I have had the original SPOT for close to a year now and extremely happy with the performance.

I thought about upgrading, good thing I do not do most things very quickly.... Just not sure I need to anyway. All most all my messages are sent, even under what I would call thick cover. The newer one; what I understand has a better GPS receiver. I never use my SPOT for tracking, that's what my Garmin is for, so if my messages go out to let the family know I'm OK, not sure I need to upgrade......

JohnN,
I' pretty sure the second one is like the first, which you are able to change the batteries in the field.