GarmininReach Mini 2, Lightweight and Compact Satellite Communicator, Hiking Handheld, Orange - 010-02602-00

I love this. I can keep in touch with home when I'm in the mountains. Real peace of mind. Integrates with my phone perfectly. I like that it has the SOS feature. The battery lasts for days. It's compact and easy to use. I would never head out into the wilderness without it. Peace of mind. Well worth it.

I took this little device on a canyon hiking trip in Utah to really put it to the test. Even with canyon walls towering over 100 feet, I was still able to get a solid connection. The speed varied depending on how deep I was, but it never failed to send a message. The screen is small but manageable—though if you have poor eyesight, it might be a bit challenging.It tracked me for the entire two-day trip, providing an excellent trip overview and, more importantly, peace of mind for my family back home. The build quality is impressive too—it handled scrapes and drops with no issues (including a few unintentional encounters with rocks while climbing).Subscription Note:Just be aware that some features require an active subscription. It’s not a deal-breaker since the core functions work well, but it is something to consider when factoring in the total cost.

Awesome product the short time I had it. Was super excited to use my Inreach on my dad and I’s fishing trip. Worked awesome and was loving the features and the peace of mind that the SOS button provided all the way up until I forgot to clip the Carabiner onto the back of the inreach from the cheap chest mount that I bought. At no fault of the garmin Inreach mini 2, it went tumbling out of the mount completely untethered into the river rapids below never to be seen again. I will definitely be ordering another and will be securing it to the carabiner first thing!

Easy to use, flexible subscription options, they even have a free service to test positive calls. It works well in areas without cell reception. You can text or email using the keyboard of your phone, via Bluetooth. There are some excellent youtubes that show you how to set it up and use it.

This is old-school performance on high-tech equipment. I bought this for outdoor adventures in areas that have no cell coverage. It is functional, but you have to imagine that you are living in the 20th century to meet performance expectiations.First, the setup and activation took nearly 2 days. Yes, 2 days. I set up my account, put the InReach outdoors with full view of the sky, and then waited... and waited... finally after numerous power cycles, and more waiting, it activated. The instructions said that the long activation time is not an indication of normal performance. Yeah, right.Then I went camping in a remote area for a week. I sent a preset message, had InReach in full view of the sky, sitting on a small table. I waited... finally the message showed as Sent after 20 minutes. Not impressed. Other messages took anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes to send; judging the replies was more difficult, but the quickest reply from a friend was about 30 minutes (this could have been due to the friend taking time to respond). Despite the slow performance, it never failed to send or receive a message.The subscription plans have Gotchas that are not advertised. The Freedom plan, aka "pay as you go" does not offer much Freedom. First, you have to pay $35 for each year you use the plan; so if you only use it one month every year, then it isn't $15, it's $50. And, contrary to what's advertised on the Garmin site, you DO get charged for the months that you do NOT use it (as of June 2022), I believe $5/mo. For those reasons, I just did the Annual plan. The short of it: For ONE month, you pay $105 over the course of a year - that's $105 for ONE MONTH of usage. For the Annual plan, you pay $178 over the year, which is $14.86 per month.For the type and amount of service you get, InReach can seem like a total rip-off. You need to decide for yourself if having 'service anywhere' justifies the cost. For me, it is, and it fits my budget.There are a few strong points of the Garmin InReach2 over other platforms. First, it is small. I mean tiny. It's easy to pack and carry, and you do not need anything else - no phone pairing required. Battery life is good, and it uses a built-in rechargeble battery. The phone app is decent, and you don't need service / internet to use it or pair it. Of course you need to have already downloaded the app, but that's obvious. The screen is small but easy to read, unless you have poor eye sight. Still, let's say you are older or farsighted and lose your reading glasses, the SOS button can be found and operated by feel, so there's always that.Some downsides: Preset messages require setup on a computer via the InReach portal. The rechargeable battery means that you can't use common batteries in a pinch, like AAAs or similar; and you need to have access to a USB-C charger.Complaints aside, if I knew all this before I bought it, I probably would have still bought it, mostly because I'm an electronics nerd.

I like hiking and camping in remote areas that often don't have cell reception. I have Starlink, but that stays with the car. When I'm out in the back country, possibly days from any cell towers, I like to at least have a way to call for help if needed. The bonus, and why I love this over dedicated PLBs, is that I can get weather forecasts and message family and friends through this via Bluetooth on my phone. The service plans are very reasonably priced, so it doesn't feel prohibitive to use the extra features.I highly recommend this if you spend time in remote areas with no way to get help. Just telling someone where you're going and when you're expected to check back in is the bare minimum safety advice, but that could mean that it will take days before anyone even starts looking, and they won't know exactly where you are. With this, you'll have help on the way almost immediately, and they'll know exactly where to go AND what your situation is because you'll be communicating with Garmin.Even if you never need to use it in an emergency, the messaging and ability to get weather forecasts, along with the peace of mind this gives you, is worth the price.

Absolutely love my mini garmin! Its perfect size is great for travel and easy to attach on my backpack. The battery seems to last for quite awhile. If turned off when not using it can last for weeks. The satellite signal works well and best to test out at home before starting your trip just to make sure. I ended up testing it out and sending test messages to family members. It says to connect as well to your phone with the Bluetooth feature. Make sure that you get the membership to allow the texting from the device and SARS assist when needed. 10/10 would recommend if you are not into the watch. Although I am thinking of the watch just because I would like to be able to track my trips rather than use an iPhone.