With Beartooth, users can talk, text, and find their friends on a map, all without cellular service or Wi-Fi. Whether your mission is coordinating a tactical team or skiing fresh powder in the backcountry, you can now reliably stay in contact with your squad in ways that were previously unavailable. Beartooth is available for sale at price of $249 per pair, with discounts for larger squads.
Unlike traditional handheld radios that are cumbersome and difficult to use, Beartooth uses the familiar intuitive graphical user interface of the smartphone to quickly and simply connect with other Beartooth users in range. No need to worry about confusing channel settings, radio protocols, and button sequences. All of Beartooth’s powerful functionality is available at the touch of a finger in a format easily recognizable to the user. Download the app, pair the device, and go explore.
“Beartooth was born in Bozeman on a powder day at the legendary Bridger Bowl Ski Area. My ski partner, company cofounder Kevin Ames, and I were separated with no cell service. After several hours we finally re-connected and immediately started working on a solution,” said Michael Monaghan, Beartooth CEO and cofounder. “Kevin is former smokejumper and radio communications operator who spent his career working in environments with no cellular or Wi-Fi service. It was natural to enable the smartphone carried daily in our pocket to communicate off grid.”
Beartooth has the following specifications:
• 62mm x 101mm x 12mm | 2.43in x 3.98in x 0.49in
• 130g | 4.5oz
• 3000 mAh Li-ion battery.
• USB micro charge port.
• 902 to 928 license-free bands
• Works with iOS and Android Phones.
Beartooth also offers a number of unique features:
• Individual and group push-to-talk voice. Stay connected to your friends without the network, for up to two miles.
• Individual and group text messaging with confirmation notices.
• Automatic or on-demand GPS location sharing to find your friends on a map.
• Offline maps: High quality 24k topographic and street maps, powered by MapBox.
• Battery backup: Beartooth packs enough power to recharge your smartphone and still deliver an entire day of usage.
Beartooth is currently shipping to customers in the US and Canada.
Tags: Beartooth
Pretty neat idea, with the integrated maps and all.
That being said, handheld radios (in a non military context) can be extremely easy to use, and I would hope a tactical team would have radio communications figured out well in advance. If you can push a button before you talk you can use a handheld. And I mean serious radios, not the two pack walkie-talkies you buy at Walmart.
I really hope this works better than the gotenna. .
I was considering the gotenna. What issues did you have with it?
” Download the app, pair the device, and go explore.”
Where do you download the app from? Is it available on the device or do I need an internet connection during a ‘setup’ phase before I can use it?
Its available for download in Apple’s AppStore for free. You downlaod it to your phone ahead of time and pair your phone to the Beartooth device.
I got 4 of these a couple weeks ago (very early pre-order last year). Very rocky start with missed many benchmarks from the company and poor communication. About 100 of us received 4x our order (I received 16 units, which I then had to ship back). Mesh networking and encryption are not ready yet.
They work ok, they pair nicely with my iOS devices. The voice is ok, kind of garbled. The messaging works fine and the maps work ok as well.
I also have the original goTenna and the Beartooth is better than goTenna. The goTenna was flaky with install and pairing. The Beartooth does just a bit more as well.
It has a place in my Comms PACE. Not a horrible device but some room for improvement.
I should also add that of the 16 I received, I opened 4 and one of them was bricked with the firmware update.
Would you recommend it? I’m considering it as a backup system.
“Room for improvement” as in something they can patch or fix with updates, or more along the lines of hold off and wait for the following generation?
Hi Patrick. Michael here. I am the founder and CEO at Beartooth. Yes, the Beartooth devices have upgradable firmware and we send out app updates weekly so we are able to fix most any issue as it comes up via a software patch. Send us a note at support@beartooth.com if you have more questions.
Hi Chris. Michael here. I am the founder and CEO at Beartooth. Thank you for the feedback. Everything we do is focused on user experience so we appreciate all user feedback. In general our users greatly appreciated the progress updates we sent out every few weeks. However, it sounds like we missed the mark with you. How could we have improved in our outbound comms? Apologies again regarding shipping. We use a third party logistics provider who had a one day glitch in their operations. They were awesome and immediately remedied the problem along with providing everyone free shipping labels. We were impressed with how proactive they were. Thank you again for your feedback and please let us know if there is anything else we cn do to support you at support@beartooth.com.
Chris,
How early was your very early pre-order? I keep getting ship dates that are slipping a few weeks at a time and now thinking that Beartooth is not producing and/or shipping the 1000 units/week being claimed. Doesn’t smell good to me. Thanks
Hi Buster. Michael here. I am the founder and CEO at Beartooth. We were fortunate enough to have a lot of support from our backers. That created a solid back log that we are working through. We really appreciate your patience and are making product as quickly as we can, while maintaining the quality we committed to you. We make and ship about 1,000 per week. Please send us a note at support@beartooth.com so we can find your exact order.
Michael,
The product web page information says we can expect 5 miles voice, 10 miles text transmit/receive, so I was expecting 1/3 to ½ that under typical operating conditions. Your note above says “up to 2 miles”, which makes me think that 2 miles is possible in optimal conditions, but realistically I should expect less. What should we realistically expect in hilly, wooded terrain, etc.
Hi Karl
Range is 100% dependent on terrain. I have personally used the device for 6 to 20 miles. The longest so far reported by one of our users is 12 miles. In town with a bunch of houses and buildings in the way you may only get a mile or so. We have used them all over a ski area like Bridger Bowl. It really depends on what is in the way.
Feel free to send us a note at support@beartooth.com
Michael
I got a chance to play with two units and found range to be very lacking. Even in line of sight conditions, I was losing signal at .6 miles and putting my body between the two units reduced it to .2 miles. Voice barely made it .2 miles under ideal conditions. NLOS was just .15 miles.
http://www.jenericramblings.com/2017/08/20/hands-on-review-of-the-new-beartooth-smartphone-radios/
I ordered this in January and still haven’t received anything???!!!
According to the August update e-mailed on 8/28, your order should be shipping within a few weeks of the 8/28 email (given your order date). I know it’s frustrating as their website at times has made it seem like they are caught up and shipping. We’ve also seen estimated shipping times much earlier and it keeps being delayed. For example, I was told I should have it in July, then August, then September, and according to the 8/28 article, it’s more along the lines of mid October. I have an elk hunt on 10/24 I’m leaving for and that was the primary reason I purchased the product. I’m really hoping they pull through for us.
I hope this product is successful and can’t wait to get ours, it has great potential.
Michael @ Beartooth need to set realistic expectations. Their website says right now that if you order the product, it will ship in September. I find that highly suspect given that current people are being told mid-October.
Michael, thank you for bringing this to market and I hope it’s smooth(ish) sailing from here on out.