Which Samsung Tablet S# to use with gaia gps for best results?
I would like to use Gaiagps on a tablet, Samsung Galaxy S series device. Which S series tablet are you using and does it function seemlesly and consistently ?
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Also curious about this. I'm an Android user but get so jealous whenever friends bust out an iPad and have their Gaia actually move smoothly on the screen, sadly it just doesn't make sense to pay for a 2nd subscription to use Gaia on my old iPad. Sidebar: really would love to have account shareable between iOS and Android under same subscription (so I can use iPad or my Samsung phone).
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@randy.p
We don't have a specific device that we recommend, although we've noticed that the Samsung Tab series seems to be popular with users.
To run the app, you need a tablet with:
-A GPS chip, or purchase a GPS receiver
-Android 4.1+
-A compass sensor
Based on reports from users, performance is better with:
-lots of RAM and a fast CPU, which helps load maps faster
-lots of hard drive space for downloading maps for offline use (or an SD card)
You may find these forum threads helpful:
GaiaGPS
OverlandBound
ExpeditionPortal
Reddit
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@Mykh
Thanks for using Gaia GPS.
You can access your subscription from any device.
You can download the iPad Gaia GPS app for free in the App Store here.
Once installed, log into the app with the email tied to your Gaia GPS account to access your membership on this second device.1 -
I spent quite a bit of time using Gaia on a Samsung tablet with additional micro sd card memory for lots of downloaded maps (eventually over 100 gb). While it worked moderately OK for short periods, the memory card would eventually corrupt & lose the downloaded maps. I changed cards three times suspecting problems with the actual cards but the results were the same - loss of all downloaded data eventually. After researching the features and efficacy of the IOS Gaia I decided to shift to an Ipad and use resident storage rather than a card. The difference has been remarkable. Faster downloads, smoother operation, now over 150 gb of maps without a problem and many features that I like better (although there are a couple of Android Gaia features that momentarily miss).
From my experience, while Gaia can work on Samsung (or other Android tablets) with user expanded storage, it seems more stable with resident storage. I wonder if it might have something to do with how Android OS addresses the expanded storage? I'm glad I went to the Ipad and have no regrets in making the switch.
Howard
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Thank you Jim and Howard!
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Thank you for your thoughtful reply's. I posted this question nearly two months ago to help a friend of mine who was determined to use an android device with GaiaGPS. He proceeded to buy a Samsung device for the use, without any timely comment from this inquiry. I do not know if he has used Gaia on his Samsung device yet. The adventure we were planning for got canceled and I have not traveled with him since his purchase. But we will travel on an adventure in the future and if he shares his opinion about Gaia and the Samsung Tab I'll post it here.
RandyP
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Howard, great info.
From a CS background - most likely the internal hard drives just read and write faster, there is alot more i/o deman on the external SD memory cards.
It's a hardware limitation, less an issue with Android itself.
I am trying to build a hardware solution for Gaia on Android - will keep you updated.
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My Samsung Tab S6, with an external 512GB micro SD is working great. If you transfer Gaia and its storage to the micro SD, the faster transfer rate the micro SD has, the better the app will run. I have google's maps imported at all zooms, and am running around 12 layers. Everything loads quickly.
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I have a tab S6 with 256GB external micro SD card. I switched from iPad specifically to be able to download high quality maps for use offline. Compared to the IOS version the android version is buggy. So far downloading maps works reasonably well and I have had no problem with Gaia access the external drive. So what problems am I seeing? Its random if I can delete a map or not. When I reported it to Gaia they said it was a known issue. Its pretty important because even 256GB is a limited number of trips. I must be able to delete. The other significant problem I am having is my android device wont sync. Im guessing its because of the massive amount of offline maps. Overall - glad I switched.
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I agree with Michang757 - must get a good quality high speed micro SD Card. Quite an investment but you wont be sorry.
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