Garmin GPSMAP 86i, Floating Handheld GPS with Button Operation, Inreach

12 reviews for Garmin GPSMAP 86i, Floating Handheld GPS with Button Operation, Inreach

1. 

   Julianne Veal – 6 January 2025

   Great tool
   I bought this after getting lost in the mangroves for several hours while out paddling. My phone went dead and at dusk my husband called 911. I found my way off the water and looked up and there was a helicopter looking for me. Never again! Just be prepared to spend another $250 or so on a good map, plus a subscription. Worth it for me! Some of the reviews mention that it takes a time investment to learn how to use it. Yes, it does. But honestly it’s not that hard if you value the freedom that it gives you! My experience with Garmin tech support has been very good. With the subscription, I can paddle alone and it will send tracking info to my husband during my entire paddle. I can set waypoints and find my way back home easily. I can also plan routes ahead of time and follow those. Plus it has an SOS button that will call the cavalry in case of a real emergency. It’s just what I needed.

2. 

   Joseph Chan – 6 January 2025

   Good to have inReach function
   The inReach function is good. The device works fine like the other Garmin handheld device I have used before. Only one suggestion: the different main functions ( like Map, Main Menu, Trip Computer, Messages etc…) needs to scroll with the ‘Quit’/Page key. If I press the Quit/Page key too fast, the function is passed, I need to press the Quit key again for next round the function appears. If all the main functions can be shown on a single page and selected with arrow key like other level of function selection, it will be much better.

3. 

   Pippinm7 – 6 January 2025

   Excellent
   Light weight-covered in a tacky rubber that makes it easy to hold on to when moving in a boatBattery Life- is over 24 hours of use in GPS. I accidentally forgot to turn it off after a full 8 hours on the water left it on the counter picked up the next day and used it for the entire day on the water again with no charging.Bread Crumbs-I love the bread crumbs feature and live trackingI wish-It had the same display as the in boat garmin gps. it would make using the device easy and take no getting used toYellow Tape-I put a piece of yellow electrical tape on the antenna, so if it goes over board it will be easy to see regardless if it is face up or face down in the water.Floatation-floats both face up and face down.

4. 

   Birdwatcher35 – 6 January 2025

   App not great
   The app is not great it’s geared to fitness not marine, not useful. Unit is fine.

5. 

   Amazon Customer – 6 January 2025

   Connection difficulties, and it gives you advertisements and “badges”
   This garmin is very dissapointing for a flagship gps marine handheld. It was very difficult to get connected to my phone (which was required to update the software), once connected to the “garmin connect” app, it feeds advertisements to the GPS. The last thing I want on my gps unit is advertising. It also was giving me notifications that I have earned “badges” for doing thinks like walking and standing up. This is the second to last kind of information I want on my GPS.When planning a route between two points of interest, you go to routes and then pick your points. When picking your points you get a large list of POI’s that are organized by the distance from you. So if you want to find a particular buoy that is 5 miles away, you have to scroll through several hundred buoys that are closer than 5 miles to you. There is no way to pare down the list.The weather charts are nice and colorful, but there is no scale to let you know what color references its meaning.I was looking for a rugged gps with marine charts. The 86Sci has a ton of gingerbread attached to it that I don’t want or need. This unit falls very short of Garmin’s reputation.

6. 

   Ibrahim – 6 January 2025

   Tricky at the beginning… after learning, pretty good!
   Portable, nice, and good after you learn it all!

7. 

   Alfred Faber – 6 January 2025

   Staying in touch us what’s important
   The device is really sturdy and it works well. Things are a bit slower with satellite, but that’s not the device – it’s the whole deal. I recommend…

8. 

   Bill M – 6 January 2025

   Came with outdated maps, won’t update for free
   Only had this device for a couple of days but have already seen that the 86sci is quite a loaded device. I opted for this handheld because of the inReach capabilities. It was a bit difficult to set up, but finally got it activated using Garmin messenger app. You need a paid plan for it to work and I went with unlimited monthly plan, which you can suspend if you’re not going to use the device for a prolonged period of time. One thing I was extremely disappointed in a $600 unit was the map version present on the device was out of date. I went online with Garmin express to update the device and found that a new map database was available, however they wanted $100!! $100 to update a brand new device right out of the box. I called garmin support and unfortunately they said they don’t provide free updates to handheld devices. I said I thought that was unacceptable to charge someone $100 to make the device up to date as one would expect when buying a brand new unit. Other than coming with outdated maps I really like this device. I fish offshore out of cell range so the ability to stay in touch with my fishing buddies is a big plus. It’s also loaded with multiple other features and includes a light. I got a great price on Amazon which unfortunately for others only lasted a day.

9. 

   Taryll Currie – 6 January 2025

   Perfect! Fast shipping! Fantastic product

10. 

    Abel – 6 January 2025

    Funciona bastante bien, se ve rigido, es contra agua, super recomendado

11. 

    Tbone0234 – 6 January 2025

    Product is fine. Too many issues with shipping. Shop elsewhere. Provided details in prior review but Amazon states “does not meet community guidelines”

12. 

    Wandering Academic – 6 January 2025

    Garmin handhelds are pretty much the only game in town for marine gps, and this device delivers on the technical front. The tracks are consistent and accurate. The screen is clearer and bigger than the preceding GPSMAP 78, the controls seem to me far more intuitive, and the battery life is much, much better (although still no touchscreen, but given the marine application, that makes sense: you want this thing to take some watery abuse, and a touchscreen complicates that). I re-activated my inreach account for this device, and that brings me to my constant complaint with Garmin: their tech is usually solid. Their product integration? Meh. There’s always some annoying little thing that makes life more complicated than it needs to be (example: the Earthmate map with the old inreach devices had marine nav charts. Very cool. This device? Same inreach account, but now the device integration uses Garmin Connect and the Explore app, with no marine charts. Another example: using Garmin Connect for managing multiple adventure wrist and handheld devices makes sense, but the maps loaded on said handheld devices load and sync separately, and that makes management, and especially updates, confusing and tedious). And of course Garmin’s InReach accounts are expensive. Not that this device needs the InReach to be a good handheld chartplotter, but if you’re out of cellular range it’s good to have … and it costs: a more expensive device, and pricey monthly and annual fees and charges. Another reviewer mentions that this device isn’t compatible with Garmin’s One Chart integration. That’s true, very annoying, and worse still, the incompatibility isn’t obvious until you’ve scoured a lot of the help files and FAQs (and customer complaints), so be careful before you purchase maps or updates. It’s a seemingly arbitrary feature too: is it really so technically difficult to bring handhelds into the Garmin chartplotter family for shared maps and the Active Captain app!? What’s more, it reeks of a petty cash grab. Still, for some bizarre reason I keep being charitable with Garmin, and not assuming they just want to wring money from their faithful users. I guess it’s because the tech is always solid.Update: I had this device out while escorting a marathon swimmer on an 18hr crossing. I was using the Inreach tracking services, but the live tracking stopped mid-swim. Disconcerting for those following the tracking in real time, although luckily we also had a SPOT track running as well, so we could broadcast that instead of the Garmin track. What explained the Garmin failure? No idea, but I suspect it happened while trying to use the handheld for ITS ACTUAL JOB! navigating. So, Garmin, that’s not a great look: I either use this ridiculously expensive device as a navigation tool, or as a tracker, but trying to do both risks some silly software compatibility fault!? I’m downgrading my review score simply on this basis: a company with this much experience and dominance in the Marine sector simply shouldn’t market a device that fails so randomly. I notice now that Garmin has revamped the old GPSMAP78 series, so I may sell this overpriced handheld, and instead use my old Garmin Inreach mini for tracking, and buy the new GPS-only marine handheld for navigation. Oh Garmin.