Mini 2 - Just my experience

I just recently had the opportunity to use my InReach Mini 2, on a 4 day trip in Oregon’s Three Sisters Wilderness. I updated to the latest v3.28 prior to leaving, and I feel it worked really well. Coming from a InReach Mini, I was curious how the battery life would compare, now that they rate days vs hours.

Prior to leaving I updated the firmware, and I synced a few routes and waypoints to it. All my custom Presets synced over just fine as well. I have about 25. I don’t have a PC/Mac, use only an iPhone and iPad, and so I was using iOS Garmin Explore only. I usually do my edits on the iPad, and then use my iPhone to sync to the devices.

After getting back to the trailhead on the 4th day, I still had 69% battery. I was quite surprised (I was thinking I would hit 25% or so). This was using the Mini 2 about 12-14 hours on the first three days, and about 8 on the last day. I also had it paired to my iPhone 12 Pro, and my Fenix 6X Pro Solar (BT and ANT). I only sent 3-4 messages per day, usually a preset Start/Stop and one or two with a little more info, originating from my iPhone. I used the default 10 minute tracking the entire time, and pulled a couple of weather reports on a couple of days. Everything worked fine. The terrain is pretty open out there, with some areas under tree cover. 

The only difference I really noted, besides the new screens and features, was that I felt the weather reports were a little slower to transmit out/in. I did also “almost” forget to power off one night. But overall, the way I used it in that particular area, I could have been out there probably 10 days without a recharge.

If I were asked to suggest any improvements, I would probably ask for the “Power Off after disconnect from USB” option back, if possible (though I did read there might be some sort of work-around for that with the USB mode). I would also ask for smoke/fire details in the weather reports. While there is no graphics with those reports, any text updates would be a nice addition when you’re out of cell reception. Several areas around us were ablaze, and the smoke was in and out a bit.

Anyway, just wanted to share.

  • Curious if you think it is worth upgrading from the mini 1 to mini 2. Short of having a better messaging app, is there a use case to justify the upgrade?

  • I have both,  and without question,  the MINI 2 is just a better unit with better performance and features. So,  yes,  absolutely. 

  • I think that in the way I “use” the InReach, either would have worked fine for me. In fact, I have thought about using my old Mini as sort of a fancy airtag or something.

    When it came to updating, syncing, etc (as a IOS only user) the Mini 2 allows me more complete functionality without the need for a traditional computer device. I also like being able to see both my watch and the Mini 2 in iOS Explore vs the old green app. The battery efficiency was a big surprise for me. It was just a lot more efficient. And if you look at development support, you just have to accept that the older apps and utilities will not get much love, and will become obsolete at some point. They will just stop working (maybe due to OS update or something not even related to Garmin).

    But I did read a post where an individual had a PC-only environment, and no smartphone. So The Mini (1st gen) or even the Explorer/+ would have been a better option. I think they both still work well. In fact, in my experience, the Explorer+ appeared faster at transmitting/receiving messages than the Mini. It had a huge battery and would last a long time. It was just twice as big, and required the old app and sync methods.

  • Thank you both for the information!

  • I had it on a 6 week trip in Mongolia with me and it worked as expected. Power endurance is really astonishing - 5 days (during daytime) is a very good value. Robustness is good, Formfactor also and the possibility to attach a Lanyard PLUS the carabiner is a big, big plus for Inreach!

    Tracking works very good and with good precision. Data storage is fine and Bluetooth connectivity for a Garmin device, surprise surprise, pretty reliable.

    All together, I like this small gadget very much.

    What I really did not appreciate was the quality of the weather forecast, the "free" (short time) as well as the payed (longer range) version. It was in the very best case an educated guess, most times far less. Any European Weather forcast (if available during mobile access) for Mongolia was way better than the one provided by Garmin (or their service partner). This may be due to the abroad area, but when I'm in civilization with 5G supply, I do not need an Inreach Mini 2. So @Garm,in, please check for a more reliable weather forecast supplier!

  • As far as I know is the Garmin (iR) weather still provided by dark sky. But because Apple bought dark sky awhile ago Garmin has to the change the weather provider in the near feature (soon). But no idea, if the weather report will be more accurate for Mongolia with the new provider…