Looking for a new sonar / chartplotter combo. Let me know what you think between these (2) models. I have dated Lowrance units now and will be pulling the trigger soon.
If you don’t like these - tell me what you prefer. I’m on a budget, so don’t start telling me about the capabilities of the new 20in combo unit with Radar, Autopilot, real-time Spy Satellite capabilities and also have the ability to TiVo your favorite cable sitcoms while you fish.
Sonar- Garmin, sonar and offshore in the same sentence is laughable. Inshore- it matters not. HDS sonar blows garmin out of the water if you’re ever going to actually rely on the machine to find bait/fish/structure beneath you. I can go into further tech detail and real-world experience if you’d like. As I said though, if you’re putting this on an inshore boat where you’re using your sight moreso than sonar information, then you won’t realize much difference in the Garmin and HDS.
GPS- Lowrance HDS chart coverage and display is in higher resolution and detail when you’re comparing the 545 garmin to the larger screen’ed HDS-7. Lowrance HDS updates position on screen and acquires sat’s on startup much much MUCH faster than garmin as well. It is noticiably quite faster- not just some tech spec difference.
Charts- to get national detail equal or better than garmin preloaded on lowrance is actually cheaper. You’ve got to go with a reman Garmin to get a 545s near the price of a brand new HDS-5 that’s preloaded with charts. To get the charts on the 545s, you’ve got to go up to at least the price of an HDS-7, and then you’re comparing a 6.5" display HDS-7 to your 545s with a 5 inch display.
Operation- You will be frustrated trying to operate garmin menus and functions especially if you’re accustomed to Lowrance already. Lowrance makes more sense in how the menus and functions operate. Things are more logical and access is quicker. I have found that operating Garmin’s functions are most frustrating second only to Furuno. Lowrance is the easiest to me, followed by Raymarine and Garmin close together and then Furuno.
Lowrance HDS is better technology, period. That’s something that is objective. In other words that is provable.
Lowrance is easier to use, IMO, and this is of course not objective and up to the user. However, this is something I will tell you is one of the reasons for my dislike of Garmin units. The GPS waypoint options aren’t as useful to me as Lowrance provides, and then there is the rid
Never tinkered around with the Lowrance, but I have the 545s on my boat and it gets the job done. For the money it could do a few things better, but no real complaints.
When it comes to offshore, I will defer to to Phin’s judgement. When in comes to fly fishing inshore, I can assure you, of all the skiffs I have been on NOTHING beats garmin. If you are running in 6" of water and have less than an inch to spare and your track means all, I will Go garmin.
“Fishing is alot like sex…when its good,it’s really good, and when its bad, its still pretty good.”
I will take the womens view on this, BIGGER is better.
I hate the fact that I sacrafice screensize when using both chartplotter and sonar at the same time.
When 545 is running both, it splits the screen so you not seeing a very good shot of the bottom. (little defintion) I am constantly toggling between full screen sonar and split screen for chartplotter which takes approximately 4 keystrokes.
I dont have any experience with the lowrance but the 540s is terrible in refresh rate, it takes forever to refresh the screen and when you are trying to dial in on a 20 ft piece of bottom, its a *****.
Further more I wish there was way to only refer to SD card data as needed (in realtime) As far as I know, the unit loads any data from the SD card on bootup. It would be nice to save tracks to card, and only view those tracks when you wanted to. To clarify, I only want to see a current track that is not muddled in a binch of old tracks. Maybe I just dont know how and I would appreciate it if someone could tell me how.
Did I mention BIGGER is better? When I make the next change, I will probably buy the biggest I can afford regardless of performance. So if I can get 6.5 inches for the same cost of 5 inches, BIGGER is better…
Fishing on the bottom is like having sex with the lights turned off. It feels good… but I wanna see it.
Lights On!
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of dust with a rod in one hand and a beer in the other,
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming…
