I am looking hard at the SE right now. I don't want to be required to have my phone with me all the time, I often leave it behind when in the woods, so sounds like the Mini is out.
My desire is for tracking while flying/boating/sledding, and be able to let Lyn know I will be 'late' getting back because I am kicked back at the cabin and don't want to deal with life.
Does anyone use the SE in tracking? How does to do?
Thanks
Don't rule out the Mini quite yet... You can set up three customized messages that you can send by just selecting them from the screen. It's quite easy both to set them up and to send those messages. My three pre-configured messages are set as follows:
1) Departing now.
2) I'm delayed, but everything's OK.
3) Arrived safely at my destination.
[Side note: I wound up using that 2nd one a couple of times on a recent trip, fighting 35 mph headwinds in a 100 mph airplane...]
Those three messages take care of all the "routine" things for me. Bluetooth pairing to my phone handles the rest. And, in the event the phone and iPad both go dead, and the two battery packs I carry with me are also dead, you're still not out of options... You can still use the Mini's "scroll through the alphabet and select the letter" method to send texts from the device. It's not fast, and it's not convenient, but it works well enough to be used when all else fails. The tradeoff for small size, light weight, and extreme ruggedness is well worth it, to me.
And if you do buy it, go through the RAF, and purchase their bundled kit. They get a small portion of the proceeds from Garmin, you get one month of free service, plus a really nice hat, paracord 'survival' bracelet, and a folding knife, all in a little drawstring-top bag that is a convenient way to carry stuff.