Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I love the Zoleo. I used it in the Eastern Sierra mountains near Mt Whitney. The plan was a four day trip hitting Mt Langley and Mt Whitney. Well, while were out there an earthquake hit. We were injury free and didn't need the SOS button, but I can tell you, having it there while the side of a cliff crumbles down and covers you in dust is a huge relief. After the literal dust settled we decided to continue on our trip. My buddy's car was waiting for us at Whitney Portal. The real life saver was the ability to tell my fiance we were okay. She suffers from intense anxiety, and upon hearing a news report of an earthquake, she nearly had a panic attack. The smooth communication on the app let me put her mind at ease. Then she was able to give us updates on trail conditions throughout the day and night as they came in. Without the Zoleo, we would have had no idea what we were heading into. We ended up turning around because of reports of trail damage. It's for that reason that I give it five stars. Overall, it works so well. I rented an inReach last year to use in the same area, and comparing the two, Zoleo wins hands down. I can control the intervals so simply for message checks, but it finds signal every time. It doesn't have maps like the inReach, but the communication is what I got it for. The app is great. Super easy to text and it used cell service when available. This is nice when hiking somewhere with spotty signal. I don't have to waste my prepaid messages. The battery life lasts a long time, too. Just don't have the interval for message checks too often or else it drains the battery. I had it checking constantly while I was at camp so that I could chat with my fiance and get quick updates on the trail for the next day. This dropped the battery pretty quickly, like ten percent in an hour. Overall, I love this thing. For the price, it beats the inReach for me. I use other apps for navigation, so I don't miss the fact that it has no maps, but maybe in the future, they will add a map feature.