I have a full Lowrance suite (HDS-10 Gen II, Structure Scan, Serious Wx, Broadband Gen4 Radar) and a stand alone Garmin 545. If I had to do it over again, I would go with Garmin. Most people can start using the Garmin without even reading the owners manual because the commands are very intuitive, logical, and just plain common sense. The Lowrance system is set up for the system programmers’ convenience and not the end user. I have NOT used the Hummingbird but also have not heard anything negative about them. When it works it is a powerful system but you really have to get in the ‘books’ to figure it out.
When it comes to customer service and warranty work, my experience had been completely negative with Lowrance, taking over 18 months to get my HDS-10 replaced as an example. I have never had ANY issues with the Garmin unit.
You originally asked about GPS/combo unit - make sure that you specify chart plotter. All manufacturers discussed here offer both. I would think that you want the chartplotter/sonar unit and NOT the GPS/sonar unit (GPS/sonar units do not have mapping).
Has anyone used the Raymarine Dragonfly units? They have CHIRP Downscan tech. I have a Garmin and a HB but those units look pretty sweet.
I have one. It does what I want. Coming from an older style fish finder it was a mega upgrade. Its neat to be able to wi-fi the fish finder screen to your cell phone. Not sure when that is really useful though. The ram mount is nice, connector on the back I am already having trouble with. It does give a really nice return. Very interesting to run the standard sonar image beside the CHIRP return. Sometimes I see two totally different things.
“If you had to tell someone how good you are, then you probably aren’t that good”
