7/10
Open rating explainerInformationWIREDNew voice and photo messaging makes updates a breeze. Compact, robust build. Solid staying power.TIREDToo many partner apps. Fiddly keyboard for regular-sized fingers. Maps lack useful detail.Many of the latest smartphones and watches now offer satellite emergency SOS tools such as messaging and location sharing, so many of us already carry a safety toolkit in our pocket. But if you’re heading deep off grid on multiday adventures, you might need more backup. That’s where the best satellite communicators come in.
Satellite messengers not only provide comms when you're off the grid, they let you summon help with virtual SOS flares should the worst happen, and they offer longer battery life and extra features. They can let automatically let friends and family know you’re starting your adventure, send live location tracking updates, and alert them when your backcountry exploration is done.
In 2022, I used the excellent Garmin inReach Mini 2 to track a 1,830-mile solo run across Europe. It was invaluable for letting the folks back home monitor my daily progress on a real-time map as I moved through remote parts of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, and beyond. The new Garmin inReach Mini 3 Plus adds a larger, color touchscreen, a built-in mic and speaker, voice and photo messaging, new antenna tech, and a tougher build—all for a higher price tag.
I tested the new inReach’s adventure and safety credentials on a mini reprise of my European adventure, running 80 miles from Florence to Bologna on the Via degli Dei (Path of the Gods)—a three-day solo mission on an old Roman route across the Apennine Mountains, with stretches high in the hills where the phone signal went AWOL. Here’s how I got on.
Subscriptions and Hardware
Photograph: Kieran AlgerThere are two Garmin inReach Mini 3 models: the inReach Mini 3 ($450), which offers the same features as the inReach Mini 2 ($249), just with a new interface and the option to add more courses and routes (though I never found the Mini 2 lacking on that front). I tested the pricier, more capable inReach Mini 3 Plus ($500), which features important upgrades, including a faster antenna module with increased bandwidth for sending photos and audio.
If you’re new to inReach, you have to suck up an additional activation fee of $40, then choose from a series of subscription packages, which range from $8 to $50 per month, depending on which of the location and messaging services you plan to use and how often.
When your phone has cell service with the Garmin Messenger app open in the background, the inReach piggybacks on that connection and you won’t pay for those messages. So if you’re mainly on grid with occasional connectivity cutouts, you might not need the priciest package. The more messages, photos, check-ins and live tracking location requests you plan to use while out of cellular range, however, the more cost-effective the pricier packages become.
Luckily, you can see how many of your allotted messages, photos, track points and check-ins you’ve used on the inReach, so you don’t return from the wild to a heart-stopping bill.
On solo adventures like this, when I’m carrying everything I need for survival in a 22-pound pack and cutting my toothbrush in half to save weight, every ounce matters. But while the inReach Mini 3 Plus is 25 grams heavier than the Mini 2, it’s still light and easy to pocket. I stashed it comfortably in the side pocket of my Janji trail tights. You can also use the carabiner clip/tether to hook it to your pack harness.
The unit is reliably robust, with a more ruggedized, MIL-STD-810- and IP67-rated design. It's now protected against dust and will survive being dunked in a meter of water for up to 30 minutes. I fumbled it quite a few times onto Apennine rocks, and it didn’t flinch. The larger, higher-resolution, 64-color, memory-in-pixel display is bright and easy to read in all conditions. A welcome improvement over the Mini 2’s basic monochrome screen.
Photograph: Kieran AlgerThe controls were simple, too. There’s a combination of a touchscreen and five responsive buttons. I like that you can manage everything via the buttons. There’s nothing worse than using a gloved finger to ineffectively swipe a sweaty touchscreen. Even with bare fingers, I sometimes found myself swiping the touchscreen twice.
The SOS button sits safely under a cover to prevent any accidental triggers. In the event you need to hail help, one tap connects you to Garmin’s monitored Response Center, collecting vital info about your emergency and sharing your location. I thankfully didn’t have to use it, but the button is prominent and accessible—easy to fire in a genuine emergency. Garmin also added a siren so you can alert passersby.
One of the most important upgrades over the Mini 2 and the Mini 3 is the bigger Iridium Messaging Transport antenna. It adds a bit of weight, but it’s a reasonable trade-off for faster messaging and the ability to send and receive voice and photo messages. You also get multiband GPS, with the option to spare battery life using lower-power GPS settings.
The new built-in mic and speaker is an excellent addition. Rather than stop to tap out fiddly texts, I defaulted to sending my family 30-second voice messages that helpfully get transcribed at their end. I also love that you can now record voice notes to capture things that pop into your expanded brain during these adventures: eureka moments, deep thoughts, or just things you need to remember to do when you get home.
If you want to send texts, the inReach Mini 3 Plus now supports a bigger, 1,600-character limit (roughly 10 times the length of this sentence). You can also (fairly reliably) trigger simple functions with barked voice commands. The speaker audio quality is relatively loud and clear, even up a windy mountain.
Apps and Messaging
Setting up the inReach Mini 3 Plus is convoluted. For a start, you need two apps. Garmin Messenger lets you use your phone to write messages and send photos via the inReach, while Garmin Explore manages routes and maps (you can also send text messages from this app as well). You can sync your recorded inReach activities to Garmin Connect, and from there bounce them on to third-party apps like Strava or Komoot. But it’s frustrating that you can’t send routes the other way from Garmin Connect to the inReach Mini 3 Plus. It’s all a bit of a befuddling mess that could definitely be streamlined.
Photograph: Kieran AlgerWhen it comes to navigation, you can load an unlimited number of routes (as far as the storage allows), then follow a simple breadcrumb trail on top of an unhelpfully basic map with virtually no detail. You also get the option to mark waypoints and use TracBack if you need to retrace your steps.
Unfortunately, my Via Degli Dei route disappeared off the inReach, right when I was about to set off from Piazza della Signoria in Florence—not ideal when the clock was ticking at 1 pm, with 25 miles to run before sundown. I’m still not 100 percent sure what went awry. I’d checked that the route was synced at home the night before, but it suddenly wasn’t there. Luckily I had my Garmin Fenix 8 Pro loaded with the route as backup.
I managed to re-sync the routes back onto my inReach that evening for days two and three, but I'm still none the wiser as to what happened that first day.
On the move, the InReach Mini 3 Plus tracking splits into two parts: activity and satellite tracking. Activity tracking works the same as a regular sports watch with the usual metrics: time, distance, and speed. You also get useful distance- and time-to-destination readouts, plus estimated time of arrival, but the maps were largely useless.
Satellite tracking keeps tabs on your location. You can opt to share updates from every 2 minutes to every 10 minutes, but increasing the recording rate comes at the cost of battery life. You can create a group of contacts who receive an alert when you start tracking, along with a link to follow your progress on a map via Garmin LiveTrack. It also notifies them when you stop.
My nontechnical mom was able to “dot watch” my entire Italian mountain adventure without too much trouble, though when I was climbing switchbacks, I got the odd panicked message. The longer intervals and less precise location can make it appear like you’re not moving on the live track map.
Photograph: Kieran AlgerThe maps on the inReach were largely useless. The offline maps on the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro and the Garmin Forerunner 970 have more detail. There’s also no upcoming turn notifications, like you get on the Fenix, just an alert if you go 50 meters off course. After a while, I stopped following my route on the inReach Mini 3 Plus.
Beyond the live tracking and SOS emergency tools, satellite messaging is by far the inReach’s most useful tool. The addition of voice is a big step forward. Typing messages on the touchscreen is beyond fiddly. So for anything other than the preset and custom quick messages, it’s infinitely easier to record a quick 30-second voice note. Alternatively, you can use the Garmin Messenger app on your phone to tap out longer messages and beam them via Bluetooth to the inReach for sending via satellite. I found that incredibly handy for longer missives.
Voice messages are also helpfully transcribed for the recipients in Garmin Messenger, as are the replies that come back to you on the inReach Mini 3 Plus. It’s also really easy to snap a photo on your phone and send it via Messenger, although it sometimes took a simple text message and photo up to 10 minutes to send via satellite. Instant it is not.
Staying Power
When it comes to battery life, the Garmin inReach Mini 3 Plus claims 55 hours using performance messaging with two-minute location updates. That stretches up to 350 hours in low-power messaging with 10-minute tracking intervals. In testing, I set the tracking to 10-minute intervals and the screen at 75 percent brightness with a 15-second timeout. I put messaging in performance mode and the GPS on all systems multiband. I also had the navigation running and did a moderate level of messaging.
The 80-mile journey took a total of 51 hours, and I left the inReach switched on while I slept. I left Florence with 97 percent battery life and arrived in Bologna with 29 percent remaining after a total of 21.5 hours of live tracking and navigation. The overnight burn was surprisingly high, but you can obviously save juice by switching on the auto-power-off function. Or just switching the device off. Plus it’s pretty fast to charge. I loaded a full battery in a little over an hour.
Battery UsageRun TimeOvernight BurnDay 1100–90%5 hours17%Day 273–60%8 hours17%Day 344–29%8.5 hoursOverall, the Garmin inReach Mini 3 Plus is an excellent satellite messenger. It's well-built, easy to use, and tough enough and compact enough for long adventures. It also has a suite of safety and messaging tools that give you plenty of peace of mind.
However, when you factor in the purchase price, activation fee, and the monthly sub, it’s a big investment. The inReach Mini 3 Plus is worth the higher price over the Mini 2, but it’s probably only worthwhile if you regularly explore far away from the cell phone network. Otherwise, the combination of your smartphone and a decent sports watch that offers live tracking might be all the back up you need.
$500 at Amazon (Mini 3 Plus)$450 at REI (Plus)$450 at Garmin
