs for electronic devices: photo camera, gps, phone, internet access, note taking.
For the photo camera the response is easy. If you need only p&s quality and you are not on holiday, then your phone might suffice for the occasional shoot. If you go for holiday and happen to own a better camera then take the better camera. If you can wait until arriving home to sort and process the photos then you can dispense of the laptop all together.
The gps question is, unexpectedly, the more complicated and the problem is 100% in the available software. Yes Google maps are great but they are online and if you are abroad you might not be willing to pay data roaming for maps? There are some applications which cache maps and I tested at least 6. Most of them don’t really work so I will narrow the list to 2. OruxMaps and Locus. They both offer similar functionality but differ greatly in usability. Orux has a dos game like interface and asks you for gps coordinates to cache while Locus allows you to select the region on the screen with a drag-able rectangle. Orux shows you some numbers of zoom which make no sense to you while Locus shows you a preview of the given zoom level. This should conclude the comparison and I found Locus quite usable in practice in the city. You can even hold your finger on a button for a short description. Compare this with the buttons from Orux which are hidden in the bar above and have to scroll to find. Don’t expect however to use the gps all the time, it will drain the battery in a few hours. Use it to get your bearings while you search for that secluded waypoint out of the tourists path.