Review on 🌐 DeLorme AG-008727-201 InReach Explorer: Advanced Satellite Communicator with Integrated Navigation by David Dortch

EDIT January 2016: I've used two InReach intermittently over the past few months. Works well and I'm satisfied. I will change the rating to 5 stars, even if there are mistakes, because unfortunately the competition is pretty far in this price range. When used with an iPhone, the iPhone app has an option to manually launch Check for Message. It is very beautiful and it is what I was looking for. A new bug that bothers me is that when you reply to someone's InReach message, the reply number expires after a while and your messages aren't delivered without any signs of an error. Things are much worse when you send a message to two numbers at the same time, one with such an expired InReach reply number and the second with the person's real cell phone number, as BOTH the message is undelivered. Really annoying, again no indication that the message wasn't delivered. The rest of the devices work fine. Consider a $15 monthly plan to use it. EDIT: I found that the InReach device has the ability to search for messages, which somehow fixes the delayed messages issue. This option is not available in the iPhone app. As a reverse use case, a message sent from InReach to an email or mobile phone will receive an SMS in the target's inbox within seconds. Sending a message from InReach in clear skies with hills covering the horizon by about 90-120 degrees takes between 20 seconds and a minute in several of my tests. When placed on a car's dashboard, InReach also quickly sends a message. This device is definitely not an iPhone, don't expect ease of use, but it's not difficult to work with. When connected to an iPhone via Bluetooth, it feels much better and more functional. For example, I don't understand the value of InReach's built-in attribution feature. Seeing a dot in the background doesn't help me much. One workaround I've tried is to add waypoints for all major landmarks in the area to make the information on the InReach map easier to understand. More on that later, but for now I'm using my iPhone to read and navigate InReach messages. FIRST REVIEW: After using it for a weekend I would like to comment on what works in this device and what I couldn't clarify from other reviews. When a message is sent via web/mobile SMS/other InReach, it takes multiple times for the recipient's InReach to receive the message. During my brief test in Northern California, In Reach received a message about 20 minutes after the message was sent. This probably depends on how often the device is polled, e.g. B. how often InReach listens to the server to check for new messages. It's been a little disappointing so far, but it didn't break the deal. It will be very useful to look at device settings to reduce polling time, probably at the expense of battery life.