Garmin inReach Mini

First off, sorry, this turned into a bit of a monster write up, but I thought it important to give a bit of background info. This all happened a while back, I just never got around to writing a review.Anyhow, my partner and I are both keen walkers who do quite a bit of mixed walking/hiking around the UK including lowland as well as a fair bit up in the fells/mountains around the usual suspects in the Brecons, Snowdonia and the Lake District. After checking my phone on the odd walk and seeing no signal I wondered to myself what would happen if the sh1t hit the fan.. I’m one of those boring types who always carries a good first aid kit (mainly trauma type (think big dressings and a tourniquet) rather than plasters and savlon, in the hope that if I needed to I could hopefully keep someone alive, rather than treating them for a nettle sting. So after much “umming” and “ahhhhing” I decided to splash out and buy the inreach mini.Fast forward around 2 months and we were having a wander up Snowdon (complete with my shiny inreach mini). We got to the summit and as it was blowing a hoolie we decided to head down a little to find some shelter for lunch. Around 300 metres below the summit my partner caught her toe on a rock and hit the deck face first, she seemed ok but after getting her up and sat down on a rock, I noticed a really small (5p piece) hole in the knee of her walking trousers (no blood by the way) with what looked and felt like a couple of little bits of fatty stuff around the hole. While I chatted to her I rolled up the trouser leg to take a look.. those of a weak disposition should probably skip to the next paragraph. The skin across the front of her kneecap was neatly split from one side to the other, so deep that you could see all the subcutaneous fat (which, not surprisingly, was what the fatty stuff was on her trousers), but due to the deep trauma there was surprisingly little blood.After straightening the leg, pulling the skin back together and sticking some sutures across, I put a first field dressing over it (yes, I’m ex army if you hadn’t guessed already), rolled down the trouser leg and poured copious amounts of coffee and chocolate down the casualty.Despite her saying it was just a scratch and that she could happily walk down (honestly she did!) I figured we needed help so I reached for my phone.. yep my phone, because I was too worried and wasn’t sure how much of an emergency it was. Anyway, I had 1 bar but it wasn’t enough to make a call, so I asked a really kind passer by if they could chat to the Mrs (i.e. keep her distracted) while I ran uphill/upmountain a little to see if I could get enough of a signal to call 999. It worked, I got through, reported the issue, gave them the grid ref, then went back to make sure everything was ok. So it’s around 2 in the afternoon now, the sun is starting to get lower and we’re soon going into the shadows. An hour passed before I got an alert on my phone to say I had a voice message, again super helpful passer by assisted while I nipped up to get a better signal. The voicemail was from mountain rescue saying that they had tried to contact me but to no avail, so had now cancelled the call out!I went back down to the Mrs who at this point had all of her own clothes on, quite a few of mine, a big wooly hat, gloves, a survival bag and two hand warmers but was still shivering (cold and probably a bit of shock). I told her mountain rescue was on the way. I flicked off the SOS button cover and pressed the button. Around 30 seconds later I received an inreach message back saying “Emergency Response acknowledged your emergency” followed by a couple of further messages asking what had happened. I didn’t think to use the iPhone app to send the message and instead tried to send it directly on the inreach, my frozen hands managed to send back “fjall” then “fall” then finally “fallen”. 5 mins later another message “Emergency services are aware of your situation, we have relayed xxxxxx injury to them. We will update with information as received from them”.Another half hour passed and a voicemail appeared, I nipped back up the hill and called the number back, it was mountain rescue telling me an aircraft was on the way. I told the casualty that mountain rescue was on the way and despite being deliberately vague she cottoned on it was going to be a ride in a helicopter. 20 or so mins later my phone rang and I nipped up the hill (again) to answer it, this time it was the aircraft crew asking a couple of questions about the area. Shortly after it arrived, winched down the crewman and he came wobbling over carrying all his kit. After a quick assessment (including cutting open the leg on her brand new walking trousers and replacing my dressing with a ‘suction dressing”) he told her she was coming for a ride to Bangor hospital. He asked me if I wanted to come along too, but I told him I’d pick up the car at the bottom then drive to the hospital, I asked how long it would take to get to Bangor hospital, his reply was “it’ll take us about 10 mins”, groan..After watching her safely winched up into the helicopter and it disappearing toward the horizon, it was suddenly very quiet, with only me and one other guy left near the summit. By this time the sun was getting very low and I was absolutely freezing from not moving for a couple of hours. Long story short, I made it down to the car park just after dark, after VERY carefully picking my way along the well worn and safest track. Oh and yes, I had a head torch.TL:DR1. If you think it’s an emergency, just push the button. The Garmin guys will take care of everything and coordinate the rescue.3. Don’t count on always having a mobile signal. The moment you really need it the chances are you won’t have one.3. Remember that you can send messages from the phone app and not just the clunky user interface of the mini.4. The Inreach mini isn’t cheap but it’s brilliant insurance if something goes wrong, for me it was and still is worth every penny.5. Don’t forget to be a grown up and carry a first aid kit, waterproofs, warm clothing all the other good stuff as well as a map and compass (best to learn how to use it too.. if not, at least you can wave it at the guys who rescue you, and avert the headline of ‘another person navigating with only a mobile phone lost on mountain”). :-)6. Put some coins in the next mountain rescue collection box, you never know when you might need them.

I like to get out and hike, as far away from the cities, mobile signal and other people the better which is great for me but for my significant other who doesn't she worries I will have an accident and nobody will know whats happened or where I am.This little bit of kit solves those issues, I can text her and let her know I'm OK and where I am, and in the event of something going wrong I can also call for help. That's pretty much it, it also has tracking ability both on the device and uploaded to your own map feed page online but that's not why I bought it.Execution is pretty good, the user interface is simple, it will take you an age to get to grips with the button layout on the side of the device and don't even try typing out a message but I don't think Garmin were worried about using the device stand alone as it syncs with a smartphone and you operate it's functions there through a Bluetooth connection. You can also preset all the common stuff you text out including 3 texts which you can completely program including recipients beforehand and they don't even cost you one of your precious texts out of your allowance.One thing you need to know before purchasing is that there is an ongoing cost involved in keeping the subscription running, you can choose the best plan for you but for instance the safety plan I went with has an activation fee of £29.99 before you even get started and then £15 a month (12 months contract) after VAT (just reduced to £12.99) so on top of the purchase price of this device factor in the additional £45 minimum you'll need for it to be of any use. Other plans are available but the one I'm on is the cheapest and best option for my usage.Oh I also got it in black, its expensive and I don't want it to be too obvious to others, I don't need it to stand out, it's not for them it's for me and I know where it is.INITIAL OBSERVATIONS IN USE.I have been really impressed with the capabilities as a satellite communicator, even working indoors. The GPS capability is another story. It takes so long to get a fix on its location. Maybe I'm expecting too much but I've been trialling it around my local area and it could be a good 10 minutes before it figures out where it is, its also lost itself when tracking a walk and missed almost 25 minutes worth of route marking. I luckily did not buy this device for this purpose I already have a Garmin GPS 62s, Fenix 6 and I'm an old school map and compass kind of chap, I was just seeing what it's capable of and maybe with a fiddle with settings and optimising it's positioning on my person I can improve this performance but it's worth noting, if you want an inreach device as a navigation tool the mini might not be the right choice.Other than that I love the device, the earthmate app is a doddle to use, the Explore website is easy to use and I've not had any issues, battery life seems good too so far.I've even ordered the Official Garmin tether to mount it to my backpack. Now just to get these lockdown restrictions lifted and I can really get some milage on it.THREE MONTHS LATERIve been using this device for 3 months and I thought I'd update my thoughts on this device. I still like it, I'm finding the battery life excellent, I think I've only charged it twice in the time I've been using it. I've got to grips with its buttons and Garmin's pretty fragmented software platforms (I have a few Garmin devices, the Inreach uses the completely online explore platform and the Earthmate app, my 62s uses windows based Basecamp software and express software, my fenix 6 uses the connect app, explore app (Inreach not compatible) and express software. I think Garmin could consolidate this as it will put people off it being so fragmented)The Inreach is a communicator first and foremost, it's what it does very well. It has GPS ability in the same way as I have triathlon ability, I could do a triathlon but it would take me a very long time and I would have to stop frequently.If you want this device to know where it is it MUST be staying still, have a 100% unobstructed view of the sky (doesn't work even in a pocket high on your body or with buildings round you).If you are sending an SOS make sure to get a GPS fix first so it knows where you are, it can take a few minutes. If it still doesn't know where you are get the SOS on the go, you can tell them where you are instead (but you'd be so mad it didn't get a fix). It has no memory of where it was when you switched it off like other GPS devices which could speed up figuring out where it is. It starts from scratch every time, it must do, it takes so long (I had it switched on for an hour out for a walk in a pocket high up my body, in open country, it didn't fix a GPS location even once).If you want it to log and send out your location, Mount it high on your person or bag (I have it on a Garmin strap mount on my shoulder, seems to work there), have the log interval at every 1 or 30 seconds as any longer periods turns off the GPS between logs to save battery which means it will have to figure out where you are every time it turns the GPS back on which as I've hinted at it doesn't do well when it's moving. The send interval can be much longer to save your money.This works better when paired with a Fenix Watch. I have the Fenix 6, it does the GPS stuff (and it does it very well I may add), the Inreach does the satellite communication bit.I'm sorry this is the longest review in the history of reviews but it's expensive and it's very very specific in its uses. You'd be really disappointed if you thought this was going to be your new GPS Inreach combined, it's not, it's GOS just isn't good enough for that but if you want something small that can call for help when you are bang out of luck in the middle of nowhere this is your guy.ONE YEAR LATER.Well not quite a year but sure it's close enough. I still find this little bit of kit brilliant for the purpose it is intended, a satellite communicator that knows where it is. Another Garmin gripe that I've recently discovered is again to do with its fragmented platforms, I bought a Garmin Bike computer and as it has ANT+ thought it would be compatible with the inreach but it's not. This is a huge fail from Garmin in my opinion. Its not a massive thing granted but only because I have a Fenix 6 Pro watch that is compatible but it is just another way Garmin desperately needs to put all its ability into one platform for all devices rather than this fragmented nonsense.

Garmin’s price plans are extraordinarily expensive and it is reasonable to conclude that the prices are praying on users’ desire/need to have an emergency locator system. This system could easily be built into a mobile phone and once mobile phone battery life is better, this system should become defunct. I’l use it for the time being.