On聽Thursday, satellite-communication pioneer Spot announced its first new model in five years. Dubbed the , it brings the company a little more up to date in an increasingly flooded market.
Looking like a beefed-up Blackberry that grew an antenna, the Spot X is chunky. But it delivers on most of the functionality you鈥檇 expect from a device its size, with a 2.7-inch screen鈥攂lack-and-white though it may be鈥攁nd a聽. Chief among the X鈥檚 features are two-way satellite text messaging and e-mail聽(a first for Spot), an SOS function that notifies聽GEOS International Emergency Response of your location and allows you to directly message with the service, the ability to check in聽with select contacts at the push of聽a button, and GPS tracking via Google Maps. You can also post to Facebook and Twitter directly from the X.
That鈥檚 all fairly standard for satellite messengers today. The most noteworthy development聽is that each Spot X has its own registered U.S. phone number. That means聽you鈥檙e reachable via text should anyone need to get in touch with you. That鈥檚 not the case with something like a Garmin InReach,聽which displays a different number on every string of texts.
What else would we like to see? Downloadable maps, for one. With the X, you have to plan your route beforehand or bring along a paper map. Of course, with a built-in compass and Spot鈥檚 excellent tracking capability, you should be able to find your way to and from that route using the聽waypoints聽logged by the device. (Choose from聽every 2.5, 5, 10, 30, or 60 minutes.) Friends and family can track your progress聽on Google Maps via the company鈥檚 website. That said,聽with, say,聽, you can view your route on-screen as you go. Weather updates would be nice, too.
The X has a leg up on the Garmin when it comes to聽battery life. It鈥檒l last, on average, ten days when tracking at聽ten-minute intervals, while the SE+ is good for a little over four. (The SE+ also has a color screen and, thanks to the added functionality,聽more processing going on.) For gram counters, the X tips the scale聽at seven ounces. The InReach SE+: 7.5 ounces.
The Spot X retails for $250 and requires a service plan (from $20 a month). That price for the device is hundreds of dollar less than many models out there. You don鈥檛 get聽quite the feature set; if you鈥檙e someone who鈥檇 use a satellite messenger more than occasionally, it might be worth going all in on a device with a fuller range聽of functionality. But the X is a good middle-of-the-road sat-comm option for someone who heads out on the occasional long backcountry trip and just wants to be reachable if聽folks back home need to get in touch.聽