We had four groups/camps this year. Two of them had Zoleo communicators. One had a Garmin Inreach. One that had the Zoleo had a guy that injured his finger. One of the guys in the camp was an ophomlogist (spelling?) and was able to text/communicate with his orthopedic doc friends to decide on what to do and how to treat it.

My camp also had a Zoleo. It allowed me to stay in touch with my wife so she could check on me. I have a complex tear in my miniscus in one knee and am also stage 4 kidney cancer.

Our groups voted the Zoleo the best pience of equipment we brought up there this year and won't return with out them. The guy with the Garmin was ready to trade it in. He couldn't figure out how to text, and no one had the Garming number to text him. (Zoleo gives you a permenent dedicated phone number. . . so anyone just text to that number like any phone)

I don't dispute your point. I do believe Zoleo's idea of a dedicated number and email is superior. However, the inReach is a significantly more robust platform with many advantages.

The real question is about needs. If it's simply communication, the Zoleo wins. But if you require more than that such as GPS applications (which are too numerous to name) and the ability to operate without a phone, the inReach is the solution.

The evidence presented by the fellow who couldn't operate his text application on his inReach is conclusive of nothing other than he didn't familiarize himself with his equipment.

iPhone has offered satellite service since last year and now the Google Pixel 9 does as well. Right now the Pixel just offers Garmin emergency SOS, but more features are reportedly coming in the next Android release in October, like messaging. The service is free for two years.

I've been looking at getting one of these devices but I'm going to hold off until next season to see what develops on the phone side.