iPad mini 4 is a really good device for these purposes (seems to have very good and sunlight-readable display), but crazy expensive with the LTE option.
The new mini 2019 is quite pricey but my mini 4 with 128 GB and 4G is about to go for about 200 EUR – is that crazy money by aviation standards?
To answer the question that the original poster asked:
I find Skydemon works very well with the internal GPS in my Ipad Mini in most of the aircraft I fly. If you go for an ipad be sure to get the cellular version as the wifi only version does not have a gps included.
Or spend the difference on a Garmin Glo BT GPS and get more solid GPS reception.
I use a Nexus 7 and/or my phone (Nokia 8). The Nexus is getting old, but still OK. The phone is no trouble, but of course is much smaller than the Nexus. Samsung and a few others have high performance tablets, similar performance as a phone, but I haven’t really looked into it lately. I like pure Android, and since the Nexus 7, I haven’t seen any nice pads.
I see no reason whatsoever to use Apple. Slow, expensive, and shuts down for no reason (“temp” according to Apple) + Apple products just give me a bad feeling.
But, all these tablets works best if you can mount it on the panel or window. That’s why I tend more and more to use my phone. Fits on my kneepad and I still have lots of space for notes and maps. It has a small screen, but more than large enough. Navigation is the main purpose, and while bigger is better, anything larger than a phone is not necessary for you to get from A to B. It’s simply a matter of getting used to. There are kneepads with room for a small tablet, but that doesn’t look like an optimal solution, bulky and awkward to take notes at the same time.
I would recommend a medium to high performance Android phone. There are loads of them, and some are pretty “cheap”. They ARE big enough, and they all have all kinds of connections. As a backup you have your daily phone. There are real solid (military solid) Android phones, like the CAT S52, made for rough outdoor conditions, and can handle all temps. Probably not the fastest, but more than fast enough for SD. costs around €500.
For planning I now use my Acer Chromebook R13. It runs SD just fine (except no GPS) and batteries last for ages. Any other PC will do as well (using the windows app). That’s how these things work. You plan on your PC (or similar), save to the “sky” and pick up the plan on your aircraft device, whatever that is.
Does SD sell via resellers?
No, it’s subscription based, directly on the web page exclusively AFAIK
Peter wrote:
Does SD sell via resellers?
You certainly don’t have to and I would think most people don’t, but I know there is a shop in Sweden that sells SD.
Most buy direct but it also sells through a number of pilot shops.
Happy birthday to SD, my 3rd year of subscription, SD works pretty well surely in south of EU, from Portugal to Greece.
I made the mistake of buying a Sony Experia (now with Android 5.0) with little memory, but able to take a huge micro SD. I’ve got plenty of SD space left, but I’ll have to replace it. It cannot today download the EasyVFR Basic upgrade needed. It will not allow me to remove lots of apps installed at factory, which I do not use, but insists I remove apps I need and use.
Next phone will not be a Sony product.
