Inreach mini vs zoleo

[archp625]

My wife bought it for me for Xmas. Have used it on 2 weekend adventures. I like it so far no complaints. Very easy to use with the app on your phone. Able to communicate back & forth with my wife & sons while on a 2 day overnight icefishing trip to flaming gorge. Left unit on for whole trip & never went below 60% in single digit Temps even. I really think this unit will be with me every where I go now. Gives you weather updates based on nearest county/city which is real nice to. While playing around with it sitting on ice waiting for fish to bite, the app is fairly easy to navigate & if I wanted i could send messages to any one in my contacts. With all that said I've never owned a sat unit but its so much better than my buddy's SPOT unit. Definitely glad I have it. As a stroke (46 yr old) survivor my family is grateful I have this in case of any emergencies & to check in cuz I will not stop adventuring into the back country!

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Great info. I appreciate it. So far my hunts have been in areas with decent cell service or the hunt ended at a hotel. My brother and I are headed to Idaho this spring and the area we are going wont have cell service so I will need something to keep the wife happy. Im hoping eventually I can do a solo trip because of this unit as well.

 

[CoffeeGoat]

Just in case someone else is reading through this thread - you can use a gotenna to text in the back country to another unit if it's relatively nearby. Basically it's a mesh network radio that blue tooth connects to your phone and you can use to text with, send coordinates, etc. At one point I looked at creating drop boxes with a gotenna and power supply to build a little back country network if you were hunting with buddies, but I never followed through.

 

[Prairiekid]

I use the Garmin In-reach mini. My original reason for purchasing it was for back country skiing and any potential rescue. Now I take it anytime I know I won’t have cell service. I keep it turned off 90% of the time and only turn it on to send messages. If I only turn on my cell phone and inreach for messages and pics, they can last a couple weeks for sure.

 

[Vandy321]

One question I couldn't find in their plan...Does sending a preset/checkin on Zoleo count towards your alloted texts if not on unlimited plan?

Have an inreach mini now, really doing the math on what's going to cost me less per year for the specific way I use it.

Love the inreach, had it for 2 years and it's been flawless. But I've been known to jump over a dime to save a penny in the past.