In this article I write some notes about using and Android device (actually a smartphone) as a GPS navigation system on a motorbike. The choosen software is OsmAnd; a mature and full-featured navigation system based on the OpenStreetMap geographic data. I tested two different smartphones: a ZTE Blade A610 and an Oukitel WP12.

The Blade A610 is not waterproof, so it can only be used when the weather is nice.

Instead the WP12 is rated as IP68, i.e. it should be dust-proof and it should resist even to immersion into water at 1 meter depth. However, the water resistance of the WP12 is ensured by a rubber flap protecting the power connector, so it is not possible to keep the smartphone charging when it rains.

Reading the screen even under a brigth sun is a must-to-have for a motorbike navigation system. It is not simple to know the brightness specification of a smartphone, especially for the low-end models. In my case the ZTE performed noticeably better than the WP12. From the following photo you cand barely notice that the ZTE screen (on the left) is brighter than the other (WP12 on the right); the JPEG image measures a brightness higher by only a 4%, but the user experience with the ZTE is actually better.