What it is advisable to know
- The HMD OffGrid satellite tv for pc accent helps 2-way SMS messaging, dwell monitoring, check-in messages, and SOS requests by means of an Android or iOS telephone.
- It helps protection in North America, Europe, and Austalia/ New Zealand.
- It prices $199 for the gadget, plus both $79/12 months or $15/month for satellite tv for pc relying on the extent of service.
- It has three-day battery life, MIL-STD-810H sturdiness, and a companion app for messaging.
HMD World, the model behind current Nokia smartphones, is branching out to satellite tv for pc messaging. It introduced the HMD OffGrid at CES 2025, a satellite tv for pc accent for smartphones that appears and performs just like the Motorola Defy satellite tv for pc hyperlink launched in 2023.
The HMD OffGrid makes use of L Band satellite tv for pc through Viasat and Skylo (the Defy makes use of the latter service). It sends messages, voice notes, and check-ins to family and friends from the OffGrid app.
Your SMS messages will likely be despatched out of your telephone quantity, so nobody else must obtain an app to speak with you. And real-time monitoring will allow you to share your GPS-based location with as much as 5 contacts — through a shared hyperlink — by urgent a button on the OffGrid.
Whereas the HMD OffGrid is rated to final three or 4 days per cost, that is solely with messages and check-ins at common 30-minute intervals. Whereas it has 10-day standby battery, it should final solely a day or two should you’re repeatedly utilizing GPS and satellite tv for pc for automated 3-minute check-ins.
Most significantly for anybody utilizing this satellite tv for pc dongle in signal-free areas, it helps SOS alerts through the gadget’s devoted SOS button. Urgent it triggers a collection of questions through Focus Level Worldwide, the 24/7 emergency service, corresponding to “Are you alone?”, “The place are you?”, and “What occurred?”
If obligatory, Focus Level will ship Overwatch x Rescue providers to render help as wanted and foot the invoice to rescue you — although you will need to pay your individual medical payments.
The satellite tv for pc service covers the mainland and as much as 70 miles away from the coast in collaborating areas just like the Americas, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand — with extra territories coming “all through 2025,” HMD says.
“HMD OffGrid is a brand new, inexpensive, transportable and easy-to-use providing that is each empoweing and dependable — particularly when it issues probably the most,” says HMD Chairman and CEO Jean-Francis Baril. “Whether or not you’re mountaineering within the mountains or snowboarding off-piste, HMD OffGrid ensures you’re by no means actually off grid.”
The HMD OffGrid is IP68 dust- and waterproof, in addition to rated for MIL-STD-810H ruggedness. It weighs 60g (2.1oz) and has a devoted spot for a carabiner, if you wish to dangle it off of a backpack. It appears very handy to convey on an overland journey, although now we have the identical design concern as we did with the Defy: the uncovered SOS button appears a bit too simple to press with out a cowl. Different satellite tv for pc units we have examined just like the Garmin GPSMAP 67i make you take away a protecting cowl from the SOS button.
Other than the $199 upfront value for the OffGrid, you will have to pay for HMD Limitless or HMD Freedom to make this greater than a paperweight. Limitless prices $14.99/month for limitless texts and check-ins, whereas Freedom prices $79.99/12 months with a 350-character restrict for texts, $0.10 per location check-in, and a $20 activation payment.
HMD additionally talked about that it could supply some type of enterprise program for the OffGrid with distinctive options, although it did not go into an excessive amount of element.
Whereas extra telephones and carriers are including satellite tv for pc messaging or SOS providers, from the iPhone 14 and Pixel 9 Professional to Verizon telephones, one thing just like the HMD OffGrid or Motorola Defy provides you satellite tv for pc entry with out tying it to a particular gadget.
On condition that the Defy has usually obtained middling critiques and needed to climate the bankrupcy of Bullitt Satellite tv for pc Messaging — which was acquired by one other firm in 2024 — I am certain outdoorsy folks will respect the HMD OffGrid as a possible different. The principle query will likely be whether or not the satellite tv for pc protection and messaging works as meant.
For more information, or to preorder the HMD OffGrid, you should buy the satellite tv for pc gadget on HMD’s web site.
