I see a number of negative reviews on this device. I had one of the first gen Spot messengers that I ditched for the Garmin Inreach (which does have a number of advantages over Spot--complete global coverage being one of them). I just downgraded my Inreach plan and picked up a Spot X. So far I'm glad I did.
First, this is important to understand: it's a satellite device. You really have to be outside in order for it to work reliably. It looks like people are picking these up expecting them to be some sort of everywhere-Blackberry'ish device. It's not. But it's close enough such that, properly configured, it will give people a way to reach you (and you them) in a semi-reasonable amount of time. It also does a stellar job of tracking and reporting your outdoor location.
Bottom line: I've spent about 2 weeks with it on my hip, indoors and out, and here's what I've found. Outdoors, it always works. It tracks, sends and receives messages perfectly. In the car it's a little less reliable but setting it in a little suction cup holder on the windshield also works perfectly. In the house, if I set it on a table by the window it works some-to-most of the time. Anywhere else indoors is a black hole. Battery life is reasonable although I don't think it'll run 10 days 24x7 with tracking at 10 minutes. So take a solar battery if you're going to be off-grid a while.
Things I wish it did better: the user interface. It's a little cumbersome to see what did and didn't get sent. It would be nice if there were an "if you really want to send this, you need to stand still and hold it up in the air" beeps after a couple of minutes of not sending. Email-to-text has room for improvement but if you just text message phones it works well. Also, there's no 2-way coverage in Australia? Really?! The one-way beacon worked great there but it would be nice to text from the outback. But for the Americas, Western Europe and Africa it seems to have you covered. I'll say that the one-way version also worked flawlessly in The Gambia a couple of years back.
But for $20 bucks a month ($30 a month if you want to spend your whole trek texting all your buddies every waking minute) it's a good deal. You just have to understand what you're getting.
| Item Weight | 3.04 ounces |
|---|---|
| Product Dimensions | 2.02 x 0.95 x 2.69 inches |
| Item model number | SPOT-TRACE-01 |
| Batteries | 4 AAA batteries required. (included) |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Display Size | 2.69 Inches |
| Warranty | Manufacturer |
| Battery Life | 3 months |
