Tablet Recommendation

[Flagfish]

Originally Posted by SVTatia

I am using one of THESE for the last year and a half. So far, excellent!

Huge battery and fantastic specs, check them out then check the price. I have 2, one is a spare

It's water and shockproof and 2 specs not listed: It has a "glove" mode, and it has 500 nits, which is perfectly readable even with the sun behind you.

Android 12 or 13, and it is heavy, but it is always on a holder anyway.

Second this. It works great in all light conditions. I wired in a port for it, and mounted with a RAM mount. Very happy. Several thousands of dollars cheaper than a dedicated chartplotter and we can watch movies at anchor!

[Tony.sparks]

My wife and I were first timers on a Pacific rally last year, and one of the most useful developments for us through the first season, was the evolution of our OpenCPN setup. We started with it installed on our laptops, but this was not ideal at the helm when the weather was foul, or the sea was up. We had the laptop skating around the cockpit floor on several occasions, not ideal.

I imported a rugged Android into Fiji, late in the season, and got it set up with the Balan MBTile files. This was a game changer for us. I called it my marriage saver.

I was soon being asked by other rally participants to get them tablets sorted. With another rally due to kick off in May this year, I did some serious research and put together a tuned turnkey package. Well specified (10.1", Mil Spec & IP rated, 8GB RAM, 256GB Storage) and tested Android tablet by BlackView, licensed OpenCPN and SW Pacific MBTiles (heaps of other MBTiles available). This tablet was the big brother of the one we dragged around Fiji for three months, which performed faultlessly.

This was initially distributed to rally members via the rally newsletter, but last week we put this up on its own site.

The info is here - www.projectx.org.nz.


You can see from the attachment why following a Navionics or C-Map route is not a good idea in Fiji. This was our favorite snorkeling spot

[Ratty1978]

Originally Posted by Arcsurf

I have used an IPad Pro at my helm for 2 years, however, the inability to upload Open CPN while in Fiji forced me to run back and forth to the nav station. I am looking for recommendations on best tablets for marine use and Open CON application.

I am interested in the Orca system, tablet and Core, as it has an instrument interface that adds to its usability, but am looking for experience and thoughts.

Thanks

I have a Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 8". It's rugged, so could be used anywhere. I just upgraded to the Active5. It's Android, OpenCPN works fine. My instruments are Garmin, so the Garmin App works to display on the tablet. I like having a dedicated chartplotter viewable from the helm. Backup, backup, backup. OpenCPN lets me plan on shore on a Windows PC and export routes and waypoints usable on both OpenCPN and Garmin. I also spend a good bit of time on other peoples' boats and for that (not relying on their chartplotter) the tablet is excellent. No autopilot or radar and have only experimented with AIS receive with a dongle. I have a VHF radio with AIS receive.