Garmin inReach Mini, Lightweight and Compact Handheld Satellite Communicator, Orange (Renewed)

Bought this for my husband and he loves it since most of his time is spent at sea

My husband is not the most tech savy guy, but he was able to figure out how to use this, making it super user friendly. He hunts ALL the time and now he can use this to text me and let me know he’s back at camp and safe every night even without cell service.Worth every penny for that peace of mind.You do have to pay for the ability to send texts, but you can shut it off during the months you don’t need it. Highly recommend for anyone who is without service for long periods of time

Lightweight unit that does almost anything you could want to do with a GPS. Affordable safety for the backcountry. The Earthmate app needed to use it is awesome and surprisingly detailed. The only drawback to this unit is you need your phone to see a map. You can navigate with just the Mini itself, but you need a working phone to have full confidence in where you’re going. Which means keeping 2 devices charged on a trip. Thankfully the garmin mini’s battery lasts 10 days or more depending on usage. I used it sparingly on a month-long trip, and didn’t need to charge it once. The satellite messaging feature is amazing. Again it’s easier with a working phone, but you can message with just the GPS. I can’t speak highly enough of this- just keep your phone charged!

The original unit I purchased appeared non-functional. Customer support was excellent. They could not get the unit functioning either. The micro USB cord supplied with the unit was bad. Unfortunately, another cord I had it home was also bad. As a result they sent me a new unit. It was at that point that we discovered the bad cord. Can't say enough good for their customer service.Be careful setting the unit up as there is a tracking function that costs every time a bread crumb is left. I ended up with a $20 bill ( from 1 trip) I was not expecting. Can't figure out how to even access the bread come trail to see where I went-total waste. They need to improve their literature on how the unit functions. Still trying to figure out how to generate a pre-packaged message to send. I guess Garmin expects other users on YouTube to teach us how to use their unit.

This product is a lemon. I used it for one year, had no complaints. Got it out last year, charged and tested it before my bow hunt. Went out for a week and the inreach would not charge… frustrating when your out for a week, and rely on something to communicate with out service. I call garmin customer service in October and told them what had happened. Customer service said the product has a firmware update to fix the problem. Ok, if it won’t charge how do you update the firmware? I’ve been back and forth with costumer service for the last couple of months trying to get this thing going. They sent a power cord… still didn’t work. This thing is a lemon. I will update the review if garmin actually comes through and sends me a new one. As of now I’m thinking about selling all my garmin products I have.

This is a great tool for those safety conscious adventurers. It worked great for me on a one week adventure motorcycle trip where I was out of service range for a portion of it. The accuracy is astounding. I would send preset messages to notify my contacts of where I am. Once I was home and looked at the GPS link this unit sent.... it was no more than a couple feet (if any) off from where I was standing. This unit is lightweight. Battery lasts a couple days (if not using tracking) and is easy to use once you spend a few minutes with it (and watch a YouTube tutorial.)

You obviously can’t just plug and play with this and you have to have a subscription with garmin to use it. The price is well worth it and it only weighs a couple of oz. I didn’t even notice the weight on my pack when I was carrying it. I only used it a couple of times cause the trail was marked well and I had cell service for the majority of the week when I was out.

I bought this to use when I am working with my horses alone or hiking alone. It’s so usable. It’s tiny so there’s no excuse not to carry it. The “SOS” button is handy but not too easy to set off by mistake. There are other features but they are a pain to use with having to scroll through the screen using two or three buttons. Great for what I bought it for - the ability to get help if there is no cell service.