RV FEATURE
Fortunately , this is where the design and operation of Iridium GO ! is vastly superior to a handheld satphone . With a handheld phone , you ’ re limited to the position where you are operating the phone and that may not be in an ideal location with a clear sky overhead .
Iridium GO !’ s Wi-Fi range extends to 30m to 50m . This means you can place the unit in an ideal location within range of where you want to make calls from , which I found minimised call dropouts dramatically . It was certainly a huge improvement over our handheld satphone .
We had no trouble with the Wi-Fi range of the Iridium GO !
It is a genuinely tough product .
BATTERY LIFE AND RECHARGING
Iridium quotes battery life figures of 5.5 hours of talk time and 15 hours of standby time . I can ’ t imagine wanting to talk to anyone for five hours on a satellite call , but it was nice to know the system had that ability . I certainly had no issues making two or three 10 or 20-minute calls on a single charge of the battery .
In any case , I always recharged the unit after a day of use just to be certain I had maximum talk time available should the need arise .
Recharging times are quoted at 4.5 hours from completely flat to 100 per cent . I saw nothing in my testing that would question those times . I recharged the device from a number of sources , including a portable power pack and a BEAM Outback 11W solar USB charger . I liked using this option as it meant I could take the Iridium GO ! on an extended trip off-grid and still be able to recharge the unit .
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