True, I ended up returning one because of that a few years ago. But you can also use a bluetooth GPS receiver, which should also be much more accurate and allow mounting in a better place to get a signal. I have a Garmin GLO that I sometimes use for this and it’s very nice.
However, as I learned a few years ago, if you buy a tablet without a GPS chip, Google Play won’t even let you download some navigation software, since it detects you don’t have an internal GPS. This is apparently up to the developer, because many apps did allow download while others claimed to be incompatible.
I have an 8” Samsung tablet with an internal GPS chip. But it’s terrible, takes a long time to get a fix, regularly loses it and is generally not very accurate. The GLO works really well with it though.
An iPad is another option, although you need to get the cellular (LTE) version because the regular wifi iPad doesn’t have an internal GPS. But you could also use a bluetooth GPS receiver with an iPad, and Apple has built-in support for bluetooth GPS devices unlike Android, which requires a “hack” to use one.
Then of course there are dedicated Garmin units, I recently got a DriveSmart 61 which is some of the nicest and most reasonably priced hardware I’ve seen from Garmin. Very pretty 7” screen with almost no bezel and a processor that is noticeably faster than their older devices.
You can install any kind of map on it and topo maps work but will not display many of the POI that you would see on one of their outdoor devices.
I’m sure Garmin would recommend their GPSMap276cx, a 5” device that everyone was initially really excited about. Then they discovered how poor it performed in actual usage and Garmin ended up alienating many of their biggest fans. Many people returned them. Not sure if they ever sorted this out, but it was a major embarassment for Garmin. Not what you might expect for a $600 device...