Has anybody got any real world experience with these?

Specifically after finding out whether they have a guide function a la the 500/800 series?

Not bothered by speed functions but distance travelled / elevation would be great.

This type of product woudl suit me and where I am based better than the SPOT tracker IF I can load routes onto it and I can follow the line in the usual fashion!

Yes I’ve got one but it’s in Myanmar at the moment.  Hope to have it back this week.  Only using it for tracking but as far as I can see you can set routes in the inreach portal and then follow them.   What I don’t know is if you can just upload a gpx rather than draw it out on the rather tedious Garmin Portal.  I’ll give it a play when it comes back and report back unless you get an answer before

awesome!!!

I have one. It’s primarily a communications device, with a GPS so that it knows the location if you send an emergency message. I carry it in areas with no other communications as a means to get weather forecasts, tell the folks at home that all’s well and as a means of summoning help for something like a medical emergency.

I understand you can use it as a GPS, but the built in interface is clumsy. You can link it to a smartphone, but I haven’t tried. I wouldn’t jeopardise it’s communications value running the battery down by using it as a route finding GPS. There are much more effective GPS devices that don’t require the expensive subscription.

Further to my post above, the app for interfacing to the Inreach is called Earthmate

The link has details of its capabilities.

Sorry for taking so long with this, only got it back this morning.  Anyway, some answers

Specifically after finding out whether they have a guide function a la the 500/800 series?

It doesn’t really ‘guide’ you in the same way as a regular Edge device does as it isn’t aware of roads at all.  You can upload both routes (regular gpx files I think) and waypoints.  If you navigate to a waypoint then the compass will show the direction and distance of the next waypoint.  Similarly the next waypoint and a line to it will be drawn on the map if you use that

If you navigate a route then it appears to pick the next point on your route from where you currently are and then the compass will point to that.  If you are in map mode then you just see the whole route drawn as a line.  If you want to head home you can reverse the route in the device.

You can upload 500 waypoints but I can’t find anywhere where it tells you a limit on the number of points on a route.  If you have a gpx file you want to upload then I can try it out for you and see if it shows up ok

Maps – seems like you can download anywhere in the world you like.  Quality seems ok.  BUT – even though they seem to be based on OpenstreetMap data the maps seems to be quite old.  The Myanmar data we had was extremely old compared to the live OSM data – by a few years.  The good news is that what you see in the online portal (inreach.garmin.com) appears to be what you actually see on the device.  However there is no option to upload the very latest maps as you can with an Edge device.

IF I can load routes onto it and I can follow the line in the usual fashion!

You can upload routes to it but probably not in the usual fashion.  It doesn’t behave like a normal Garmin where you drop a gpx into a USB folder.  Instead you need to upload the gpx file to the portal online and then sync that with the device.  It works ok though.  Similar for getting routes back as a gpx to then import into Basecamp or the such like.  The routes show up nicely though and the display is quite clear and usable.

Not bothered by speed functions but distance travelled / elevation would be great.

There are two tracking intervals, how often it uploads to the satellite and how often it logs your position.  Satellite you would probably limit to every 10-30mins.  Logging your position you probably wouldn’t want any more than every minute otherwise it affects battery life.  So if you really care about being accurate about distance traveled on the ground then that 1 minute would affect things on wiggly routes.  Otherwise it’s fine

As a tracking and communications device where you are just reassuring people everything is ok with the option to send the occasional other message – it’s brilliant.  As a mapping device the age of the maps would concern me so I’m not sure I would be using it as a primary device but as a backup it would be fine.  If you were happy just to follow routes that you had already uploaded then that’s great.  It can also be powered by standard USB battery but I’ve not tried that

Shout if you need anything other info.