The Interest Of Tablets and Smartphones in Outdoor Sports

Although they were originally not designed for this, digital tablets can be great companions for the practice of outdoor activities, sometimes even better than dedicated devices. Many sports enthusiasts already use them in areas as diverse as boating, flying, motorsport or even just walking or cycling.

Why dedicated devices have become less attractive

Electronic devices accompany us more and more for sports and outdoor recreation, trying to respond to our demand for more comfort, pleasure and/or security like:

- Geographic positioning and GPS navigation

- Cellphone or satellite communications 

- Taking and sending digital pics and videos

- Training assistants: effort, distance monitoring etc.

To meet the demand of sports enthusiasts, manufacturers have developed specialized equipments for open air use, which are shockproof, splashproof, dustproof etc.. While they generally go a great job, these devices no longer meet the expectations of modern practitioners:

- They are mostly single-tasked

- Their features are not evolutive in time

- Their non-intuitive ergonomy (buttons, small screens ..) is outdated compared to current standards in smartphones and tablets

- Market demand is not sufficient to justify frequent range update, which prevents these products from getting the latest technology in terms of screen, GPS, communication ...

- They are expensive

The strengths of tablets and smartphones in outdoor

In comparison, smartphones and tablets have a lot of assets: Superb screens, very intuitive use, the ability to fill many functions simultaneously (communication, GPS, photo taking etc etc) ... They integrate the latest components, making them fast and energy efficient, with great battery life. Finally and most importantly, they benefit from an incredible proliferation of applications allowing everyone to access easily some features and functions previously reserved for professionals: Ultra-detailed weather routing, specialized maps etc. .. All this for a reasonable price.

This is not all: while dedicated equipment are useless when not practicing, tablets are always with us and help us to prepare our trip or outing. For example  a paragliding alti-variometer will have no interest outside the flight phases, whereas a tablet will help prepare the flight, identify danger zones, check the weather etc. at home, plus will serve as a alti-variometer in flight!

These assets are already well known to many practitioners in the world: nearly two thirds of American private pilots use the iPad in flight, numerous navigators (Including professional racers) use it on oceans.

Reliable tools, even outdoor

Tablets and smartphones are generally remarkably reliable: Monolithic construction, absence of hard drive and hinges, absence of physical keyboard make them much more durable than PCs.

Nevertheless, tablets and smartphones are not intended for extreme use. Fortunately, there are performance protective cases which will make your precious device virtually indestructible, or at least capable of surviving easily to all shocks, vibrations, water sprays, dust and other issues encountered in sports and outdoor activities! Similarly there are more and more electronic accessories complementing the functionality of tablets to meet the demands of enthusiasts.

This is what we invite you to discover on our website!