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I spend a lot of time in the jungle doing science and own one. The pros vs a phone are:
>you don't even have to give the battery a second thought, you just know it's going to last several days
>one button to put marks on the map
>upload to basecamp just by plugging to computer, easy transfer of coordinates to anywhere
>take it out in rain, doesn't care
>falls on mud, doesn't care
>falls on a swamp, doesn't care
>high humidity, doesn't care
>high salinity, doesn't care
>dusty winds, doesn't care
>satellite SOS in case I have an encounter with the chupacabras and fucks me up, no need to worry about gsm signal
The garmin map sucks tho, at least here in the third world. I loaded it with the Openstreet maps which I can edit too. For normal hikes it has no advantages over a phone unless you are definitely walking away from civilization for an extended period of time. In fact, I almost never use it unless I want to record the hike for whatever reason. I could do that on my phone, but I would rather keep it tucked away than expose it to the jungle
