I agree - I don't see anything that a digital compass could do that an analog one can't do better. Maybe it has some memories to store phone numbers or includes a handy tip calculator, sends email and SMS text messages, or includes a convenient foreign language phrasebook (how to say "please don't ritualistically sacrifice me to your gods" in 170 languages) - all I can think of are useless bells and whistles that could be taken care of by something else. Carry a PDA if you want that stuff; use the compass for navigating.

I'll stick with my analog compass.

Digital screens can be hard to see in bright sunlight, and some can only be seen for directly on, not a glancing angle.

Digital screens are impossible to read in the dark, unless it includes a backlight, which runs down the batteries. Analog compass needles and dials can be covered in phosphorescent materials (for temporary glow after illumination), or better yet, with radioactive paint (for permanent glow, well 20 years' worth, anyway).

Speaking of batteries, if they're dead, so are you if you were depending on that compass to get you home.

I also find it much easier to use a plain old compass needle in terms of finding bearings or plopping down on a map - the only way a digital compass could do that would be to have the screen emulate an analog display, but what's the point?

I'd also question the accuracy and reliability of any digital readout. If an analog needle "sticks" you can see it by rotating the compass or jiggling it - where's the BS detector in a digital compass? And if the machinery inside gets screwed up, who knows what kind of garbage you'd get out of it!

Ok, I just thought of one useful feature a digital compass could include - it can autmatically correct for magnetic declination. But then you'd have to input the correct declination, and remember whether or not you've applied the correction. Besides, anyone who knows what magnetic declination is, probably already knows how to read a compass and correct for it manually.