I'm using a Galaxy S4 mini (android). Works as well as the TomTom unit it replaced, but isn't as slick as the Garmin I had before that. (The Garmins memory was too small to hold a whole country though).
I share your view I-stuff, too much renting hidden as buying. After that, the techie stuff gets mind blowing. Having worked out the smallest screen I could see at arms length (and hence on the bars) was 3.5-inch I set off looking at phones. Within the same ranges of phones (Galaxy S4's etc) there are variants that look bigger, cost more and then turn out to have smaller memories, slower processors and smaller batteries. The mobile providers seem to get these penguin variants made to sell as part of package deals, the consumer thinking the S4 mini + special dark black (or whatever) is an S4 on a good deal. I think you either spreadsheet a massive list of techie stuff or just pick a range you like the look of and work from there.
I am not disapointed with the S4 mini, the fact it replaced a burger box sized GPS, fag packet sized MP3 player and a Kindle is what I was aiming at.
You will BTW need a car charger unless someone has found a phone smart enough to control it's power use any better, USB charging won't keep up.
Andy
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