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Somewear Global Hotspot – any users?
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Home › Forums › Gear Forums › Gear (General) › Somewear Global Hotspot – any users?
- This topic has 4 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 8 months ago by Jonathan S.
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Mar 28, 2020 at 5:31 pm #3638325
The Jan/Feb issue of Backpacker had a page that compared four satellite communication devices: the SPOT X, the Garmin InReach Mini, the Bivystick, and the Somewear Global Hotspot. The InReach Mini topped the field with 4 stars (the Bivystick came in last), but in second place with 3 stars was the Somewear Global Hotspot. According to the description it interfaces with your smart phone (the unit itself does not have a screen or inputs) and the weight was only 0.5oz more than the InReach Mini.
It seems to have some good things going for it (Iridium network, 11 day battery life, nice text messaging interface, and weather forecasts) and I’m curious if anyone in the BPL community has used it or is using it. If so, please comment – thanks.
Mar 28, 2020 at 6:57 pm #3638360Yes I’m a happy user. Was an initial kickstarter backer before mini was announced. Have seen no reason to switch to mini, as somewhere has performed great for me. Noting that I only use it for messaging not tracking, so have no experience with the latter.
Mar 29, 2020 at 9:31 pm #3638601Thanks Michael –
Any issues getting it to link with your phone? I was wondering how easy it is to get the phone linked up (I have an iPhone, not sure what you have). I doubt I’d have it linked all the time, in order to save the iPhone battery, but link it only when I need to report back to home or if I get into a major problem. Is the connectivity hookup easy and reliable?
Mar 29, 2020 at 9:59 pm #3638606Never had trouble linking. And I do also have an inReach non-mini. So am familiar with both. Somewhere seems to be a little better getting satellite signal, but that is just based on anecdotal experience.
Aug 12, 2022 at 4:40 pm #3757200TLDR: I do not recommend Somewear.
Return Policy: You are unable to return the device after it has been activated and are stuck with it. In this day and age a product without a money back guarantee should have been a red flag. Another red flag: it is only sold directly from the company, not through a major retailer, like REI, which stands behind the products they sell. REI does sell the Garmin InReach/2, the ACR Electronics Bivy Stick, the Zoleo and devices from Spot.
Experience: Over 1 year of use. Worked as advertised at first. At some point, weather reports stopped loading and map functionally through the phone’s GPS stopped working without updating the phone’s GPS location in another app first. Messages and–presumably–SOS continued to work.
Customer Service: Terrible. Only via email. Wait time for a response was typically between 5 and 23 (not a typo) days. They do not address your concerns, which is especially frustrating when you’ve waited 23 days for a response to a carefully written email. Even worse, they provided patronizing directions on how to use the basic functions of a cell phone, despite clear and technical descriptions of problems.
Technical Assistance: Only available relayed through customer service emails. Unable to solve technical problems. Eventually received an email from Alan Besquin, Co-founder & CTO that didn’t acknowledge my technical problems, didn’t offer solutions, didn’t offer a direct means of contact, didn’t offer a refund, didn’t offer to try a new device; only offered to reset the device for transfer to another party.
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