Ooh let me info dump... I used meshtastic 5-6 years ago but recently got back into it

I just have a preference for using it over Bluetooth because I prefer typing on my phone, so I can mainly give thoughts from that perspective. The lilygo t-deck has a BlackBerry keyboard iirc so if you like BlackBerry style keyboard then that might be a good option for you. If you want a different kind of small keyboard, maybe the t-lora pager is for you.

I had a T-beam early on but the earlier variant has the antenna sticking out the middle sideways, so I was always concerned it would snap off accidentally. Both old and new I believe use 18650, which makes it not very thin, so I lost interest in them.

Lately I went all in on nodes I can use with my phone where I just have to carry it, preferably with 0 screens for extra battery life or buttons, just charge, turn on, and pair and do everything from the app. Nowadays the app is so much better than it used to be, I have a few nits but it doesn't feel buggy like it used to.

One I use now is a custom rak4631 with the tiniest base board and gps, paired with a medium (non stubby) flexible antenna that I would guess is 5dbi in a 3D printed case - only things on the outside are the reset button, USB c port, and antenna (I skipped the screen and user button). It's pretty small in the hand, pretty good range I guess? (my longest single hop contacts on longfast are supposedly around 13 miles), but haven't tested battery life since I'm not on the go much. It should be good though because it's an nrf, which is superior to the esp based ones in battery life if you compare like with like. I used to have a bit of Bluetooth pairing trouble after the first connection but it's been behaving lately - forgetting it and repairing it fixes it and no settings are lost, and messages seem to stay so no big deal I guess.

The other I'm using now is the wismesh tag, since it's also a very simple screenless single button, also nrf based, flat node that you can more easily pocket. No assembly, comes pre-flashed and it's a very polished plastic slab so great form factor. It also has a beeper that plays an annoying jingle when a message is received, and for some reason just turning off beeper alerts doesn't work, you have to toggle off the beeper setting. Oh well. As expected, the range is much worse since the antenna is internal, the furthest single hop contacts on longfast appear to be 5.5mi.

There are a bunch more options that I can't go over in detail but it's worth checking out heltec (all esp based except the T114) and lilygo (like t-echo), and the seeed L1 is really enticing me, there's a lot of similarly small options with screens among them, watch out for ones that don't have gps if you care about showing your exact or approximate location circle to others, and some have WiFi which I don't care about so mine don't 🤷‍♂️ also the SX1262 Lora radio is the recommended one, which my choices use. I based my decisions on the devices list: https://meshtastic.org/docs/hardware/devices/

Overall I think I like my rak better, but if I was in a more crowded place and could rely more on nearby nodes, and went outside more, or if I wanted to lend someone one, the wismesh tag could be handy.

Also in case you don't know, aside from the wismesh tag, I believe all of their other products are basically pre-assembled RAKs in custom enclosures - not a bad thing if a rak would fit your needs but you don't want to put it together.

!meshtastic@mander.xyz might be a good place to start :)

I've been wanting to get more familiar, just don't have the money at the moment. I don't like that some folks involved are still using their phones though. Like if you're just using it as a fallback for disaster, I guess. Seems like a lot of extra power usage on an emergency tho. But using your pocket wiretap to access an alternative communication network seems pretty fruitless. The blackberry-like lilygo t-decks look worth checking out tho.