Review - Garmin inReach Mini

I bought my Garmin inReach Mini about 4 years ago, specifically for emergency use and communications when traveling in the remote, offline and off-grid world of the north coast of BC, Canada. My experience with this device therefore is in a primarily marine environment, and although the region is heavily forested, I have not personally used the inReach for land-based activities such as hiking or navigating in wilderness environments.

The main features of the inReach which made me buy it in the first place were of course the 24/7 satellite capability, small size and battery longevity. And those features have all performed as advertised. inReach works off the Iridium satellite network which reputedly covers higher latitudes well. My usage was always around 54 degrees north latitude, and satellite availability was never really an issue. The unit is very light and compact, stows and carries easily and battery life is impressive. My trip durations are generally anywhere between 3 - 14 days. I always fully charge the unit before leaving, only power it up and leave it on while I need to, and so far, I have never had to re-charge it in the field. Of course if you are using it for navigation, or leaving it on for sustained periods, your mileage will vary.

For actual messaging, using the associated Garmin phone app makes this device infinitely more user friendly, and much closer to just regular texting with your phone. One of the main tradeoffs for its compact size is that the small screen and buttons on the device aren’t exactly easy to use. Texting on the inReach itself is painful, and scrolling though the menu options using the buttons on the device is also not as intuitive and easy as it might be. That said, my main reason for carrying the inReach is for emergency communications, so overall, I am happy to accept those tradeoffs. And even with the highest Garmin subscription plan, inReach is still miles cheaper and more portable than an Iridium sat phone.

One other factor to consider is the relatively recent iPhone capability to message via satellite when out of cell coverage, which has to a degree replicated my original reason for carrying the inReach as my intent was never to use the inReach for navigation. And while the iPhone satellite messaging seems to work fairly well, I continue to carry the inReach for the following reasons. In a marine environment, redundancy for emergency communications equipment is a very nice thing to have. From painful experience, when things like phones fall into the ocean, they sink fast and most of the time, are irretrievable. So, having the inReach and my phone is an extra layer of security. Also, while I have never had to use it, the SOS feature on the inReach seems a bit more robust than the similar feature on IOS.

In actual usage, my inReach has enabled me to keep in touch with friends and traveling companions in a cell free zone which has proved very useful to arrange meeting points and times and to provide check in and location updates. Along those lines, arranging in advance to be “online” on the inReach at specific times and durations throughout the day makes this easier and far more efficient for all involved. For example, just letting people know you will be connected every day at say, 1:00 pm for 30 minutes can streamline communications  a lot, and save battery usage. Finally, I did also have one instance of getting caught in bad weather and sea conditions, and the inReach allowed me to get in touch with my wife who was able to give me an actual, visual local weather update from home which allowed me to re-route with the confidence of knowing of actual conditions at my destination. This was invaluable, as if the weather conditions were also bad at my destination, the re-routing would have been a lost gamble, and could have resulted in having to make a long back track, or spend an uncomfortable and unplanned overnight stay somewhere safe.

So overall, my inReach has provided me with the services for which I bought it. Again, I have no experience with the navigational mode, but based solely on the size of the inReach Mini screen, if I were to consider a device primarily for land-based, wilderness navigation, I might look into slightly larger units. If, like me however, you are looking for a satellite communications device only, the inReach is a solid choice.

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