Ipad vs Android tablet

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UngaWunga

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I have an older android tablet for running Garmin Pilot. Pilot crashes occasionally on it, and the hardware is too old to update the OS.
Is it worth switching to an ipad? I hear that the ipad version of pilot has newer features that the android doesn't have.

Also, my instructor uses Foreflight on an Ipad, and the weather forecasting tools are a ton better than what I can see in Android + Pilot. Is that a Pilot limitation or a Pilot + Android limitation? I'll be using it for IFR training/flying.

Suggestions on which model of ipad to get? I see prices all over the range.
 
I don't use Pilot, but from everything thing I've read/heard, yes. The iPad version of Pilot is supposedly more robust and has fewer crashes/glitches than the Android version.
 
A couple of things from an Android tablet EFB user.

If Pilot is your EFB of choice, the iPad version is orders of magnitude superior than the Amdroid version. It works just fine on my wife’s 10th gen iPad. People use it in the current mini’s, too.

If you want to stay on Android and your stuck on not upgrading your tablet, try Avare as an EFB. It’s free and so is the data.

If you want to stay on Android and are willing to move to something like a 2019 or newer Samsung S6 or better, give iFly a try. If you like it, and want to use it on an iPad later, it’s the exact same features.

I’ve been on Android w/iFly EFB for 5+ years now, but G’s Smart Charts (only on iOS) will result in my changing to that platform/product next spring when my current subscription expires, assuming they continue to support and expand that offering.
 
I have both Foreflight and Pilot, and I have an iPad and an Android phone and tablet.

Yes, the iPad version of Garmin Pilot is far more sophisticated than the Android version. I don't even think of it being several versions behind. I'm fairly confident there are features in Pilot for iOS that will never be in the Android version.
Foreflight only runs on iOS.

Which iPad? Well, I think the most popular one is a Mini because of it's form size but if you have been happy with the size of your Android tablet in the cockpit, the same size for an iPad will work as well. Beyond that, the amount of memory, etc mostly depends on what else you use it for. I've always maxed out on memory because I know me - my iPad replaced my laptop for nonbusiness purposes every early on (I've been using one for over 14 years).

One other Android-iPad difference to be aware of. Your Android tablet probably has an internal GPS chip. In the iPad world, that is only available with the cellular version, although you don't have to buy a cellular data plan for it. Whether you need it or not is personal preference. I've never had a cellular iPad, choosing instead to rely on external and panel-based sources for location data in flight.

And I agree with @TCABM. If you want to stay in the Android world, the only solid choice is iFly, although I know people who have gotten away with the free Garmin-owned FltPlan Go!
 
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I have an 11' diagonal android tablet now. Which flavor Ipad should I get? This is aviation, so I guess I need to throw money at the problem :lol:

Size matters, I wouldn't want to go smaller than that. (that what she said...)
 
Will the air version run pilot and foreflight well?
 
Avare has is nothing more than a moving map. Flight planning is garbage on both Avare and AvareX (the X is the ipad version and its somehow worse). Flightplan Go seems to be OK but to me its not really a VFR tool... LOTS of options when you really need a moving map.

FF originally was a scheduling app but morphed into an EFB. But its funny that it never had 3D vision until recently. FlyQ has had it for years and its an amazing tool to have. Turn on the 3D vision and be amazed. THey need to make that into a goggle of some sort.

As for size, the iPad mini is perfect. The 10+in tablets simply take up to much room and weigh to much. The 8in display is big enough to read, and small enough to stick anywhere. I have an iPad mini 5 and its the perfect size for a standard GA cockpit.

The ipad overheat issue is real. So if you are not in a climate controlled flight deck invest in a cooling system.
 
Anthem said:
There is very little reason to ever run on android at the current moment as the ipadOS versions, options, and stability are just better.
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Oh how wonderful it must be to live in a tiny bubble and believe only 1 thing in the world exists.

I've used GP on iOS - sucks balls, sucks worse on Android.
I've used foreflight - hate it. It's "Apple intuituve" which basically means it blows. I HATE when I have to use my wife's iDevices. God they suck.
I've used Avare - meh, but it's free, and for VFR and -D-> planning, it's great.
I've used TrueFlight (better than the first two, and was miles ahead of both for a while but now extinct - bad/no marketing)
I've used - and still currently use iFlyEFB. Which works on 3 different platforms.

But yeah only iPads work and nothing else does. Maybe for the myopic circlejerkers it does.

I will NEVER again run an iDevice for aviation. I'll tear out a Garmin transponder and replace it before I am forced to use iCrap.
 
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Thanks for your info, I'm only considering Garmin Pilot or Foreflight. I currently have a subscription to Pilot, and will continue to use that until it comes time to renew. The Android tablet is fine for watching videos,etc, but its slow and the OS is out of date. I'm mostly concerned with using the new tablet for flying duties. Anything else is a bonus.
 
1000% run GP on iPad. I'm switching when my tablet dies.
 
Anthem said:
Oh not at all. I run android on things where it excels at (namely warehouse/POS scanners ) and various other things. But when it comes to the "Best" platform to run an EFB - get a dedicated Ipad. There is a reason why its preferred and chosen - its just better. Multiple platforms exist - just one is better in just about every regards. Especially if you are interfacing with Garmin equipment - as essentially only GP and FF talk directly and exchange data with Garmin enabled equipment. if you feel like you have to run another platform because you dont like it, ignorant about it, or are biased against it - sure. But that doesnt change reality - that the best platform for running an EFB for GA (and almost all commercial flight plan ops as well) is going to be on ipadOS.

oh yeah, IflyEFB - the stellar company that completely shafted its earlier supporters by promising to deliver on a package for their early adopters and then F*ed everyone over, right ? Wasnt that them ?
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No. That wasn't them. And no, Foreflight is not the best. They just have a marketing team to make people believe it is, and bribed Garmin so they could force people into using it. It costs more, it has less features per price point, you can't customize it as much, you can only use it on i****. So how is it the best? Oh yeah, it's not.

Might want to delete the libel though.
 
Anthem said:
yeah, the vast majority of the market cant be right (pro and amateur). . .. marketshare means nothing, right ?. . just blame it on marketing. This is like the Beech guys who say the Bonanzas are better than the Cirrus SR22 - yet Beech delivered 1 last quarter and Cirrus delivered like 87 SR22's. . . . uh huh. All marketing. .

This can be a religious war - and it usually is in many categories. But from a strictly aviation EFB standpoint - sorry, most everyone is going to put their eggs on an IpadOS platform over android or others.
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Again. Bribery and forcing people into it, that's why the market share. Allow all EFBs to talk to Garmin and see what the market does then. I've seen the FF koolaid and BS for 10+ years. It get announced they added something, it was on previous EFBs for 5 years and get hailed as innovative. No, no it's not. But you have people like you convinced they did and say its the best when 5 years behind others.
 
And you don't think it's the little bit most convenient that that FF is the only one that's allowed to talk to them and why they have the market share they do. It's not an even playing field for marketshare, and not even a valid argument for the best. When FF starts to offer on more than one platform, only then can you have a valid argument for the best.
 
You guys remind me of a story US Grant wrote in his memoirs about Braxton Bragg, a Confederate General.

On one occasion, when stationed at a post of several companies commanded by a field officer, he was himself commanding one of the companies and at the same time acting as post quartermaster and commissary. He was first lieutenant at the time, but his captain was detached on other duty. As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermaster—himself—for something he wanted. As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for so doing. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right. In this condition of affairs Bragg referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post. The latter, when he saw the nature of the matter referred, exclaimed: “My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarrelling with yourself!”
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Anthem said:
….This can be a religious war….
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No can be’s about it. EFB choice and platform choice for most people is a religion.

Seriously though, FF made significant inroads at 141 programs, 135 ops, corporate flight departments, DOD, and the airlines early. Market penetration is great for a business, but best is subjective.

I’ve said it before on this topic and I’ll say it again; what’s best for me is highly dependent on who’s paying for my device and my subscription. Outside of that, the only thing the GTN gives me is ADS-B info since my plane isn’t equipped with a FlightStream. Hopefully our next one will have that so I could take more advantage of GPs features & connectivity, but the sole reason I’ll be moving away from iFly when my current subscription ends in 14 months is SmartCharts.

For me, the switch is costly; purchase of an iDevice, a case, and the subscription. I’ll only make that decision if G continues to improve SmartCharts. If they abandon it (and I doubt they will), well I’m not making that change.

It is what it is.
 
pfarber said:
Avare has is nothing more than a moving map. Flight planning is garbage on both Avare and AvareX (the X is the ipad version and its somehow worse).
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Not quite correct. Yes, Avare is not much more than a moving map with rudimentary flight planning and weather, but that's all many pilots need. X isn't the iPad version; it's the new version, period, a complete rewrite of the code which unlike the old version runs on multiple platforms (Android, ipad, and Windows). X is still in development and rough around the edges... IMO its interface is generally better and more modern than the old version but they've dropped some useful features in the name of simplicity.

For most people it makes sense to use the same type of device in the cockpit that you use on the ground. Unless you're using Foreflight because you're a pro pilot or otherwise need its features.

Me, I have an android phone, and an android tablet that I use both in the air and on the ground. In flight, the phone is the backup to the tablet.
 
Mahneuvers said:
1000% run GP on iPad. I'm switching when my tablet dies.
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My current tablet is a Samsung Galaxy Tab A running Android 11 from 2022. Its a little behind, as the current version of Android is 16. Most apps still run on it, and the battery life is still good. Can't update its OS because of the hardware. Garmin Pilot runs slow on it, take a long time to start up, and I'm running out of memory due the stuff Pilot needs to cache (only 32GB).
 
Anthem said:
It is. But only because people tie it in to what they use daily. If you run a platform just for aviation only - and aren’t biased about it. It’s pretty obvious who/what would be the chosen many times over.

Saying things like if garmin opened it up to everyone, or if everyone had Boeing funding it, or whatever - isn’t relevant. It’s just a tool. I couldn’t care less if it’s apple iOS or android. It’s a tool and we find what works best for what we need. And that’s what we go with. If the android platform is better - we would switch in a heartbeat.
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Your last sentence kind of makes the point. For some people, android EFBs are better. Having a choice in the market is a good thing.
 
Anthem said:
American - issues iPads
Alaskan - issues ipads
United - issued iPads
UPS - issues iPads
JetBlue - issues iPads
Many many more.

Name me one that issues androids….

Oh guess what - none of the ones I listed above are running foreglight. So it’s not a foreglight va other things.

Again - name me an efb that works better on android than iOS…. Still waiting….. and waiting for a 2nd opinion as well.
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iFly EFB offers exact parity in performance, UI, features, and benefits regardless of OS.

Every company listed above used to use paper charts and issue Blackberries, too. What works for an enterprise contract with enterprise IT programs and polices and billion dollar budgets works for them. Those things an airline needs in an EFB, I don’t. PDC is the first thing that comes to mind.

But we’ve strayed from the original question, which comes down to why is it you won’t accept that ‘best’ or better is subjective? What harm is done to you by someone preferring a solution that’s not an iPad?
 
Actually, with iFly there are/were couple very small things they got to work first on Android vs iSuck. But it's 95% parity with the edge going to Android. At least they give you a choice, and that makes them better.
 
Are current iPad minis less likely to overheat than their full-sized counterparts? I’ve got an older iPad now off support, so I’ll need to upgrade eventually. And I wont be getting an android.
 
To mitigate the cost of an iPad....check out Apple's refurbished units. Cheaper than brand new but still includes the full guarantee as if new.
If you need new, find a teacher or student for the educational discount, works out to be about 8% but refurb is still cheaper.
 
Anthem said:
yeah, the vast majority of the market cant be right (pro and amateur). . .. marketshare means nothing, right ?. . just blame it on marketing. This is like the Beech guys who say the Bonanzas are better than the Cirrus SR22 - yet Beech delivered 1 last quarter and Cirrus delivered like 87 SR22's. . . . uh huh. All marketing. .

This can be a religious war - and it usually is in many categories. But from a strictly aviation EFB standpoint - sorry, most everyone is going to put their eggs on an IpadOS platform over android or others.
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iPads are a religion. The IOS UI is complete garbage and the vendor lock in means you device is never gonna be more than a few years old because Apple simply turns off the software.

A $1000+ ipad and a $1000+ Samsung give the same performance and most reviews give the Samsung S9/10 a slight advantage over an ipad.

If the major EFBs can spec specific ipads as 'compatible' then they can do the same thing for andriod tablets. I don't believe the vendors 'we can't get our software to work on andriod' BS. They claim there are to many hardware variables. Its just a lie, just like they specs for ipads they can make the same spec for andriod.

Look at it this way, Avare, a FREEWARE app has both an andriod and ios varient. Heck I'd even BUY the tablet preloaded (or download the APK directly from the vendor and bypass all the google nonsense.

Since most of the major EFBs are now owned by Investment firms... once they see market share of ipads is only 30% of the market they are gonna want to get the software on more platforms.

My last job we switched our entire distribution network from IBM AIX to RedHat Linux for one reason... MONEY. The C suite didn't care about Unix vs Linux... they cared about the spreadsheet and the bottom line. The new EFB owners are gonna see the same thing.
 
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