Spot 2 way messenger - anyone use one?

[twoSevenO]

https://www.findmespot.ca/spotx/lander.php

Looks like a decent inReach alternative. Haven't seen it before must be pretty new on the market.

Anyone with any experience? I'm digging the full keyboard as I'm looking for something to be able to text home on multi day trips and solo excursions.

Was $349 at cabelas with plans pretty similar to inReach from what I could tell on a quick Google search. Also have the ability to "suspend" with slightly higher rates if you choose to go that way.

Any thoughts or experiences?

[Useyourfeet]

Got a trial unit for work. It’s nowhere near the unit the inreach is.

[twoSevenO]

Got a trial unit for work. It’s nowhere near the unit the inreach is.

Why? What are its shortcomings?
The inreach doesnt have a dedicated keyboard which I think is really dumb for a messaging device.

[Useyourfeet]

The keyboard, screen and navigating around the features felt a lot like using an early blackberry. Message send / recurve was slow and no maps was a huge bummer.

[twoSevenO]

I dont care about maps much .... but how was the reliability of messages? Did you have a 100% msg delivery rate?

[Useyourfeet]

No, about a 40% delivery rate for emails and 70% for text messages

[twoSevenO]

No, about a 40% delivery rate for emails and 70% for text messages

Well that's no good. Thanks for the feedback!

[twoSevenO]

After reading some more reviews online it seems the unit is not quite ready. Maybe in a year or two theyll fix it up.

Bummer because the full keyboard and independence from a smartphone actually seemed like a pretty good idea

[bighornbob]

After reading some more reviews online it seems the unit is not quite ready. Maybe in a year or two theyll fix it up.

Bummer because the full keyboard and independence from a smartphone actually seemed like a pretty good idea

i dont think the issue is with the unit but the satelites. How many satelites are they using and which satelite system. The best sat. phones and the Delorurmes use the Iredium network. The Spot uses the globalstar sat. system. That is where the problem lies.

I think they have half the satelites as the Iridium system. Look into satelite phones and everyone swears by the Iridiums and people use their globalstar phones as paper weights.

BHB

[Grizzlydick]

Just having a unit with you is a plus. Inreach is my choice.