RV FEATURE
DURABILITY
One observation I made of the Iridium GO ! when I first unboxed it was the unit ’ s apparent durability and build quality . With militarygrade ruggedness ( MIL-STD 810F ) and ingress protection to IP-65 , this thing is built to take an absolute beating . It ’ s hard to convey in words just how strong the unit feels . The majority of the outer casing is made from hardwearing , rubber-coated plastic .
All ports and buttons are protected by rubber covers . The removable battery cover is held in place by two stainless steel screws . The tripod mount is stainless steel , too . Short of throwing it out of an aeroplane , I don ’ t see how you could damage it , even if you were in the worst outback conditions .
The unit we tested was a rental kit . It was supplied with a heavyduty , protective carry case that held the Iridium GO ! as well as all the accessories . We threw the kit in the back if the car with all our other gear and nothing was damaged . Not a single scratch .
EASE OF USE
If you have ever had to set up and use a Wi-Fi hotspot , you ’ ll have no issues setting up and using Iridium GO ! I found it quite easy to use once I had positioned the unit with a clear sky above . I had no issues connecting to the unit within the Wi-Fi range and the only times I experienced call dropouts was when there were overhead obstructions .
At first , I thought the need to use two applications would be an inconvenience but , in reality , this was no trouble at all . Both apps are well laid-out and intuitive to use .
It was worth noting that the Twitter feature has been disabled on the app . I imagine this is because Twitter has developed into more than just a text-based service and would be beyond the bandwidth capabilities of the Iridium network .
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