Garmin inReach Mini

Hi John H,

Thanks for highlighting this.  The new version is cute for sure, and definitely a progression forward.  I think you hit the nail on the head mentioning weight and battery life.

I have the original sold by Delorme.  It has the following statement about battery life: “Internal, rechargeable lithium battery lasts about 100 hours at continuous operation at 10-minute tracking intervals with a clear view to the sky.”  It weighs 6.7 oz, slightly less than the current InReach at 7.5 oz

The new one says: “Up to 50 hours at 10-minute tracking with 2-minute logging (default); up to 30 hours at 10-minute tracking with 1-second logging; up to 20 days at the 30-minute interval power save mode; and up to 1 year when powered off.”  I assume both are assuming standalone use, i.e. BT connection to a mobile device will probably use more battery.

If I was on the fence, the smaller size might sway me.  I typically use my phone for both messaging and maps, which works with either model, and I can live with 30 minute intervals on the treks I’ve done with it.  I can’t justify the price to replace my older model, but if I had to replace it I would get the mini.

I also have the original SE model from DeLorme, but I have never experienced ANYTHING LIKE the battery life they promise in the field — and I turn it off at night, and sleep with it to keep it warm.  Even with those precautions, if I send an average of 3 texts/day and keep tracking set at every 2hrs, my battery lasts barely 6 days.

I’ve already had the battery replaced by them once (fortunately for free).  I was all set to jump on the Mini, but if battery life will be even less than what I’ve got, I dunno…

I also have the DeLorme inReach and have not gotten it to last 100 hours. That’s probably because I almost never have a clear view of the sky, sometimes use the Bluetooth, like to get weather reports, and usually send 1-3 messages per day. It still lasts 4-6 days though.

It does seem like Garmin essentially took an inReach, copied over all its electronics, and cut the battery in half, thus creating the Mini.

If my inReach ever breaks, I would probably get the Mini. The current inReach is just big enough to not fit in most hipbelt or shoulder strap pockets. I think the Mini + external battery or solar charger for recharging (which I already carry on longer trips) would be a good combination.

If you are carrying a power bank and use this just to send presets and have it off at other times and don’t suck power by bluetooth I could see this working and I would have bought it over my Inreach SE if the circuitry (power/functionality/reach) was the same. Made for the bike crowd -one day, maybe two, users it seems. That screen gives bigger print though which is very nice. On my safety plan where I use the device as above it would work for me certainly. I walked this week for 3 days and used only 3% of the battery life on my Garmin (not Delorme) SE. Sent presets (free) 8am, coffee time 10am, lunch, arvo break, dinner and 8pm. It was on for the time I stopped/sat each time-up to one hour max, so probably 3-4 hours use total per 24 hours. Off at other times.With my mobile phone, turning it constantly on and off uses much battery-doesn’t affect the SE at all.  My SE fits in the Talon 44 hip belt, but sits in the lid of the pack when walking.

I should have waited 6 months before purchasing my inReach…

Wow. The small size really appeals. I barely use mine when I bring it and would very much enjoy the smaller size and weight. I wonder if it has a longer interval than 30 minutes. I seem to recall my SE can ping every hour or two…

Looks nice. Glad to see this.

I wish the price was lower, but the product looks good.

Shorter battery life for all the functions of an inReach SE+ at less than half the weight? Plus integration with Garmin watches? Probably sell like hotcakes. With so many adventurers carrying an extra pound or two of electronics (smartphones, Kindles, cameras, MP3 players, GPS watches, tent lights, blenders, …) they’re probably carrying a USB battery for longer trips anyway.

You might not want to be the first to own this new device. Sometimes takes a while to shake the bugs out, like the original DeLorme inReach SE.

But it looks good to me.

— Rex

“….all the functions of an inReach SE+ at less than half the weight?”

I don’t think you can type messages on it, so you need to have a cell phone to write custom messages. Am I wrong?

I also wonder whether it’ll give you your coordinates. Certainly it could but I wonder if they’ll be annoying and limit some useful functionality to the larger devices.

“I don’t think you can type messages on it, so you need to have a cell phone to write custom messages. Am I wrong?”

I think you are. The link to DC Rainmaker’s review of it seems to show him typing a message on it, very slowly…. He also says in the text that you can type messages using the device itself, using a phone, or using a paired Garmin watch.

I also wonder whether it’ll give you your coordinates.

Again from the DC Rainmaker review, yes, it gives you your current coordinates.

From his review (if you’ve never seen a DC Rainmaker review, they’re pretty comprehensive), this looks like it’ll do everything an inReach+ will do.

I wonder if one of the reasons that an inReach doesn’t get as much battery life as expected has anything to do with message checking. It checks for messages every 10 minutes by default, does anyone think to change that for less frequent checking, or turning it off altogether? I don’t even think of it, but just thought of it now, and wonder if that might have something to do with less than expected battery life.

G’day Dan, at about 5 minutes into the video linked above you can see him typing (or how you might type) a custom message. A bit clunky but achievable with some good old school toggling. The SE gives everything, even a detailed topo map to your recipients phone and or email or whatever you wish, this seems the same, just smaller. I chose the newer SE because of the large interface screen. But in an emergency is this wee model too fiddly? I am not sure. But the younger more dexterous folk may find it easy.  I could accomplish a message to SAR with the larger SE (which I own- sizeable and chunky, fits in the hand well) I reckon.

Certainly Doug,  as I mentioned, I am pretty sure the less you have this thing “do” the better the battery life, if this suits your needs that is. Do you need to constantly check for messages? I just do it when I turn it on. Again, if this suits your needs, The only drawback seems to be the dexterity required, and if it is not an emergency and no stress, what’s not to like, just a bit of time required to toggle your way thru’? However, in that situation where the faecal matter hits the fan well…

This is certainly a step in the right direction and should be a serious hit to SPOT sales.

I am not willing to pay $350 to save the 3.2oz over my original inReach SE but when it comes time to replace it, I am glad a smaller, lighter device will be available.

I am glad you can send messages without a phone as I don’t always carry mine.  I use messages pre made at home 80% of the time anyways.

“I think you are.”

Great! Glad to be wrong here. The typing looks even more tedious than the InReach SE, but I’m glad it’s there.

“It does seem like Garmin essentially took an inReach, copied over all its electronics, and cut the battery in half, thus creating the Mini”.

There was no need to copy anything, DelOrme is part of Garmin.

There is also some more advanced dataplans and services for InReach available with SmartSafety, a dedicated email adress for real 2-way-communication, automatic deadman switch and more. https://www.protegear.de/english/

. The Garmin InReach Mini vs. the Competition . by Andrew Skurka for Outside Magazine

. Hands-on: Garmin inReach Mini Satellite Tracker/Communicator .

I’ve taken one trip with the inReach Mini and so far it has exceeded my expectations, and that coming from someone who generally finds Garmin products unintuitive and frustrating (largely due to the complicated, buggy mess that is Garmin Connect app).

The hardware is really, really nice. It feels smaller and lighter in the hand than I expected but it still feels quite sturdy and well built. The screen and buttons are minimalist but allow access to all of the features, even if a bit painfully slow as in typing out a message. The hardware really reminds me of the classic Nokia candy bar phones from early aughts, and to me that’s a good thing.

The device software doesn’t have a lot of screen real estate to display on, so you don’t get any visual context and can be easy to get lost in the screens, especially at first, but given that the device has few features, I was able to learn the tree of screens after playing around with the device for a day.

The phone app was the pleasant surprise for me, it’s not perfect but its functional and much better designed and far less buggy than Garmin Connect. I’m guessing because they acquired it from Delorme. I’ve only used the iOS app but sending receiving messages via it works really well.

If you leave all of the features enabled the battery life is pretty bad, but for my use the Extended Tracking mode works great and will last for many days—I’ll need to take a longer trip before I find out exactly how many. In that mode it just uploads my location every few hours but doesn’t check for incoming messages and doesn’t talk to my phone. So I just keep it in my pack during the day and don’t interact with it, but at night it’s easy enough to enable Bluetooth and check for messages from my phone where reading and responding is much easier.

My one complaint is the service pricing, it seems arbitrary and unnecessarily complex, I guess a bit like cell service plans from 10 years ago. For instance the cheapest plan is $12 a month and charges $0.10 per location point you send, while the next plan up is $13 more a month, but allows for unlimited location points. For the cheapest plan you get 10 text messages while the next plan up gets 40 text messages, but in either case additional text messages are $0.50 each. I’d much rather have a simple usage based plan that charged me for what I used, didn’t penalize me for incorrectly guessing how many messages I would send for the the coming month, and metered on packets of data irrespective of if the data was GPS coordinates or words I typed.

If you are looking to create detailed tracks of your hike there are probably better options (I just use Gaia). And if only want 1 way messaging then Spot is lighter and cheaper. But if you use your phone for GPS and want 2-way messaging I think this is hands down the best thing going.

@mscomm do you have experience with Protegear? Looks like they sign up for an Enterprise Garmin account and resell access, which could be nice if that allows them to simplify the pricing and made some of the enterprise only features available to normal people. And if it works in the US. :)

@barrycburton

Yes I work with them on events and competitions. They added a lot of services based on the enterprise plans, also offering an API.