Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting Phone Advice

I'm ready to upgrade my phone and asking for recommendations on how much storage to get. I have never downloaded offline maps before, but I am planning on doing so for hunting out west next fall. I have always used Android, and don't know if I want to switch to an iPhone. The Samsung models no longer come with expandable memory, what you buy is what you get. What do you guys use?
Thanks

The new Samsungs don't come with a mini SD memory card slot?

I don't know about Samsung but many brands no longer have SD slots. The idea is that a slot sells for almost nothing. But, they can sell you a bunch more internal memory for a couple 100 more money. Which do you think they'll do? Also, Onx maps can't be stored on an SD card. They have to be in the internal storage. If you buy a 128gb phone with no slot when you could get by with a 64gb with an SD card, what would the price difference be?

That said, my phone is a 64gb. If you're using Onx maps, the average downloaded map will use 45 to 50mb. They used to take up 100+ but Onx did a recent update that greatly reduced the memory needed. I had one that used 110mb. I updated it and now it's 47mb. HUGE difference. If you want to have a lot of maps, it can eat up storage fairly fast. You can have the map on your phone without downloading the data and then download it as you need it and dump it when you're done with it. That gets to be a pain sometimes and you need to be sure you have the data before you leave home.
Then there are photos. Those get very large.


So, for storing a lot of maps and photos, I suggest a 128gb phone. Too much storage is never a problem.

On the advice of experts here on the fire quite some time back, I bought a Sam 9 because it has a great GPS without cell service. And it does I guess. Works as advertised in the Marble Mountain and other wilderness areas around here. When I bought it, I bought OnX, and supposedly loaded topos for California and Nevada. Well, last trip, I'm in the Jackson Mtns between Winnemucca and Denio, trying to find an old mine, and the goddam base map won't load...useless...less than useless. Back to compass and paper maps. In the interests of full disclosure, I am a tech retard, but hell, if it works in the remote areas near home with no cell service, why wouldn't it work in central Nevada.
I guess my question is, what would I need to load plain old BLM or USGS topogs into my phone and dump this OnX schidt?

The GPS works without cell service, but you need to download the map data while you still have cell or WiFi service.

That sounds like a phone problem, not Onx. Turn off your wifi and cell data and see if it loads. If it fails again, download and reinstall HuntX. I've never had mine fail like that.

Thanks, Yeah, I supposedly loaded Nevada a couple days before the trip, and I checked it and it worked for about a hundred miles into Nevada...then map details died. I am going to play with it today, I may have maxed 64gb, but you'd think it would notify me, download incomplete.

Thanks for the answers so far. Allegedly I can get a 256 for the same price as a 128 if I sign up for a 3-year contract. Adding any more storage than that would cost extra. I was hoping to find out if 256 is enough?

That should be plenty, unless you're going crazy with stored maps and other data.

Unless you store lots of games and music, 256 is a bunch. Games are a real storage killer.

256 is more than enough.

Is it even possible to download an entire state at once for offline use? It sounds to me like you may have lost cell service and with it the ability to load the map from their server. But I don't use their app so may be out of line.

Just wondering here. Open HuntX on your phone, then go to offline maps. On each map you downloaded, is the arrow in front of the map name black or green? If it's black, you have the map but no actual data. If it's green, you have the data. If black, click on the arrow and it will do the download.
When you download a map on your computer, then sync it to the phone, only the map outline is downloaded, not the data, as the phone has to do that. You can't download to your phone with the computer. This is a common mistake for those learning to use HuntX, including yours truly.

While I have Wi-Fi I download the lowest resolution largest coverage map 150 miles wide covers 1/3 of Colorado. That way you have 100’s of square miles covered without a cell signal. Just a std iPhone X handles the gps well in all but the steepest canyons.