Bivystick Blue Satellite Communicator | HUGE UPGRADES!!!

hey what's going on guys Devin here with backcountry exposure I cannot tell you how excited I am to finally be talking about the second-generation Divi stickman this has been a review that has been a long time coming I started using the prototype generation to Divi stick device back in January of 2020 took it out on a solo winter desert backpacking trip and this was exactly what I needed to be able to communicate to my wife that thinks for that trip we're not going quite as planned and being able to communicate with my wife with the baby stick was awesome now granted there are several different types of satellite communication devices out there so what makes the biggie stick particularly the second-generation baby stick different from the original baby stick and even compared to another newcomer on the market these olio satellite communication device so let's talk about and review this generation two bitty stick blue I have thoroughly enjoyed the massive massive upgrades that Divi has put into this device one particularly compared to their first generation their first device the baby stick Orange now you can see side-by-side comparison these two devices are very different in size and they have very different functions particularly on the device itself when it comes to how the app works and everything mostly everything is there is the same but let's talk about what this device did not have and how it's changed with this one so the original baby stick is pretty large and the reason that it is as big as it is is they had put a very large battery in here that actually allowed you to use this as a backup battery bank now to me that is not something that I really want to have in a safety device a satellite communicator is a safety device and I don't want to be charging my phone from this potentially depleting the battery life to the point that now this is obsolete so I'm really glad that with the second generation that is not an emphasis on the use of the device the other thing about this is you have a USB power port and an on button that's it that's all you get from this original launch of the bivi stick and a pretty difficult cover to push on but that's it you don't have any kind of SOS button you don't have any way to check in and that's what they have updated specifically on the device itself for the second-generation bivy stick so here on the side you've got your power button then you've got a checking button and then you've got different status lights you've got a signal light that'll show you when you are connected to your satellites so we can turn this on actually so you'll have a red light for when it's not connected to satellites green when it is and then you've got a status light here that will show you the status of incoming and outgoing messages so this is a two-way communicator so I'm able to send text messages to any email or phone number as well as receive text messages to the dedicated phone number that you get with your bivy stick account yes you get a dedicated phone number that is yours and it sticks with the device some devices out there don't provide that feature and you get a different phone number every time you log in or every time you set up the device or whatever this has a dedicated phone number and that's really nice because I can tell my wife I can tell my friends here is my busy stick number and save this in your phone here on the side they have added like I said just a couple minutes ago there is a check-in button and the ability to set up a check-in message to various contacts within the bivi app and it's really nice to be able to be able to send the emails to be able to send to whatever phone numbers within your contacts really slick really easy to do and a maximum characters of 160 on your check-in message all I have to do is push and hold that check-in button then the status lights gonna go and it's gonna boom send out that check-in message that's preset on the Bibby app which you can change from your phone in the field and all of that really nice so I don't have to pull my phone out and use my phone as the primary method of using the device that was the other big downside of the bivi stick first-generation I was required to activate SOS from my cell phone with the device I was required to send messages only through my phone and now I can use the check-in button with this as a standalone device I don't even have to bring my phone with me I can use this as a standalone device because I've got the check in I can let my wife my friends family know that I'm good and have all that set up beforehand and I can also activate SOS here on the bottom of the device with this little flap cover that covers the SOS button so when I push and hold that for five seconds it's going to activate global rescue a lot of other devices use a service called Gio's Divya is using global rescue for their service of SOS communication and such and it's really nice so really cool that this new device now is a standalone device and does not require you to have your phone to be able to have these safety aspects that you want from a satellite communicator it's also great that it's got integrated into the device a quarter 20 threaded female thread for any type of GoPro accessory another thing to note about the bivi stick is this charges by USBC and i'm really happy to see USBC as a standard now for the device as opposed to both of these that use micro USB so 95 grams of total weight for this device really really cool it's super lightweight very very small in comparison like your cellphone and I believe this is actually lighter than the Garmin inReach mini but how does it compare to the inReach mini biggest difference to me is the fact that the energy has a screen on it which makes it a little bit more of a very much dedicated device that never has to rely in any way on a cell phone but you do have more fail points with having a screen and everything on that device and it's a great device but that leads me into the next piece of the reviewed talk about the app and the way that you use this device with your cell phone now you've got the bivi app to do all sorts of different types of things to be able to pull weather reports that come from dark sky those weather reports are really nice detailed enough for what you would need for being out in the backcountry particularly as a backpacker it's gonna give you the information that you need a little bit of wind speed information will give you all of the temperature ranges and that kind of stuff and you can do it over three days or seven days the other thing is using it connecting it to your phone allows you to send and receive text messages so outgoing messages and receive incoming messages and then also to be able to do tracking with the device I'm able to do tracking which these olio does not have that option currently and that is a big difference between the two because if I was being absolutely 100% honest right now and I was a consumer trying to decide which of these two devices to purchase having never used them before the Solio would honestly be my preference and the reason for that is zillio is really polished their user app the user interface on the app is really well put together and I think Bibby's got a little bit of work to do to get a more polished app interface that just makes using the device through your phone and everything a little bit more seamless and just better experience one of the things that's a little frustrating about the way that the app integrates into the device is I have to click out of several screens to be able to see on my phone what my signal status is connected to satellites I'm not able to be in the message screen and see that I am connected to satellites that is something that obviously you can see on this the status signal light here on the device but it's nice to know okay we're in the bars am i connected to the satellites that not a deal breaker in any way but I think it is important for you be able to see that and so other things that are within the app that I think makes the zillio a little bit more appealing is just the overall use of the app things are a little bit more like well-placed and the layout of things are a little bit more well thought out so I'm hoping that bivy at some point will kind of totally revamp the app because the app is the same that it was on this device and now that you've got more options and just a better satellite communicator here in general hopefully bivy will put some more time into making a better app user experience does that mean that the user experience of the app is not good or that it doesn't work no that's not what I'm saying in any way what I'm just saying is that it's not as polished as some other options out there and really not a deal-breaker because in my time of using this device since January it has worked great it has been ultra reliable just very very good experience and I don't have many negative things to say about this because it's been reliable it's been awesome it's lighter weight it's way more reliable and faster than the original bivy stick was and I haven't talked about it yet but this runs on the iridium network which is a very reliable network I have access to send messages and receive messages all over the world so global coverage and iridium is a very reliable good network so Zoli o also runs on that just an awesome awesome network to be able to know that I go out in the backcountry it's going to be reliable I don't have to worry about things that way let's talk about cost of using the bivi stick generation 2 that is one of the biggest pluses to this device and baby stick in general they use a credit system so as opposed to a annual contract or and using that as a way to save money on your service of the device they are using a credit system that is $17.99 for 20 credits for a 30 day period you're able to cancel and restart that at any time which is really nice and then you were $30 a month for a hundred credits and then $49.99 or $50 a month for you to get unlimited access so they actually reduced the price of that unlimited plan pretty recently and made it more affordable so I've got unlimited use available from the device for $50 a month which matches the pricing of the zillio in their unlimited plan as well so the benefits to that is if I'm paying the same amount and I've got things like tracking available then this may be the better device for you than going with the zillio for example even though like maybe the apps not is like well put together that shouldn't be necessarily a reason to not use this device because I've got the ability to track within the bivi app ability to download offline maps for my trucks and everything within the bivi app as well so really a lot of great options available through this particular device and it's it's been reliable it's been awesome and I don't have really like glaring negative things to say about it I've really enjoyed my time using the second generation bivy stick and I'm going to continue to use it it it's awesome it really is so there you go that's the bivi stick generation 2 I'm gonna share more information about this at another time because I want to do a full like comparison of these two devices I'd like to bring in the inReach mini and talk about that but well done baby stick on just creating a massive upgrade to the original baby stick and making something that is way better for consumers way better for adventurers and people going into the backcountry well done just a great device and I've got link down in the description where you can purchase pre-order everything for the bivi stick generation 2 thanks for watching today guys if you are not subscribed to the channel please do subscribe I hope you have an awesome day we'll catch you on the next video see you later [Music] [Music]

Channel: Backcountry Exposure

Views: 11,170

Rating: 4.9016395 out of 5

Keywords: bivystick, bivy, bivystick gen 2, zoleo, ZOLEO satellite device, backpacking, in reach mini, inreach mini, Garmin inreach, backpacking gear, backpacking safety, best satellite device, 2 way satellite communicator, ultralight backpacking, camping, overlanding, lifestyle overland, backpacking hack, backpacking tips, backcountry travel, backcountry skiing

Id: Z9oM7rCu8_A

Length: 14min 26sec (866 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020