Although it was not the primary reason that I purchased this watch, a big part of what sealed the deal is the numerous ad-copy pieces, product manual information and tutorial information referring to how one can pair the Instinct to "InReach Devices".
How unfortunate it is, then to learn that what they mean by "InReach Devices" is actually "InReach MINI".
My $450 InReach Explorer+ will not connect to the Instinct, because for some seriously odd reason, Garmin chose to put an ANT+ chip in the $350 Mini, but not the other two more expensive screen-based mapping InReach units. It was almost immediate buyer's remorse when I found the setting to pair an InReach and it said "searching for ANT+ device. I knew immediately it wasn't going to work since I knew the InReach Explorer+ has no ANT+ chip. But I had no idea the Mini did... Again, a seriously weird design choice to put it in one but not the others, and basically not tell anyone about it.
Queue my frustration after hours of looking through documents trying to find where I missed them mentioning InReach Mini only. Nope.
I don't often do this. I've never actually said the words "false advertising" on a public forum before. But that's exactly what this is. I feel it's a big enough deal, with how expensive each of these deices are on their own, to actually mention it in hopes that Garmin decides to update their product manuals and online ad copy to reflect products with which the feature may actually be used.
I've also written this so that someone looking to use this device combo in the ways that I hoped to will notice it and not make the same "mistake" that I did. I hope this helps future users with their purchasing decision.
