Garmin 010-01879-00 InReach Mini, Lightweight and Compact Satellite Communicator, Orange

Took a little time to set it up but after it does everything its supposed to. Great safety device to take along on hiking and motorcycle trips.

The device works as advertised. The huge ownership experience problem for me was the customer service. At about the same time my year subscription ran out, the debit card it was billed off of was compromised. I hadnt used the device for months, but Garmin began an aggressive collection campaign for the last month of service. I acquiesced and paid for the last month despite not having used the device. They then locked my account, presumably out of spite. A year later I try to reactivate my Garmin and it cant be done until I contact someone in England and jump through a bunch of hoops. Of course, they are closed during my normal hours. What should have been a simple reactivation process has intentionally been made very inconvenient. Ill make do on future hikes without the Garmin. $350 brick sitting in my nightstand drawer because Garmin is the equivalent of a predatory cell phone company.

I bought this after talking to Garmin to be sure it would last a backpack trip without recharging and was assured I should get up to 20 days in extended tracking mode, and would at least be able to get 5-7 days out a charge. I only needed to change the send interval to off. Finally got the device. Its a great size and seems well made, but it ends there. Apparently I cant turn off the send interval, Garmin is not sure why, but, hey! Theyre working on it! And I was assured the devices they have in the office work fine (great! send me one of those please!). I turned off the log interval to save the battery. Nope. I got maybe 12 hours out of it. Turned it to extended tracking. Now I can get about 20 hours out of it, while doing nothing (no way points, no messages, no bluetooth, no compass....) and it takes over 12 hours to fully charge again. Worse yet, Garmin decided that a device you use in the back country shouldnt have a user replaceable battery. Im left with a useless device or carrying a couple of pounds worth of external batteries. Fortunately I bought it at REI so it can go back. Very unfortunately, I signed up for a years subscription. And now I have to pony up more cash to rent a satellite phone.

If you want that extra protection for yourself when out in the wilderness, then do yourself a favor and get this. Simple as that.

BUY THIS. BUY IT NOW. I cant say enough good things about this product!! We use this for backpacking and hunting purposes. The membership is completely worth your money even when you might think you wont need it... you will. We have been using this for a few weeks now, the battery life could be better but its not horrible. The messaging capabilities is awesome - especially for worried spouses or family members. The Bluetooth part and the Earthmate app is also awesome - especially when you need to send a detailed message via garmin and cant spell everything out on the garmin itself. The ease of use and simple user interface is pretty great and easy for just about anyone willing to learn. The SOS button is an obvious and clear choice of greatness. So far we are loving this product and I like showing it off to my fellow hiker friends!

Best investment Ive made vis-a-vis traveling. I do a lot of fly in fishing in unconnected outposts and this unit keeps me in touch in case of emergency. Also use it so ppl can track my progress when driving into areas with no cell coverage (Northern Saskatchewan/Black lake). It actually saved my butt once when I took a wrong turn on a dirt road and my son noticed it on the Garmin Explore website which tracks your location. Had I continued I would have driven for about 7 hours and wound up in the wrong place. He was able to text me, even though there was no cell service and guide me back to the right road. The subscription service from Garmin is flexible (I always get the unlimited expedition package) and you can suspend it and reactivate it for 30 days at a time whenever you want without having to jump through hoops. It may cost $50/year to keep it active but well worth the $ if youre in the bush! NOTE: This little unit accepts the various spline mount (ball/belt clip/snap mounts) that fit most of Garmins handheld GPS units. I also have a Garmin friction mount for my truck which I put on the dash. Windsheild doesnt seem to impede transmission/reception to the unit.

Im taking two points off of this Garmin for the simple reason that the user interface is an absolute nightmare to use.

The main reason I got the inreach mini was to be able to send and receive messages while in remote locations with no cell phone service. It does work, however, it is very expensive and the Earthmate app it pairs with does not work well. It is clunky and non intuitive.

The unit I received was defective. Ive been in the mountains for the past month, and now I cant return it? I went through hours of support with Garmin and this unit is defective. I just want to return it.

I took the inReach Mini on a week-long trip to the BWCA last week. I normally go to the BWCA without any means of outside communication and in 45 years of canoeing there and in Quetico Ive never had an emergency that communication would have helped. But several years ago we took a rented satellite phone on a trip, and this time we took an inReach, not because we feared an emergency, but because we needed to remain in touch about things going on at home.