Bushwalk Australia

I have just read an advertorial about this Zoleo device which purports to turn a smart phone into a satellite communications device with world wide coverage, the article was pretty light on detail though. So, I am familiar with satphones but can anyone enlighten me on this particular bit of gear? I'm wondering about performance, cost, utility and whether its a gimmick.

It seems very similar to the Garmin Inreach Mini but 50% heavier and it seems on first glance to be missing a little functionality such as weather forecasts. Still needs a subscription which seems more expensive than Garmin.

Thanks Mark.

Sorry for raising this thread from the dead, but just having a read of various communicators and the issue I have is that I might only find time off work to do a handful of multi day walks a year. All the plans I've seen for Garmin and Spot have a way to suspend the service but also have expensive re-activation costs associated. The Zoleo site states "Suspend your plan when not in use for just $3.95 AUD/month. While suspended, your device will not transmit messages (including SOS). Unsuspend online any time with no activation fee." This seems far more reasonable even if the monthly costs are a bit higher. Does anyone have any experience using Zoleo?

Cheers!!

Yes, I have one and think it perfect for our needs. The $3.95 per month suspend works well. I have a PLB , but got Zoleo when we did Larapinta, as barley any mobile signal. We could message our kids anytime and the phone app works very well. With Zoleo you get a proper phone number anyone can SMS you even without app. But app gives you longer message length so is best to use. Last year were walking in the Pyrenees and I was sick for a few days mid walk. I went back to town and met up wife a few days later. So continued on solo sending zoleo one button check in's a couple of times a day which include co-ordinates. Then app messaged at night when at next refugee. There was no phone signal at all during this section of the walk...so a great solution for us. Garmin etc all work well, it's just a matter of which best supports your planned usage. For us, the good messaging app and cheap suspend mode are key features.

MikeB62 wrote:Yes, I have one and think it perfect for our needs. The $3.95 per month suspend works well. I have a PLB , but got Zoleo when we did Larapinta, as barley any mobile signal. We could message our kids anytime and the phone app works very well. With Zoleo you get a proper phone number anyone can SMS you even without app. But app gives you longer message length so is best to use. Last year were walking in the Pyrenees and I was sick for a few days mid walk. I went back to town and met up wife a few days later. So continued on solo sending zoleo one button check in's a couple of times a day which include co-ordinates. Then app messaged at night when at next refugee. There was no phone signal at all during this section of the walk...so a great solution for us. Garmin etc all work well, it's just a matter of which best supports your planned usage. For us, the good messaging app and cheap suspend mode are key features.

Yeah, that's it. I have no doubt the Garmin is very good. But expensive re-activation is a huge turnoff. They'd have my money if I could do some kind of pre-paid equivalent, or cheap suspend mode like Zoleo offer.
Great to hear some feedback on it as well. Seems like a good solution to me.