I received my unit Monday. Upon opening the box my very first impression was that this thing is heavier than I expected. It is about the length and width of a large smart phone, but about four times thicker. My concern vanished, however, when I broke out the scale. It weighs in at 14.4 oz, about the same as my old InReach and cell phone. If I throw the handheld GPS into the mix, I will be saving almost a half pound. And it fits nicely in the belt pouch on my packs.
The owners manual is pretty spartan, only very basic info. The manual says to fully charge the unit first, so I connected it to a USB port on my desktop computer. When connected to a computer, the unit automatically goes into a mode where the screen goes black and only shows "GARMIN" and a little network symbol with no way to know if the unit is charging. It has to be plugged into a USB wall outlet charger in order to see charging progress.
Figuring out the InReach activation process was a challenge. Installing Garmin Express on my desktop computer was necessary, the old InReach sync app did not recognize the Montana. Once I figured that out, things went more smoothly. I signed into my Garmin account and got the old InReach unassigned and the Montana assigned. Garmin Express kept asking me to unplug the unit from the computer and plug it back in, which was annoying. And I still cannot get my contacts and preset messages to sync to the Montana. I need to call Garmin Support about that...or just enter them manually.
I also purchased Garmin's HuntView for Arizona online, and downloaded it rather than buying the chip. I installed a blank 32GB chip in the unit, I believe this was the right choice because managing maps in Garmin Express seems like the way to go for me. When I got the HuntView data loaded into the Montana and played around with the map screen, I think having only the HuntView Topo and HMU maps turned on will give me everything I will need in the field. Topo shows public vs private, so for my Coues hunt this fall where I will be hunting strictly public, I will be able to distinguish NF, BLM, and state trust from private and military. HuntView has parcel data, but I just don't need that. You can also download birdseye imagery to the unit via WiFi ahead of a trip, but I never really have the need for that in the field.
Anyway, looking forward to getting this thing into the mountains, so far I am very satisfied.