Use my Garmin to hunt for the cache but I find it easier to read the cache page or a hint if I need it on my cell phone. It’s handy to have both! The thing that I like using the best on my phone is being able to check the satellite image to determine the best route to the cache. You never know if there’s going to be a creek in the way or a street that doesn’t go through on the handheld GPS.

We load up the “varmint” from GSAK and plan an efficient route the night before, to save on gas. We can see the cache pages on the GPSR. That’s all we need.

When I’m on my bike I use my E-trex because I have a handlebar mount for it that works quite well.
When on foot I use my Map 60.
When doing P&Gs I use my Nuvi.
I got a smart phone a couple of months ago and used it to look up a cache only once and that time only to get the cords for my Map 60.

Old habits die hard.

We just traveled out west for a week with our two great-nephews. Before going we researched some caches along our route and where we were staying each night. If we had time or made stops in those places, we looked for the caches. A few we went out of our way for.

Coming home we were short on time and changed our route a bit. We knew we would be stopping at a rest stop for lunch that I hadn’t researched, so the eleven-year-old, who had his iPad along to play games on with his cousin, let me use it (they have some kind of a data plan for it) to find a couple of caches at that rest stop. Nice to have, and we got two more smileys, but if we didn’t have that capability, the boys would have run off some energy without looking for any caches.

Long story short, it’s nice to have, but it is not necessary for the way we cache, which we call inefficient but enough for us. No notifications, no checking in the field, just the handheld with what is loaded on it and/or any paper backup.

I do think that most serious cachers have a rugged handheld to use to find most caches, but the smart phone adds another dimension to the hunt.

(BTW, we have a cell phone that we usually forget in the car, so the only times we have used it for PAF (twice) were when our receiver hadn’t loaded the coordinates we needed to use.)

I’m in the same category as you Trekkin and Birdin. I still use an old Motorola V262 and have never gotten reception except on rare occasion at our home on Washington Island or at our cottage Up-North. We still use a land line at home and have no phone at the cottage. I have a minimal plan and just use it for an emergency when I travel. Many of the areas I travel in or frequent have very poor cell reception if any. I would like to upgrade but I wouldn’t be able to use it most of the time. I actually use to get better reception with my bag phone years ago. Higher wattage I think.

Now my laptop, I take everywhere. I just download cache pages for the trip.

We have three phones, all with unlimited data plans. We did download C:GEO and a GSAK file here and there, and maybe used it once.
When it comes to caching, we use a dedicated GPSr.

I am “New School”

Never used a GPSR, the only use I have seen for one is for the CHIRP option. Depending on the phone, accuracy is just as good as them fancy $600 Garmins (and yes I have compared). Usually just go out and wing it with Live Maps in C:GEO but if I plan on being in remote locations with poor data or I don’t feel like waiting for the maps to update I will create and load a PQ for the area I’m heading to. Have considered getting a GPSR as a backup but very low priority because my Maxx HD does just fine.
Works good in car, truck, scooter, bike, boat or walking.