Garmin Inreach Mini

Given up on it – Not all that intuitive to use and rather fiddly. When buying be aware that the subscriptions are a bit of a rort. The first time I spoke to a member of the support team I was told that the annual fee would cover the emergency locator function, even if message service is suspended, but this turns out not to be the case. So you need to pay the monthly fee on top to be covered for an SOS, which is miserly considering you pay an annual fee. Another annoyance is that they send out the invoice each month a day after they charge you which doesn't remind you ahead of time in case you want to suspend message service when you know you won't be using it. All in all it's a lot of money for very little service.

Great product, poor service, major safety issue – I purchased the inreach mini for safety whilst hiking in remote locations I took the inreach mini with me on a 8 day hike through the Tasmanian wilderness. The in-reach was for safety, as it allowed me to track where I was, communicate and if required to replan the trip utilising the connection to the iPhone and the maps on it. I was 4 days into a 8 day hike when I was logged out of the app. You cannot log back in without connectivity to the Garmin web site, in a remote location without mobile coverage this is impossible causing a real safety issue as you are unable to plan or modify your tracks, and the messaging functionality is limited. There was no connectivity to log back in until after I finished the hike.

On return from the hike I contacted Garmin in August, they asked for some info which I provided. They then took 2 months to respond after I again reached out to them, they asked for the same info, again. They still have not resolved the issue and contacted me again yesterday after another month asking for the same information that was provided in August.

I am disappointed that a product and service that promotes safety for remote locations has a major flaw and that Garmin takes over three months to respond and still have not resolved the issue.

Works great – Picked up one of these as I was planning a series of multi-day solo hikes, some in quite remote areas where there were no other people around. The SOS function gave peace of mind in case of emergencies, and the ability to check in and let loved ones know I'm ok was a big plus. I was looking at the Spot gen3 as I didn't really need the 2-way messaging, but went with this one in the end. It works reliably, and contrary to some reports I've seen is quick to acquire a position fix and to send messages. If it has been turned off for a number of days, it generally gets a position fix within about 60sec. If it's been on earlier in the day, within 10-20 sec of switching on it has a fix. If there's clear line of sight to an iridium satellite, it can complete checking for messages within 15sec of turning on. Under dense wet tree cover it can sometimes take quite some time for a message to get out, but this is to be expected with satellite comms. The only thing I'd wish for is a bit more battery life when being used to keep a log of your track. But by using appropriate settings and being aware of the increased load in poor areas, it can be worked around. Battery life is more than adequate though if it's just used as an emergency device and for a few messages. Shortly after I purchased it they bought out the v2 that I believe has increased life.