+hazmat480 Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I am fairly new to GPSr's and was wandering if anyone had any good suggestions and why they use a specific gps. I am thinking about getting a Lowrance but from reading other forums it seems like a lot of people use Garmin and Magellan. Any particular reasons why one is better than the other, or why I should stay away from Lowrance. Quote Link to comment
Tiben Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I've been comparing the new Lowrance IFinder series to the Magellan Explorist and Garmin Etrex/Vista series. I'm new to GPS, but the IFinders seem to have much better screens with higher resolution and better color/grayscale levels. They are somewhat larger physically, and waterproof to IPX7. The IFinders also seem to offer more memory for routes and tracklogs but since they all support SD cards this may not matter. How user friendly are these units? Are they missing any features found in the Magellan/Garmin units? Anyone have an opinion on these units? I'm looking at the IFinder H20 and H2OC, Lowrance is a solid company and has always offered good products and customer service. They also have a cool virtual GPS that you can download from their site and play with the functions... Quote Link to comment
cfelicetti Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I did as best as I could to compare a lot of units and settled on the IFinder Hunt. Big screen, good size, and I liked the SD Cards for saving maps. It has a lot of buttons on the front, but they are labled and I think pretty easy to use. I originally got a Etrex Legend or Vista as a gift, but I returned it for the IFinder, because after reading through the manual it seemed difficult to use, but I never even turned it on. I've been playing with the IFinder and so far think it's great. Quote Link to comment
+miles58 Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 The accuracy and screen quality of the Lowrances are second to none, and far better than most. The reception is uniformly better than most, and equal to any when you use an external antenna (which all iFinder pro and later will take, and many gargellans will not). The iFinder GO is a super cheap basic unit that has 16 channels phenomenal battery life and great reception. No antenna jack or memory slots for them. The gargellans are just now cathing up to the fact that memory slots are a good thing. An iFinder pro or later velcroed to the dash is a perfectly acceptable car nav unit because you get a large, bright, high contrast screen that is very easily readable for car nav. Quote Link to comment
+NWMOhunter Posted January 23, 2006 Share Posted January 23, 2006 I was in the market for a new unit and I looked at a bunch of them. I bought a few others and then turned around and quickly sold them. I then settled on the iFinder Hunt Plus. I do a TON of hunting so this unit is almost invaluable to me. Well worth the $$$! Not too bad for size, nice screen resolution and the antenna has been awesome! In the end, you get more bang for your buck out of a Lowrance compared to the gargellan units. Not to say that those units don't have their purpose somewhere, but the Hunt just has EVERY option that I wanted plus a few. On all the other units, I had to settle with either a lot more options that I didn't want/need and pay a lot more money, or pay less money and get options I didn't need and settle without other options. Definitely give the Lowrance a good look see! Quote Link to comment
+Airmapper Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 I've been using Lowrance for around 2 years, and I have no regrets. Screen is great, position accuracy is excellent, and all the features you can ask for as far as data displays. One thing I'd like to see is road navigation auto-routing for trips. Quote Link to comment
+briansnat Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 How user friendly are these units?Are they missing any features found in the Magellan/Garmin units? Anyone have an opinion on these units? I used the H20 for several months while evaluating it for Todays Cacher. As you will read, I found to to be a great unit, but with some flaws. Its not as user friendly as Magellan or Garmin, but if you're able to program your VCR I think you should have no problem learning the unit. Quote Link to comment
+GPSOkie Posted January 24, 2006 Share Posted January 24, 2006 I love my H2O. I have owned Garmin and Magellan units, as well as one previous Lowrance unit. A lot of it is personal preference, but I prefer Lowrance. It doesn't hurt that they are located less than a mile from where I work and I can drop in to their factory store on my lunch if I need something Quote Link to comment
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