Review: HMD OffGrid Satellite Communicator

In my 17 years of being married to my husband, I have learned that it's wise to take a few precautions. First, always wear sensible shoes. Second, always have a full water bottle and some snacks—even if we’re supposedly just walking the dogs for an hour. Third, panicking never helps. You might not know what’s going to happen or how you got here, but we’re going to figure it out.

Unfortunately, my daughter has only lived with my husband for 10 years, compared to my 17. On a recent spring break trip, we were off-roading up a steep hill in our Toyota Tundra when we started sliding backwards in a slippery mix of snow and mud. Immediately, high-pitched shrieks erupted from the back seat. “Babe! Panicking never helps!” I reached into the glove box and pulled out an Anker power bank, a USB-C cable, and the HMD OffGrid. “We can always call someone. It’s going to be OK!”

She calmed down, giving my husband and me enough time to figure out how to get out of this mess. (It will surprise no one who has gone overlanding that it involved a combination of 4WD, chains, and a lot of rocking back and forth.) Back at the cabin, I opened my computer and subscribed to the Overwatch X Rescue 24/7 emergency SOS service. My husband made fun of me, but I’m not the one plowing us into melting 2-foot snow berms for fun.

No Bars

The US is a big country, and cell service is woefully inadequate. In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission reported that most service providers did not meet the minimum service provided in coverage maps. Coverage is even worse if you recreate outdoors, and especially in the American West. My family and I spent the week in the Washington Cascades, and while Verizon's coverage map shows that we were supposed to get service, we did not. Not a single bar until we drove into town.

There are a lot of satellite messengers, but most people don’t want to spend through the nose on a dedicated device, plus subscriptions, for something they’d only use a few times a year. The HMD OffGrid addresses that gap. It’s tiny, durable, and relatively affordable. Most of all, the OffGrid’s yearly subscription fee is reasonably priced and includes Overwatch X Rescue. It doesn’t do you very much good to have a satellite communicator with SOS if it doesn’t summon some people to rescue you.

Overwatch X Rescue provides end-to-end crisis response management. Most importantly, a subscription covers the costs of the response for only $80 per year. This is insanely affordable for a fully funded service that covers everything from search and rescue to transportation of your dependent children if you're injured.

In contrast, something like the Garmin inReach messenger ($250) is more expensive and requires both a minimum $15 per month inReach satellite subscription to trigger the SOS, as well as $40 per year search and rescue (SAR) insurance to pay for the costs involved in extracting you from whatever mess you’re in. Let's be honest: If you love high-risk outdoor sports and need a rescue, this would be a bargain. But most of the time, you won’t.

Fun Sized

I tried the review unit of the OffGrid on my family’s spring break. (Don’t worry, I didn't make my kids suffer—at least, not for work. We made these plans long before I got the OffGrid to test.) The device is palm-sized, 3.7 inches high, and weighs less than 3 ounces. It looks a lot like the Motorola Defy. There’s a hole at the top for a lanyard, which I didn’t have, but it easily fit in my pants pocket.

It charges via USB-C and is compatible with Android and iOS. It's not a stand-alone device, so you'll need a smartphone to use it. It’s simple to operate, as any device you use to call for help in the backcountry should be—just two buttons, a power button, and an exposed yellow SOS button. It feels like it might be too easy to trigger, but you have to hold the SOS down firmly for a few seconds, which makes an accidental press less likely. (Yes, I did push the SOS button and text Overwatch. I told them to stand down. I did it for you, and yes, it was embarrassing.)

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.

The main value proposition offered by the OffGrid is that the subscription plan is ridiculously cheap and includes Overwatch X Rescue. However, it's worth noting here that Overwatch X Rescue does have a stand-alone app that works with newer iPhones and Android devices with satellite capabilities.

If you have a newer phone, you might want to skip getting the OffGrid altogether. But if you're not someone who upgrades your phone constantly—and many people who like to vacation in the backcountry don't—then HMD is a useful, affordable, and possibly lifesaving satellite communicator.