Garmin Montana 600 Waterproof Hiking GPS Reviews
Garmin Montana 600 Waterproof Hiking GPS
- 3-axis compass and barometric altimeter
- Bright 4″ sunlight readable touchscreen color display
- High-sensitivity, WAAS-enabled GPS receiver
2279730000000 Features: Access data quickly on the easy to read 4-inch sunlight-readable touchscreen with crystal-clear enhanced colors and a high-resolution display Track your position easily and accurately with the WAAS-enable GPS receiver and HotFix satellite prediction which estimates and maintains your coordinates The built-in 3-axis, tilt-compensated electronic compass displays your heading even when your standing still (and you don’t even have to hold it level) and the barometric altimeter provides altitude Easily add maps of any kind to topographic, marine, or road to with TOPO 24K maps for the trail, BlueChart g2 maps for the water, and City Navigator for the road Equipped with a dual battery system comprised of a rechargeable lithium-ion pack (included) or AA batteries (not included) Share data wirelessly with other compatible Garmin GPS users Includes UPS cable, AC charger, quick start manuals, and owners manual on disk Specifications:Take it hiking. Take it hunting. Take it
List Price: $ 549.99
Price: $ 499.00
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hdtravel
July 8, 2011Excellent Multi-Purpose GPS,
This is a very versatile GPS unit. It is about time that Garmin came out with a truly multi use device !
Good for hiking, boating, Geocaching, bicycling, motorcycle & car use. This one does it all.
Very rugged, gorgeous big 4″ screen. Solid construction should take a beating.
Versatile power options – AA batteries, rechargeable pack, vehicle power.
Software is decent and will only improve over time with updates – typical Garmin style.
What are you waiting for – UPGRADE TIME FOLKS ! Dump your old obsolete unit and buy this gem.
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|Brent
July 8, 2011Excellent hardware, software needs work,
First, a little bit about me: I have a degree in software engineering, I’m an avid day hiker, and a bit of a gizmo geek. This is the second GPS I’ve owned, the other one being a Garmin GPS II+. I was on the fence about getting an Oregon for a while but held off because of mixed user reviews, especially in regards to its usability in bright sunlight. The main purpose of owning the Montana is to have detailed statistics on our day hikes such as distance, elevation, time, speed, etc. I’ve purchased and installed the Garmin TOPO West 24k maps and uploaded all of Washington state to the Montana. Even then, I still have 2.5GB of free space.
After carefully considering how to approach this review, since I know there’s a lot of buyers holding off until a few user reviews came in, I decided to break it down into three areas, hardware, software, and company. You need all three to have a successful product, and after putting the Montana through its paces and contacting Garmin about a few issues, I’m able to offer my thoughts on all of them.
First, the hardware. Garmin did an excellent job designing the Montana. The screen is nice and big, and to finally put one of the most noted issues to rest, it was definitely easy to read in sunlight. The touchscreen works just about perfectly. I never felt like I had to apply too much pressure to get action, or that I pressed something that I didn’t mean to (like when using the virtual keyboard). It “feels” comfortable just holding it too. For my first hike with it I didn’t have a case yet, so I just threw a lanyard on it and mostly carried it in my hand the whole way up and down the trail–never bothered me. Satellite aquisition is scary fast and never had a single dropout even in dense forest. Just to see how solid the reception was, I carried it in my front shorts pocket for about a mile–no loss whatsoever. GPS accuracy was good; most of the time it hovered around 14 feet. Once I downloaded the track from the Montana to my PC, the ascent and descent portions of the hike mirrored each other pretty closely, and those tracks mirrored the trail on the TOPO map very close as well. I was constantly checking speed, time, elevation, and distance to known data and the Montana was pretty accurate. For example, at one point we passed a mile marker that claimed we were 3.0 miles from the trailhead and the Montana said we were 2.9. Take another fifty steps and it clicked over to 3.0 miles. Final elevation, elevation gain, time and speed were also just about equally dead on.
I started the hike with the lithium battery at about 75%, had the unit on for just over four hours, and finished the hike at just over 50%. I did have the battery saver option turned on and the backlight duration at the minimum setting, but I was actively using it quite a bit during the hike. My thought is that Garmin’s claim to 16 hours of lithium battery life is pretty spot on, since my four hours of powered-up time ate up about 25% of the battery.
On the computer, the Montana connects via a USB cable and is recognized as a mass-storage drive. Uploading of maps, downloading of software updates, and downloading of GPS data were all fast and issue-free.
The only conceivable hardware downside I can see is compared to other GPS units, it weighs in at 10.2 ounces with the lithium battery. So if you’re one of those mountaineers who take the cardboard tube out of a roll of toilet paper to save weight the Montana probably isn’t the best choice. Again, the weight never bothered me a bit.
But for any piece of hardware, you need software to run it, and here’s where the distinction between hardware and software within the Garmin Corporation really shows. As stated, the Montana is a great piece of hardware. But as of the date I wrote this review, it has been on the streets for exactly one week and Garmin has already released two software upgrades for it. The evening I received the Montana, I spent nearly an hour trying to calibrate the compass. Half the time I couldn’t pass the first step, and I could never complete it under any circumstance. The second software update that was released just today fixed the compass calibration issue, which at least says that Garmin is quick to respond to bigger problems.
The software you need to upload and download data to and from the Montana is Garmin’s BaseCamp. BaseCamp is freeware, and it feels like it too. It works pretty well, but seriously had me scanning the internet with the belief that a true commercial product named BaseCamp Pro must exist. Alas, it does not. BaseCamp’s user interface is primitive and somewhat unintuitive. Thankfully, Garmin has a help file for BaseCamp, but again it just feels like freeware–like no dedication of time, effort, or resources was put into it. As an example, I have geotagged photos that I added to my track. BaseCamp puts little thumbnails of your…
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