Customer Reviews for Garmin - InReach GPS with Built-In Bluetooth - Red/Black
Customer Rating
5
Best features, reliability and value
on July 4, 2019
Posted by: Wolfgang
I just cancelled my Spot contract and switched to the InReach Mini. This is better in every way. More reliable, it costs less since I don't need to pay when I am not traveling outside of cell service and it has more capabilities. Love it!
I’ve used the SPOT ELB for many years and have always wanted better ability to have 2-way communication without carrying a Satellite phone (with its high cost). I tried the original pre-Garmin InReach with great success, including Bluetooth pairing to my phone, making it easy to use. This InReach however, won’t even think of pairing with the Garmin EarthMate app. I’ve deleted and re-installed the app, paired and unpaired to no avail. Please, Garmin, get your act together and fix the buggy software.
Response from GarminBy Garmin, Outdoor, July 2, 2019
Thank you for your review and your experience with the inReach mini. Please try using the Garmin Explore app and be sure to have locations turned on your phone. If you are still experiencing issue we would like to discuss this further over email. If you could please email us at product.support@garmin.com. Thanks Jenny
I bought this, at my wife's urging, just before heading into an area with very few or no people at all! Terrain is rugged and steep and it's a long way out. The Garmin did its job letting me notify my family that all was good! It did give me messages saying that it was having a hard time connecting to satellites, but that only meant it took a couple of minutes to send. The most difficult thing with the mini is trying to type in your own personal message. I think I'll have to read the manual to make it easier. All in all, it provided great security for me and my family. It added that additional level of safety that was needed and performed flawlessly with great battery life!
Very clunky menu , and seems very slow takes 15 min to acquire position... And the Earth - Mate app is a joke..
Response from GarminBy Garmin, Outdoor, June 25, 2019
Thank you for your review and your experience with the inReach Mini. We would like to discuss this further over email. If you could please email us at product.support@garmin.com. Thanks Jenny
Nice size. My only complaint is the service plan. There needs to be an option between ten minute and two minute reporting. I had a SPOT with five minute reporting and that was perfect. I had to quit using it because it interfered with my GTN650 GPS, causing it to lose satellites every five minutes.
In the couple of weeks since buying it I have gone through the fairly involved process of setup and testing. I have not tested all of the features, but so far everything has worked as well or better than expected. It took some time, reading, and thinking to fully understand what some of the features do, how they work, and how to use them. Now that I have it set up and have used many of it's capabilities, I am pleased and impressed with the multiple uses in this tiny package: text messaging anywhere at any time, location tracking, SOS, weather reports... while it is not nearly as convenient or versatile as a cell phone, it is a reliable backup for travel where there is no cell service, or in case of a disaster (e.g. Cascadia earthquake). I had not planned on it beforehand, but it is in many ways a better backup than a land line, and the basic "Safety" subscription costs much less than my land line service.