OpticalLimits

Satellitar texter for emergency in trips

stoppingdown

While I'm not a climber nor an extreme hiker, I do happen to find myself alone in areas without 4G/5G coverage and, getting older, the chances of being in need of an emergency call. So I'm considering to buy an Iridium texter in case of emergency. I see two products that are relatively affordable (Garmin InReach Mini 2 and SpotX Tracker):

https://www.amazon.it/dp/B09RQZLZ4S/
https://www.amazon.it/dp/B081P22XXZ/

Given that they have the same price, I'll probably go for the Garmin, having a strong reputation. A thing that is not completely clear, even from reviews, is how they work under a woodland canopy (I even put a question, but got very different answers).

Do you have any experience? I'm asking only for the hardware quality itself — of course another thing to evaluate is the service and related costs, but they are country specific.

Thanks.

mike

Hard to believe "back in the day" before all this technology I would grab my backpack and dog and hit the Colorado trail for a couple of weeks "hike." I always wondered what would happen if I did get seriously hurt. I suppose we relied on the scream loud technology! That didn't stop me though.

Here in the US the Garmin is advertised as being able to work globally. Did you misread something? It's on the Iridium system which covers the planet (there are few countries where satellite phones are illegal or not allowed through customs for political reasons. Looking at the list they're not places I'm likely to be lost in the woods). The plan for just emergency use seems kind of pricey but can be turned on and off on a monthly basis. You still need to pay the annual fee. This cost is probably why the qualcomm chipset didn't gain traction with the android cell phone manufacturers.

Smartphones are also appearing or appeared (apple and google-in a roundabout way), which have a satellite SOS feature, but it'll probably be a feature on a lot of phones within the next year or so. As of now, their coverage doesn't appear to be as good as Iridium, but probably good enough for most of us mere mortals. If you're sailing the world the Iridium system is the best option. It'll be fun seeing how this satellite technology develops in smart phone use over the next couple of years.

toni-a

It's a little but unrelated but Huawei latest flagship phone ( P60) has already native satellite connectivity, added to some neat hardware and a very fast CPU American couldn't believe Huawei would have the technology to do this year.
If you can live without Google and affiliated apps it's a brutal piece of hardware.
I was considering one but dropped the idea since I need Google meet.
OTOH I have Huawei laptop and a Huawei professional screen and they are as good as they could be. And they interconnect fantastically well!!!

stoppingdown

Very interesting things, mike and toni, about new phones with emergency call capability. Going to study.