8-in-1 Handheld Altimeter Compass Pressure Elevation Thermometer

No signal? The air still tells you what's coming.

You are two days into the high country, the sky has gone the colour of an old bruise, and your phone has been a paperweight since the last ridge. Push on to the next campsite, or set up here and sit it out?

Get that call wrong and it is not just a wet night. You are pitching a tent in the dark in driving rain, the creek you meant to cross comes up overnight, and the morning goes on drying gear instead of moving. The thing that would have told you was a falling pressure reading three hours earlier.

This is a pocket instrument that reads the air around it and puts the numbers on one screen — barometric pressure in hPa, air temperature in °C, a derived altitude, a compass bearing, the time and date, and a bubble level. It runs on two AAA cells. Nothing about it touches a network, an app or a satellite.

What It Does

• Reads air pressure: barometric pressure shown in hPa, so you can watch the trend climb or fall over the afternoon.
• Shows a weather icon: a sun, sun-behind-cloud, cloud or rain symbol on the display that moves with the pressure.
• Gives an altitude: height derived from that same pressure reading, for a rough figure on a climb or a steep track.
• Reads air temperature: shown in °C on the top line alongside everything else.
• Points you north: a digital compass that shows a compass point and a bearing in degrees — the supplier's own photograph shows NNE 35°.
• Keeps time and date: clock and calendar on the top of the screen.
• Sits level: a real bubble level set into the front face between the buttons, so you can hold the unit flat while you take a bearing.
• Stores a history: a dedicated HISTORY button on the front. What it holds and how far back is not stated by the supplier.

Key Features

• Four buttons, no menus to dig through: ALTI/+, COMPASS/-, SET and HISTORY, all on the front face.
• Blue LED backlight: the supplier's photographs show the screen lit in blue for night and pre-dawn reading. Backlight duration is not stated.
• 92 × 51 × 22 mm: measured on the supplier's own dimension drawing. It is a shirt-pocket or glovebox instrument, not a wrist one.
• Two AAA cells: rear compartment with a snap-on cover, no charging lead to lose and no proprietary battery.
• Neck lanyard included: a black lanyard with a clip, shown fitted to the eyelet at the base in the supplier's photographs.
• Moulded plastic housing: black body with a silver front panel and a recessed screen.
• Metric on the display: the artwork shows pressure in hPa and temperature in °C.
• Nothing to subscribe to: no app, no pairing, no account, no reception needed.

Limits

This is a cheap barometric instrument, not a survey tool, and it is worth being straight about what it will not do.

• It does not measure wind speed: there is no vane, no impeller and no hot wire on it. Wind speed is an anemometer's job and that is a different instrument.
• It does not measure humidity: there is no %RH reading anywhere on the display.
• There is no GPS in it: no coordinates, no map, no track log, no satellites. It has no idea where it is.
• The altimeter drifts: altitude is worked out from air pressure, and pressure changes with the weather as well as with height. Sit still while a front moves through and the altitude reading will wander on its own. Reset it against a known height — a marked pass, a trig point, a signposted car park — and reset it again the next day.
• The compass is magnetic: steel, magnets, a winch, a bull bar, a knife or a phone sitting next to it will pull the bearing. Step away from the vehicle and hold it flat, which is what the bubble is there for.
• No ranges and no accuracy figures: the supplier publishes no altimeter range in metres, no altitude tolerance, no barometer range, no thermometer range and no compass accuracy. We are not going to make them up, so every one of those rows in the table says so.
• It is not sealed: no IP or water rating is printed anywhere on it, and the battery cover is a plain snap-on door with no seal visible. Treat it as a dry-pocket instrument and keep it out of the rain.
• It is not a navigation device: it sits alongside a map and a proper baseplate compass, not instead of them. Do not build a route or a rescue plan on a pocket barometer.
• Unit switching is unconfirmed: the display is shown in hPa and °C. Whether it can be switched to other units is not stated by the supplier.

Q & A

The title says 8-in-1. What are the eight?

Altitude, barometric pressure, temperature, compass bearing, weather icon, clock, date and the bubble level. That is what the display and the supplier's labelled diagram actually show, and it comes to eight. There is no wind speed and no humidity in that count.

Does it measure wind speed?

No. Nothing on this unit reads wind. If wind speed is what you are after, look at a handheld anemometer instead — that is the instrument with a vane on it and it does a different job to this one.

How accurate is the altitude reading?

The supplier does not publish a figure, so we cannot give you one. What we can tell you is how it works: it is barometric, so it reads height from air pressure. Calibrate it at a known elevation before a walk and it will track your climb sensibly. Leave it a day without resetting and the weather will have moved it.

What batteries does it take, and are they in the box?

Two AAA cells, into a compartment on the back. Whether they are supplied is not stated by the supplier, so grab a pack with it and you are covered either way.

Is it any use on a boat?

The barometer is the useful bit at sea — a pressure drop is a pressure drop whether you are on water or on a ridge. Two things to know though: it is not sealed, so it wants to live in the cabin or a dry bag, and the compass will be pulled about by the steel and the electrics around it.

How long does delivery take?

Allow 10 to 14 days from the day you place the order, and up to three weeks to be safe. Regional and remote addresses run longer again. Delivery is free to both Australia and New Zealand.

Specs