BW,
The GPS apps are great, and if you are within cell range most of the time, the phone is handy to have anyway. Where we moose hunt, we get occasional cell coverage, and have a means of charging a phone. It is pretty damn handy. Other hunts, there is no cell coverage and the phone stays in base camp. I prefer the GPS if picking one.
I have almost zero faith in my phone surviving from day to day. They are a fragile, disposable, (yet powerful and expensive) piece of equipment. I couldn't begin to list the phones I've broken.
I've been using a GPS for about the same amount of time I've had a cell phone, and I'm on my second one.
You may be a tad tougher on things than a normal human.
