Spot X with Bluetooth 2-Way Satellite Messenger

Used this device recently in the backcountry on a quick 3 day hunt. I was able to send and recieve texts no problem average send time was 3 minutes. Most of the time I was in a small gap in thick pines on the side of a mountain. Something to understand about the device is that it was meant for backcountry, where there isnt alot of radio signal interference. It will have a hard time functioning in the city or when there is a cellphone with connectivity near it. The set up was a bit aggravating because of the terrible response time and glitchyness of thier website. Overall im very happy with the purchase and plan options.

New review: Well guys I've had a year now to test it out and besides a small radius around my house, it actually works really well. I went on vacation and work trips and used it with no problems. I was able to send and receive. I highly recommend this device especially if you go off the grid or want that extra net of safety that if you push that button, you WILL be saved. I highly recommend the overwatch protection thing they offer as well. For $29 a year not only will you be saved, but you won't have to pay for the rescue! Old review: I will do a more in depth review later but I had to come on here and worn you all before you buy it. This thing is able to send messages all day but it absolutely will not receive them in any location that has cell network 5G. The 5G interferes with the signal. The only place this is mentioned on their website is deep in the FAQ. No where on the sales page. I see they’ve updated the website to say the spot x is specifically for when you’re “off the grid and out of cellphone range.” There is no way for customers to know that that means it absolutely won’t work when one is in cellphone range. If you are ok with just being able to send your friends, family, and search and rescue messages but not revive any info back the. This is the one for you. If however, you’d like to be able to have a conversation, this ain’t it chief. Since it can’t receive confirmation from the satellites that the message was delivered. It just keeps trying to send them until it gives up. This uses much more battery. Additionally, no other messages will send while it is attempting to send the first one. The only work around is to send it and then wait until you think it sent, the. Cancel the message. This allows the next message to be sent. Attached you’ll see a photo of me testing the SOS feature. BAD NEWS. It works but the only way to cancel it after testing is for the satellite to beam back that it received the cancellation. this is impossible in a 5G area. You have an hour to test the SOS feature before it turns off and actually calls search and rescue. I was on hold for 30 minutes trying to get a hold of customer service to see if force restarting it would properly cancel the SOS. Time became to close for comfort and they still hadn’t answered so I had to decide between the time running out and rescue being wrongfully sent, or taking the risk of doing a force reset and them coming anyway. Luckily the force reset did work. I didn’t know that though until many minutes later when customer service answered and was able to check for me. The cool thing though is that at least customer service is 24/7. The website says that they’ll never ask for your secret account pin via voice and you’ll just input it on the phones keypad. This isn’t true as they asked for it via voice. The next day it was sent to customer service over the chat feature as well. I came to find that customer service literally knows everything about you. Name, home address, exact location if you have the device. Made me wonder if they can pull this information at anytime or only when a customer calls.

I have a complaint about the product and especially the Amazon vendor - GPS City in Vegas (charged $50 arbitrarily to return this Xmas gift within 5 days). I have been a customer of Spot (Gen 3) for years, as have my hiking buddies. We live very remote in So. Utah so great to let family know that all's well from the outback. The Gen3 did start to fail a bit, turning off at random, quit tracking even though I would refresh/update. But still sent the preset text which was the main function (and I can track on my phone, so no big.) And customer service from Spot is generally good or at least they try hard. When Spot came out with SpotX, two way texting was something really appealing for all the obvious reasons. A situation is not always life threatening and texting back and forth to home or emergency services would be invaluable, as opposed to pressing SOS and waiting for a helicopter to try and find which canyon you're lying in. With 2 way texting, you can talk to your spouse or to the emergency responders, if you can get coverage, and figure out what you really need. My wife wanted me to have the feature so ordered it for Xmas. However, read the negative reviews on SpotX carefully, they are Spot on, and don't believe the ones that say you just don't know how to use it. I'm a long time Spot user, and back packer, and this product is poorly designed and unnecessarily difficult to use. The biggest problem is they are trying to do too much, be all things to all users, compete with Inreach and at a lower price point. Spot Gen3 takes one button to send preset text. Spot X takes multiple steps for a simple preset text -- "doing OK" -- and with tiny, little weird keyboard, screen with 6 different windows, on and on and on. It tries to do everything and does nothing well. If you're a serious backcountry person, this is not for you. Spot will figure this out soon enough and redesign, or follow the Inreach lead and turn the Gen3 into a Mini with 2 way. And sync with the phone so you have the bluetooth option for reasonable texting options. If this is their best shot, they are in trouble. I had the SpotX for a few days, tried it out just on the decks outside the house, never in the field, determined quickly that it was not a well designed unit. Some buttons had to be pressed more than once, etc, etc, and wait till it get in the field, a little dirt and that keyboard it guaranteed to fail! It's finicky and I will bet fragile, backpacking gear needs to be tough. At least the Gen3 is that. Anyway, I kept SpotX in perfect condition, because when I first opened it up, there were all these weird notes in the packing from the seller, GPS City, in Vegas. One said, "Stop, do not return this to retailer! - with a literal stop sign. Then a page of rants on another sheet about free shipping scams, etc, etc. I returned it according the normal Amazon procedures. Then GPS City shorted me on the refund by $50. Paid 249, refunded 199. No explanation, except on their rant sheets about returns. I have never had an experience like this with an Amazon vendor. If a vendor is going to be such a jerk about returns, they should disclose that upfront, or Amazon should disclose it. Had I known any of their weirdness, I would have waited to go to Salt Lake and got one from REI, checked it out there, and returned it there, full refund, no questions asked. Last year, our family ordered at least 300 items through Amazon, probably returned 20 or so. NEVER encountered a problem with a vendor like this. Spot and Amazon need to rattle this vendor's cage, doing Spot or Amazon no favors.

I will update this review after a few weeks of use. First, please keep in mind that this is not an end-all device to keep you in touch or save your life. All devices can and will fail at times. Even matches can get wet when you’re trying start a fire to send a smoke signal. This device is just another layer of safety. You shouldn’t be going into the snow-covered mountains with shorts and a T-shirt and this device and expect you’re gonna be fine. Negatives: Buttons can be slow or non-responsive. Type slow and deliberate. The buttons eventually work, even if it takes several times to push it. It takes forever to charge. They should have used USB C for charging. I do get a warning message to point the antenna at the sky. It takes up the entire screen. I wish they would have a real-time small icon that gives you signal strength. Icons are small and hard to read. You may never really know if a message is delivered. But you will know if the message is sent. Not sure what the issue is here. 5G signals appears to have a significant impact on message receiving, but not message sending. Not really sure if this is an issue since if you have 5G, why are you using this to receive messages? Messages that are to be received by the device are supposed to be queued and received when the device connects. I’m having issues with this. However, this may be due to the initial activation. Messages sent right after activation were never received. However, a few hours after activation, when I’m away from 5G signals and have an open sky, incoming messages are received. Positives: I think it does pretty much what it’s supposed to do considering the technology and most likely cost prohibitions. Device cost is reasonable. Monthly plans are cheap, at least I feel so. Pretty rugged. Although I wouldn’t drop it on purpose. I would not recommend buying this if you just want to use a tracker. I’ve had a previous spot device that seemed to work better. I also would not recommend buying this if you just want an emergency SOS type device. There are better options for this, including other SPOT devices. If you are fine also carrying your cell phone with you everywhere, another device may be better for you as I think other devices can send messages using an app on the cell phone. This doesn’t really work for me as relying on another device and a cell phone at the same time it’s not what I’m looking for. However, if you’re like me, and want to throw this in your truck or go bag just in case, this will probably be the device for you. I like that it does not require a cell phone like other devices to send/receive messages. When in the city, messages are slow to be sent. This is clearly due to the obstructions. When away from obstructions, the messages are sent pretty quickly, especially if you are already connected to the satellites. For me, it’s the perfect device for now. However, SPOT will need to keep advancing their technology as there are other players in the market. I love the fact that if there is no Internet, or if there is a natural disaster, it’s more likely than not I can still send text messages, even if I am having a hard time receiving them. I’m assuming when I update this review in a few weeks, I will have the incoming message issue resolved. I am giving this 4 stars simply because of the technology and cost limitations. Five years from now I’d probably give it 2-3 stars if there is no significant upgrades. It doesn’t get 5 stars due to battery charging limitations and button responsiveness limitations.

Update after a year and a half, still works as it should. We have used it to stay in touch with family in remote areas and messages have always gone through. I did alot of research before buying a satellite communication device. Everyones needs and expectations are different. I dont hike the Appalachian trail nor spend days in the backwoods. For the most part I RV in state parks or campgrounds. About 90% of the time I have some type of cell service. So the spot x will come in handy for the few times I dont have service, but thats not really why I bought this. I got this more for being prepared. In Oklahoma we get tornados and some earthquakes. In my area over the last 10 years or so we have had tornados that took out cell sites. Sometimes the sites were down for weeks. The carriers have emergency response units that help but bandwith is limited. So lots of congestion. I was looking for something that would be cost effective to sit around until needed or take traveling if needed. One reason I picked spot x was the yearly plan for about $144. By paying for the year you get 240 messages, unlike the month by month were you only get 24 messages that dont roll over from month to month. I figured the ability to use 240 at any time in any combination worked better. This was by far the best deal out there. Plus you get to send unlimited check in messages and unlimited preset messages (you get to set up 14 different preset messages that are free to send). As far as the operation of the spot x Ive had no issues and it works exactly as its advertised. I have not had any signal issues using this outside. The set up process was easy, although set aside some time to enter your contacts and set up predefined messages. The bluetooth to phone is great. I can set the spot x on my outside porch rail, then sit in the house then send and receive messages. Since the unit is pretty much weatherproof this would work when in the RV or in a tent where you could keep the spot x outside for signal but stay inside due to weather. Since you get to send unlimited check in messages I have sent a bunch testing this and all have come through, fastest was less than a minute, longest was about 8 minutes. Lets just say Im happy with the results. So if you are looking for a way to communicate via satellite during a disaster or shtf situation, for $144 a year this is a pretty good way to do it.

Spot service sent a replacement. As said earlier Spot service has been quite good. Hopefully this replacement will work as it should. Only 3 stars as a "life saving device" should be dependable! Over the last few days Spot x works intermittently at best. It no longer tracks unless hard reset and stops tracking after 2+- hours. Texting also quit. Have contacted customer support and waiting. To say that I don't feel comfortable with this device at this time is an understatement! I'm sorry to leave this and hope SPOT x will provide a fix. Friday 3.15.2024 Received followup phone call from Robin at customer service and she really knows the Spot X. First and foremost is that she let me know that Spot has fixed the issue with some Android phones not connecting. App connects perfectly with my phone now. She also spent time to straighten out my account and transfer credits from old Spot to new Spot X and make sure account was properly set up. She went above and beyond including settiing up a share page for tracking. I have spent some time setting it up and is as good if not better than I was hoping for! A correctioon on signal issues when in Tmobile 5G is that it will send but may have issues receiving messages. Have not experienced any issues with that as it is working great. Needless to say with the fantastic service and the Spot X working I will be keeping it and stay with Spot. Robin has promised another followup on Monday to go over any issues. Saturday 3.9.2024 Tried to set up spot. Installed The Spot App and added the new Spot X to our Spot account. Spot X would not connect to Android phone but would show Spot devices. Did trouble shoot as per Spot and Google search nada. Sunday tried again and sent check ins and some worked some not. Tried trouble shoot again. Tried to install Spot X App but would not install. Message was a newer app was available which is The Spot App. Finally gave up. Monday 3.11.2024 Called Spot service, got a nice representative Nicole and spent approximately 2 hours on the phone. So this is what we figured out: Spot X will not Bluetooth connect with new The Spot App. Need to use the Spot X App. Spot X app will not install on my Android phone. Does not say that anywhere in the documentation! Says android version 7 or above I have version 13. Before buying a Spot X would suggest that you try to install Spot X app NOT The Spot App if you want to use the Spot X with a phone. I don’t believe the documentation is accurate about which operating system will work. Believe best way to know is as previously mentioned. Spot X has issues sending text messages and check ins to 5G enabled smartphones that are in a 5G area. Need to send messages to an email if want to make sure that recipient receives messages. Best we could figure out is that the Spot X will receive text messages from 5G phones in 5G area but haven’t truly tested this yet. The work around she suggested is to use a contact’s email and have them text back responses. This may work but seems overly cumbersome. Have had a Spot 1 since 2009 and would like to stay with Spot but at this point considering switching to Garmin inreach or just stick with Spot 1. She created a work order so will wait a bit and see if any of these issues can be resolved. Have until April 6th to return. Will update this review if Spot can work out these issues.

I was able to set up this device and send the first message in less than 15 minutes of it arriving. Some important tips: Start by going to Spot's website and registering the device. I already had an account for a previous generation Spot, so I just needed to add the new device to the account. The SpotX makes this easy because it displays the numbers you need the first time you boot the device. Tip: Update your billing before registering the device if you are using a new credit card different than the previous one linked to the account. As soon as it's registered, I used the included USB to connect the device to the computer and downloaded the new firmware (the link for the software is conveniently on the same page as the device profile). The software downloaded and installed in about 5 minutes. I updated the firmware on the device which took about 3 minutes. Once done, I took it outside, aimed it at the blue sky, sent a message to my cell, and voila! Text message to my phone received about 30 seconds later in the middle of my subdivision with 2 story houses and trees surrounding me. Looking at many of these reviews, it seems like customers were expecting more out of this device. It is NOT a phone. If you had a prior model of a spot, this works essentially the same way except with the convenience of sending custom text messages (along with preloaded ones) to individual contacts which is a huge advantage compared to the regular spot. But don't expect it to do anything else than that. It doesn't pull up your facebook feed (although you can sinc your messages to social media to post text if you would like). It doesn't pull up your email account. It is a handy tool for keeping in touch off the grid and for emergencies. It is not an iphone. The keyboard has the feel of an old blackberry for those old enough to know what I'm talking about. If feels rugged enough, but I don't think a drop on concrete from 10 feet high would serve it well. As far as landing on dirt or water it seems sturdy enough to absorb the shock if dropped from your hand or out of a backpack outside. It has a nice sealing USB port cover that seems up to the challenge of keeping moisture out. It DOES have a backlight, but you had to press the power button to toggle it on and off. I am guessing forgetting to turn it off will drain the battery more quickly. The menu is a bit clunky, and requires reading the manual in order to understand what all the different notification icons mean. Once you get used to them, you will know what you are doing. Overall, I prefer the SpotX from the Garmin Mini. It is an all in 1 device that I don't need to pair with my phone. I think the fundamental thing to understand is that while it's not an iphone, it definitely is a great tool to send a receive communication outside of cell contact.

I see a number of negative reviews on this device. I had one of the first gen Spot messengers that I ditched for the Garmin Inreach (which does have a number of advantages over Spot--complete global coverage being one of them). I just downgraded my Inreach plan and picked up a Spot X. So far I'm glad I did. First, this is important to understand: it's a satellite device. You really have to be outside in order for it to work reliably. It looks like people are picking these up expecting them to be some sort of everywhere-Blackberry'ish device. It's not. But it's close enough such that, properly configured, it will give people a way to reach you (and you them) in a semi-reasonable amount of time. It also does a stellar job of tracking and reporting your outdoor location. Bottom line: I've spent about 2 weeks with it on my hip, indoors and out, and here's what I've found. Outdoors, it always works. It tracks, sends and receives messages perfectly. In the car it's a little less reliable but setting it in a little suction cup holder on the windshield also works perfectly. In the house, if I set it on a table by the window it works some-to-most of the time. Anywhere else indoors is a black hole. Battery life is reasonable although I don't think it'll run 10 days 24x7 with tracking at 10 minutes. So take a solar battery if you're going to be off-grid a while. Things I wish it did better: the user interface. It's a little cumbersome to see what did and didn't get sent. It would be nice if there were an "if you really want to send this, you need to stand still and hold it up in the air" beeps after a couple of minutes of not sending. Email-to-text has room for improvement but if you just text message phones it works well. Also, there's no 2-way coverage in Australia? Really?! The one-way beacon worked great there but it would be nice to text from the outback. But for the Americas, Western Europe and Africa it seems to have you covered. I'll say that the one-way version also worked flawlessly in The Gambia a couple of years back. But for $20 bucks a month ($30 a month if you want to spend your whole trek texting all your buddies every waking minute) it's a good deal. You just have to understand what you're getting.

This unit has been an amazing addition to my work equipment. It's easy to use, accurate, and keeps me in touch in areas where I have no other form of communication

Es de los accesorios que te pueden llegar a salvar la vida literalmente, su valor puede llegar a ser más alto que su precio en definitiva. Afortunadamente aún no me toca tener que usarlo en situación de riesgo pero hace algunas pruebas caseras que resultaron favorables.

Ne fonctionne pas

Ótimo produto, cumpre com o propósito que é enviar um sinal de socorro ou se comunicar em área que não existe sinal de celular/intenet. Obs: para utilização ou teste, ele não funciona ou funciona muito mal em local com área 5G. O pedido chegou dentro do prazo certinho. Recomendo

Si me gustó. Y excelente servicio