smartphone vs Garmin

It all depends on what you expect to do with your phone/Garmin device. If you're going for a two or three hour ride maybe your phone is sufficient. If you're happy just to record your efforts in Strava with the smart phone screen switched off, you might get quite a few more hours out of the battery. However if you planned a route to follow and your out all day where you want to be able to see the screen whenever you need (following a route), the display will have to be on all the time. I don't think any phone can do this while the GPS is running. If you want to ride all day with the screen on you will need a backup battery for you phone.

If you read the Garmin blurb an 800/810 battery lasts 17 hours - I'm not sure if thats with the screen on, but if it is then a Garmin would be a much better option than a smart phone in my opinion.

In the past 2 years I have used an iPhone running ViewRanger when doing my century rides, but it is a complete PITA. I would love to hear from anyone with either 800/810 that can verify if it can run all day with the display turned on. I would expect the screen's backlight would have to be at a minimum, but as long as it could be read without too much trouble..

Lisa76UK, you could do worse than read this thread: http://road.cc/content/forum/108899-smartphones-and-long-rides-strategy

Garmin for strava & nav.
Phone for, phone stuff.
I don't like putting all my eggs in one basket, using strava kills my battery life unless you turn off a load of functionality, and makes having a phone pointless.
You can pick up an Edge 500 for £160 from garmin, so bound to be less elsewhere.

I have a Garmin 610 GPS watch that has running and cycling mode and can connect to both hrm and cadence sensor and works a treat and is not very bulky , would definitely recommend.

Can't go wrong with a garmin 500. Bought mine primarily to help me navigate around roads I've never visited before. But now I also record and upload how rubbish I am as well!

I've got a Foreunner 310XT and it's ace. I have it set on my bike for speed, distance, time, cadence and heart rate. I also use it when running. But...I also use a smartphone with Endomondo on it as I find this makes it easier to log my rides as the data transfer is instant whereas I have to get the garmin dongle out and a laptop to analyse my ride. I keep my smartphone in an Otterbox so if I do crash (which I do when on my mountain bike) it's safe. You can get an ottebox for your galaxy but you're right the note 2 is a little bulky. It's not waterproof but will stop most moisture and dust getting in to the places you don't want it. I've had my phone for 3 years in it and it's taken a fair few beatings!

Sony do an Xperia smartphone that's waterproof if that's your greatest concern.

Garmin and Strava use topography data for altitude, so when you upload your route it should correct it and put in the right ascent and descent values. As for what to use, Dedicated GPS unit over a phone all the time. That comes from experience and using them for navigation in the middle of no where on a MTB.

fair enough. I have a Cateye cycle computer with a built-in barometer and it was startling inconsistent and inaccurate. I guess you can get better ones!

GPS is very inaccurate for altitude measurements. All the satellites can be thought of as being in a very similar Z-plane (altitude), so triangulation along the Z-axis - altitude - is very difficult to ascertain accurately. This is why any decent piece of kit that tries to measure altitude does not rely on GPS, but corrects with a barometric altimeter.

Unless your waterproof pouch is insanely rigid (like a steel box) then the pressure sensing device in your phone will be unaffected by being inside it. I'm curious why you want a barometer reading anyway - does it also function as an altimeter? I'd think your gps could give more accurate altitude measurements than a phone sensor.