Touchscreen Tablet / Computer for cockpit

[goboatingnow]

I have an iPhone 11 it’s not sunlight readable and within two hours direct exposure to Greek summer sun it’s will overheat and shutdown. My iPads are worse

[wingssail]

We have two phones, both LCD high res screens, and two Android tablets also LCD panels. None of these are easily readable in direct, bright, sunlight (by our eyes at least). The best is the Android we use for Race Navigation. It is 1000NIT

They all work well in the shade of our dodger or the awning, but in direct, bright, sunlight they are very hard to see especially small fonts. We CAN read the super large characters in on the Android we use for racing and piloting but the difficulty of seeing the screen slows down anyone operating it, although my wife Judy copes pretty good using it to navigate in races.

So while we get by with these devices I would not like relying on any of them for full time navigation especially in harsh conditions.

We believe we can navigate much more quickly and more accurately with a large screen, below deck.

We do not have an on-deck chart plotter.

[dahult]

It's not cheap ($800) but I have a TriplTek 8 Pro and am very happy with it. It is an Android tablet with one of the highest NIT values available (1200 Nits) which makes it quite usable in direct sunlight. It is a little heavy (1.3 lbs) but for the price and size it is waterproof (IP68), the display is excellent, it is fast, has lots of memory (256GB) and battery life is great. It includes a lot of sensors (GPS, compass, accelerometer and more) and communication capabilities ( 4G LTE Cellular, WiFi 2Ghz/5Ghz, Bluetooth, NFC).

[jbinbi]

@dahult Which nav sw do you run on that android tablet?

BTW, as OP, I left out a critical piece of info. All I am looking for this for is afternoon daysailing in the bay.

If I was cruising, even just daysail to daysail to the next harbor, I would get a MFD. The MFD w GPS and installation would run about 2k for 9" one. Well worth the extra 1-1.5k cost over a tablet IMO.

[Bent Bugle]

Have a look at Sailproof, they make a tablet specifically for sailors...all the bells & whistles...the last one they bought out has a replaceable battery, their called "fully rugged tablets", & live up to their name..

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by dahult

It's not cheap ($800) but I have a TriplTek 8 Pro and am very happy with it. It is an Android tablet with one of the highest NIT values available (1200 Nits) which makes it quite usable in direct sunlight. It is a little heavy (1.3 lbs) but for the price and size it is waterproof (IP68), the display is excellent, it is fast, has lots of memory (256GB) and battery life is great. It includes a lot of sensors (GPS, compass, accelerometer and more) and communication capabilities ( 4G LTE Cellular, WiFi 2Ghz/5Ghz, Bluetooth, NFC).

Thank you for that. Yes, I know about Tripltek and decided a few days ago to buy one, it's on the way now. Irritates me slightly that is costs almost twice as much as a Garmin MFD, but that's what it takes, I guess, to get a bright screen running on a battery, etc etc

Originally Posted by Bent Bugle

Have a look at Sailproof, they make a tablet specifically for sailors...all the bells & whistles...the last one they bought out has a replaceable battery, their called "fully rugged tablets", & live up to their name..

Thank you for that, Looking at the specs there is nothing exceptional about this tablet, it's 1000Nits, which is fairly common, and not water proof, etc. I've found several of like this including the one I am replacing. After using it for 5 years we decided when we needed to replace it was worth it spending some more money to get a brighter screen.

[AKA-None]

Originally Posted by lestersails

I use an iPad for primary navigation on my own boat (mostly day sailing) and as a backup on bareboat cruising. W.r.t. the earlier questions re the brightness of iPads vs iPhones - mine are different. Here is an image of an iPad 9th generation and an iPhone 13 mini. Both are set on max brightness. The phone is brighter.



I have had the same experience as others have cited here in that it gets pretty toasty in the sun and both my phone and iPad have shut down for overtemp.



They are ok as a backup, I think they are pretty limited as a primary.

To be fair it appears both devices were running different settings

The I pad is turned down maybe automatically

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by lestersails

I use an iPad for primary navigation on my own boat (mostly day sailing) and as a backup on bareboat cruising. W.r.t. the earlier questions re the brightness of iPads vs iPhones - mine are different. Here is an image of an iPad 9th generation and an iPhone 13 mini. Both are set on max brightness. The phone is brighter.

I have had the same experience as others have cited here in that it gets pretty toasty in the sun and both my phone and iPad have shut down for overtemp.

They are ok as a backup, I think they are pretty limited as a primary.

To be further fair, these don't seem to be in bright, direct, sunlight. Look at the soft shadows of the straps. A lot of screens look pretty good in the shade.