Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm a professional nature photographer, and I'm often in places with no cell phone reception. I purchased this mainly for letting family know where I'm at each day while traveling off the grid, as well as emergency use. The reception exceeded my expectations, and even works very well within a dense forest (with trees about 3 stories tall). The ear speaker is nice and loud, and calls are clear with slight digital distortion. There is enough of a delay that you'll be conscious of it and have to be more patient than normal conversing with people. The phone is a bit large, but its much lighter than it looks, and it feels rock solid. It comes with every accessory needed, including ear piece, car and wall chargers, and a travel case. It uses a standard micro usb for charging. The whole thing fits nicely into my camera bag. Battery life is fantastic, but you need to remember to turn the phone off when stored. The price of the handset, battery life, and price of using the minutes was a great value compared to iridium. I'm using the prepaid card plan. Unfortunately, the 180 day, 100 unit card will now only be 90 days if activated after June 30 of 2016. That card was the best value by far. That being said, the prepaid card is still laughably cheaper than iridium. The minutes do roll over if you buy another prepaid card before expiration. I signed up for a GEOS search and rescue membership for $30 per year, and programmed the top emergency button to connect with them. BlueCosmo set up my sim card within 2 hours and I was set up and ready to go.