The HMD OffGrid Satellite Communicator Can Save Your Butt and Fit in Your Pocket

The activation process is quick—you turn it on, charge it, and download the HMD OffGrid app on your phone. Once connected, the app walks you through the settings. I charged it for about an hour to get it to 100 percent, and the battery lasted from Monday through Thursday and got to about 35 percent. However, none of our outdoor excursions lasted longer than four hours, so the OffGrid probably doesn’t have enough battery life to live-track a weekend backpacking trip. (Then again, your phone doesn’t either.)

The OffGrid has a few different capabilities, along with the aforementioned SOS service and live tracking. You can text via satellite messaging and check in on the HMD OffGrid app. In the Washington Cascades, it took about eight minutes to connect to satellites under tree cover, but it was a lot quicker from a lakeshore under clear skies.

It’s IP68-rated and has been tested to military specs, which means you can treat it with a reasonable amount of abuse. I did kick it around in and out of bags and dropped it in an alpine lake, and it continued working.

The device uses the same L-band frequencies that all GPS systems use to triangulate your position as you crawl about the surface of planet Earth. But while Garmin uses the Iridium satellite network for telecommunications, HMD has partnered with Skylo and Viasat, which does make me a little nervous. Most satellite messengers I’ve tested use Iridium, and Skylo and Viasat seem less reliable. However, my texts to my dad and location tracking with my husband went back and forth with reasonable promptness.

One of Many

For a long time, if you wanted to go off-grid, your choices were Garmin or nothing. Now options are abundant, even within this specific niche—someone who recreates in the backcountry frequently but is never really that far from an outlet or a power bank to keep their phone and the device charged.

The OffGrid is far from your only choice. The Motorola Defy is cheaper, but it’s less hardy and doesn’t have Overwatch X Rescue. If you want better battery life for a whole week or weekend, stick with a Garmin. Or get a personal locator beacon ($380), which doesn’t require a subscription and has a battery that will last 5 years or until you have to use it.