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Onlycardleft t1_ixm500z wrote

I purchase the new Garmin Inreach Mini about 2 months ago. It is $400. A year of service is +/- $125 for the cheapest plan. There is little cell service in my local National park. I can send text messages and my location with accuracy and reliability to a friend. I have not had reason to contact emergency services, but I don’t doubt that it will work just as well.

The main advantages of the Garmin over an iPhone is that the Garmin is bombproof, and it has 10 days of battery life. It has survived impacts, scratches, and exposure that would kill my phone . It’s a really tough piece of hardware. I clip it to the outside of my pack and forget about it. I have been to some rugged places in adverse weather with it clipped on the outside of my pack.

I love the iOS interface, Apple iPhones and iPads. if Apple makes an iPhone with similar ruggedness and battery life, that would be my preference. Until then…

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BoldInterrobang t1_ixmd9si wrote

The advantage for most with iPhone is that it’s with you. I’ve heard many that have Garmins talk about how often they could have used them when they were left at home or service was inactive. It’s all about trade offs.

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kindofageek t1_ixmdi9a wrote

Did you get the Mini or the new Mini 2? I love my Mini. Since it’s already getting paid for I keep it in the car with me at all times. If I pull over to do some fishing I have some extra backup if something goes wrong.

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Onlycardleft t1_ixn2m87 wrote

Have the new “mini2”. It has better battery life. I didn’t want to spend the money, but I think it was a group decision.

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kindofageek t1_ixnn7mx wrote

I’ve been wanting to sell my Garmin Fenix 5 watch and upgrade to the newer model. Might have to think about the same with the Mini if it has better battery. I do like that it can work with the new dedicated messaging app.

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Onlycardleft t1_ixnt1wh wrote

Battery life is about 10 days with minimized settings and an unobstructed view of the sky. I wore it on my pack for a climb of Shuksan, and used about 10%. It also has better satellite connectivity than the Mini1. And it seems very durable in an outside environment. I did not feel like I had to baby it. Just set it and forget it. (I have shattered phone screens in my living room and broken a camera on my first use of it, before I even took it out of my backpack.) and it works with the Garmin messaging app. Text messages from your phone to the M2 are seamless. However the messaging software on the M2 itself is terrible. The software interface for the system settings is also aweful. But you can do a lot of it on your cell phone. You really need a cell phone to get 100% use of the Mini.

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kindofageek t1_ixnx9l4 wrote

Yeah I use the three pre-set messages frequently, but anything more than that I use the Earthmate app for messaging.

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aussie_jason t1_ixmu84j wrote

Also the Garmin devices allow you to send & receive SMS through their gateway so you can give updates to friends/family, receive any urgent messages while off grid like medical emergencies with friends/family & also communicate about things that aren’t life endangering but are still emergencies.

I hope Apple adds that capability soon but I would still use my Garmin InReach Explorer+ as primary with my iPhone as backup.

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