Which platform

[Jenaway]

I'm undesided on which device to purchase to run opencpn. Samsung tab a, 2 in 1, Laptop, or windows tablet. Any input would be great. Thanks

[petter5]

Depends on your intended usage. Main navigation computer on a large vessel for navigation under all circumstances or just a hjandy tablet for sunshine sailing ??

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Jenaway.

[Jenaway]

Will be used for day sailing and some overnight. Small boat 27' just don't want to spend 2k on a plotter. Wasn't sure if memory size would be an issue and I was under the impression that the app was a little different than the windows program.

[bcn]

The PC based version - independent from the OS - is more flexible and has the complete range of plug-ins at hand. Integration into the rest of onboard systems is no (bigger, depending on what you want to achieve) issue. An open solution. And OCPN is not resource hungry at all.

App: cheaper hardware. Due to the restrictions of an App some stuff is more limited. But on the other hand more "out of the box". Will require some plumbing depending how/if you want to integrate it as well. Often seen as a second or third back-up solution. Or something to start with.

And a decision as well with which type of systems you feel more comfortable.
Anyhow: try one and then the other....

[petter5]

Jenaway: From my experience: OpenCpn will run excellent on "ANY" laptop sold after 2004 with minimum 1 gig ram, even without a harddrive, just running from a USB menorystick with Xinutop linux Marinux Website . Also, It will run fine from a low spec waterproof Samsung GT-S7710 android mobile phone.

From there, you can go for more fancy and expensive solutions with specs "X" and "Y", but in real life it will not bring you any navigational advantages over the low cost samples mentioned above.
Important things to consider if shopping for hardware is power consumption, mounting position, daylight visible displays etc etc. If you choose a PC based platform and want to have a NAV computer and not a "for everything PC" save the 2k and go for the low cost solution with Xinutop.