Lowrance $100 cheaper, than Garmin equivalent

[+Ellteejak]

I am looking at the

 

Lowrance IFINDER H2O Color

 

versus

 

Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx

 

Both have maps. Both have color screens. Both last 15 hours on batteries. Both have good reception. Both have SDcard expansion slots.

 

Lowrance has 16 channel GPS chip while the Garmin has 12 channel GPS chip. Is this a significant issue??

 

Lowrance has a larger screen than the Garmin. Is this a significant issue?

 

Lowrance unit on Amazon is $100 cheaper (about) than the Garmin unit.

Edited March 31, 2007 by Ellteejak

[+MN-CACHE-TRACKER]

I am looking at the

 

Lowrance IFINDER H2O Color

 

versus

 

Garmin GPSMAP 60Cx

 

Both have maps. Both have color screens. Both last 15 hours on batteries. Both have good reception. Both have SDcard expansion slots.

 

Lowrance has 16 channel GPS chip while the Garmin has 20 channel GPS chip. Is this a significant issue??

 

Lowrance has a larger screen than the Garmin. Is this a significant issue?

 

Lowrance unit on Amazon is $100 cheaper (about) than the Garmin unit.

 

The choice is yours, my thoughts are you get what you pay for. I know of 2 different people who had the Iway5000 both of which had problems from day one. If the handheld units are of the same quality I would pay $500.00 more for the GARMIN.

[+skysensor]

If you need or want autorouting, the Lowrance is not an alternative. If that feature isn't important to you, then the value part of the equation makes the comparison more interesting.

[+user13371]

Lowrance makes an excellent GPS, and on a feature-for-cost basis they almost always beat Garmin and Magellan (Garmellan?). If you search previous threads, you'll see AirMapper and I both praise Lowrance for features, quality, and price point.

 

To address the OP's two specific questions:

• Screen size is not nearly as important as overall legibility. Consider going to a brick & mortar store that carries both, and look at them for yourself to decide what works for you. Everybody's eyeballs and sensitivities are different, and asking people here which screen is better will only get you biased opinions from people who own one or the other unit.
  
• Current Garmin and Lowrance units use SiRF III chipsets and good antennas, and both allow attaching an external antenna, so it's gonna be a wash. There's no useful difference between advertised 16 or 20 channel capability.
  

As it's already established I'm a Lowrance fan, here's what I don't like about the iFinder. You have to decide if these details matter to you:

• Recorded tracks do not include timestamps or elevation in track points. Waypoints contains this data, but not tracks. This is only a big deal if you're planning to evaluate/analyze a track after a trip - as many bicyclists, hikers and pilots do.
  
• Street-level detail in LEI's "MapCreate" product is not as good/current as competitors. Latest Garmellan products use Navteq data. Lowrance is using older data that look to me like it's drawn on old Tiger/Census data. That observation only applies up to version MapCreate 6.3 though. Lowrance's iWay automotive units (not handhelds) do include Navteq data, and I haven't seen MapCreate 7 yet (it just started shipping this month).
  
• iFinder data connection is via RS232 serial only, and only for transferring NMEA data. To transfer maps, waypoints, tracks, etc... you have to take out the batteries, pull the SD card and put it in a separate reader - and put it all back together when you're done. Do this often enough, and eventually you WILL weaken and break the little tab that holds the battery door on. As son as you buy an iFinder, you should call Lowrance and tell them you broke the battery door and request a spare - even if you haven't. That way you'll have one on hand for when it DOES break Anyhow, current Garmellan units offer USB for data transfer.
  

Those are my big three gripes. I have different gripes about Garmellan units. No GPS is going to be perfect for everyone. Even with the gripes, Lowrance still makes a great GPS at a great price.

 

Hope I've helped your level of confusion - though I'm not sure which direction it went.

 

PS to AirMapper: You want to chime in with your own thoughts, or call me out on any mistakes here? -L.

Edited March 31, 2007 by lee_rimar

[fultontx]

They are both great units. I have used an older model Ifinder for the last year or so and it has worked great... I recently replaced it with a Garmin Gpsmap 60cx.

Here is Why: The Lowrance wasn't color. The Lowrance is an older model and takes a while to refresh maps, more so when it is cold outside. The Lowrance Topo Software only allows you to use 5 SD cards. The Lowrance has a confusing interface.

With all of that said, Lowrance Ifinders are still awesome. I used mine for geocaching and bowhunting in deep woods. It has never malfunctioned and has always been able to get a signal in heavy cover, as well as in my living-room. The new Ifinder is color, has a beautiful screen, uses dual processor chips for quicker map loading.

I had planned on getting an Ifinder H2o C and using my Lowrance Topo Software with it..... until I checked out the 60cx. The Garmin had a VERY easy and understandable user interface. Also the topo software doesn't limit you to only 5 SD cards. With these two things in mind, I splurged and got the Garmin.

If you don't have the extra $ for the Garmin, don't sweat it. The Ifinder H20c will rock your world. If $ is no object for you, I would recommend the 60cx. They are both winners

[+Ellteejak]

They are both great units. I have used an older model Ifinder for the last year or so and it has worked great... I recently replaced it with a Garmin Gpsmap 60cx.

Here is Why: The Lowrance wasn't color. The Lowrance is an older model and takes a while to refresh maps, more so when it is cold outside. The Lowrance Topo Software only allows you to use 5 SD cards. The Lowrance has a confusing interface.

With all of that said, Lowrance Ifinders are still awesome. I used mine for geocaching and bowhunting in deep woods. It has never malfunctioned and has always been able to get a signal in heavy cover, as well as in my living-room. The new Ifinder is color, has a beautiful screen, uses dual processor chips for quicker map loading.

I had planned on getting an Ifinder H2o C and using my Lowrance Topo Software with it..... until I checked out the 60cx. The Garmin had a VERY easy and understandable user interface. Also the topo software doesn't limit you to only 5 SD cards. With these two things in mind, I splurged and got the Garmin.

If you don't have the extra $ for the Garmin, don't sweat it. The Ifinder H20c will rock your world. If $ is no object for you, I would recommend the 60cx. They are both winners

 

What do you mean by the Lowrance limits you to 5 SD cards? If I get some 1 or 2 GB cards, are you saying I can only get the lowrance to recognize up to five of these cards?

[+user13371]

... I can only get the lowrance to recognize up to five of these cards?

In theory, yes.

 

MapCreate software requires you to "register" your SD cards with the program, and it only allows you to register 5 cards. When you create a map to load on the GPS it is coded in a way that's only supposed to work on the registered card. Some people (silly ones, if you ask me) complain about this.

 

In practice, it's not a serious problem. Compiled maps for the entire USA will fit on a single 2GB card. Smart users will compile the maps they need, or even a set of maps for the whole USA - this is a one-time operation that will take a few hours or a whole weekend depending on how fast your computer is. Load up your SD cards, or burn the set to CD to load as needed at a later date. But once you do this, you can put the MapCreate CDs away forever.

 

Further, the software protection is pretty easy to bypass -- so if you REALLY felt a need to have more than five SD cards for maps, you could do it.

Edited March 31, 2007 by lee_rimar

[+Airmapper]

The choice is yours, my thoughts are you get what you pay for. I know of 2 different people who had the Iway5000 both of which had problems from day one. If the handheld units are of the same quality I would pay $500.00 more for the GARMIN.

 

In general I tend to agree that you do get what you pay for, but I wouldn't apply that to Lowrance's handheld units. I have been using my unit for several years, and it has held up very well given the use it gets Geocaching.

 

I personally think the reason Lowrance units are so much cheaper than a comparable Garmin is that it lacks auto-routing. I'm sure is is expensive to develop the software and obtain the data to make GPS units Auto-route, and the fact the Lowrance does not use this feature in their handhelds cuts the cost. In all reality I find a handheld is not the ideal unit for car navigation anyway.

 

PS to AirMapper: You want to chime in with your own thoughts, or call me out on any mistakes here? -L.

 

You got it covered man.

[Greenbastard]

Personally I would rather have have copyright protection limit me to 5 sd cards, rather than 2 units... If I ever sold the ifinder unit i would not have to give up one of my licenced cards, i would just use it in another lowrance unit.

[+ICHTHYS]

I have the H2Oc and I love it!

 

I also have Mapcreate v7 and if you have a decent recent computer it won't take hours to create your maps, but it does take a while.

 

Also, the MapCreate v7 maps are by Navteq and seem as good as the Garmin maps I used to have. I had North America v6.

 

Recently I did a quite difficult but enjoyable new cache up in Michigan with a buddy who has a 60cx and we were both dead on in finding the stages of a multi that was WELL hidden. This was all in moderate tree cover.

 

The Lowrance isn't quite as easy to use as you can't load maps directly to the GPS through a cable, but it isn't that big of a deal.

 

The Lowrance has many features that the Garmin doesn't like the ability to display 1000 waypoints on the map but hold AS MANY as you want in memory and load them up as you please. I also like the compass screen much better than the Garmin. It shows the waypoint mark and your track inside the compass so you can see the compass and the waypoint at the same time. I don't explain it well, but I like the feature.

 

And the price makes it worth it.

 

Lowrance is no fly-by-night cheap GPS maker, they are THE leader in marine GPS, so they make a great product.

[+ICHTHYS]

Also, regarding the 5 memory cards, you can rewrite them as many times as you wish, but can only register 5 total cards in MapCreate.

[+ArtieD]

The Lowrance has many features that the Garmin doesn't like the ability to display 1000 waypoints on the map but hold AS MANY as you want in memory and load them up as you please.

 

That isn't accurate...you can load any waypoint you want as a POI within the Garmin unit and the capacity is only limited by the storage/number of microSD card you have.

 

BTW...it is very erroneous to compare the Lowrance to the Garmin, as it doesn't have some of the major features (i.e., autorouting, SirfIII chip) the Garmin has.

 

As someone said before...you get what you pay for.

Edited March 31, 2007 by Arthur & Trillian

[Greenbastard]

i believe it does have the sirf 3 chipset, (the ifinder 'c' series), but not positive on that.

Edited March 31, 2007 by Greenbastard

[+Cacheoholic]

Yes it does have SiRF III.

 

The big difference for me is the maps. Garmin comes out with updated maps every year. You don’t have to buy them but they are available. If you’re a “money doesn’t mater and I gotta have kida guy”, you can keep up to date. I get really frustrated waiting 2 or 3 years for an update and in the case of Magellan they still can’t get the town I live in right.

[+ArtieD]

Yes it does have SiRF III.

 

I stand corrected on that matter, then...

[+Steel City Seekers]

I personally think the reason Lowrance units are so much cheaper than a comparable Garmin is that it lacks auto-routing. I'm sure is is expensive to develop the software and obtain the data to make GPS units Auto-route, and the fact the Lowrance does not use this feature in their handhelds cuts the cost. In all reality I find a handheld is not the ideal unit for car navigation anyway.

 

I agree with the assertion that it would cost a lot to develop the maps, but I disagree with your premise here because the receivers are separate from the maps. That is, I can buy a receiver and use it all I want without buying the extra maps. The Garmin software that is capable of autorouting is somewhat more expensive than MapCreate and I'd expect that it should be given its capability. But, that has nothing to do with the independent receivers themselves.

 

Having said that, I don't know why one is cheaper than the other. The only thing that I can think is that the Garmins are somewhat newer on the market and apparently waaayyyy better at advertising.

[+Airmapper]

I personally think the reason Lowrance units are so much cheaper than a comparable Garmin is that it lacks auto-routing. I'm sure is is expensive to develop the software and obtain the data to make GPS units Auto-route, and the fact the Lowrance does not use this feature in their handhelds cuts the cost. In all reality I find a handheld is not the ideal unit for car navigation anyway.

 

I agree with the assertion that it would cost a lot to develop the maps, but I disagree with your premise here because the receivers are separate from the maps. That is, I can buy a receiver and use it all I want without buying the extra maps. The Garmin software that is capable of autorouting is somewhat more expensive than MapCreate and I'd expect that it should be given its capability. But, that has nothing to do with the independent receivers themselves.

 

Having said that, I don't know why one is cheaper than the other. The only thing that I can think is that the Garmins are somewhat newer on the market and apparently waaayyyy better at advertising.

 

I assume the receivers have to be programmed to use Auto-routing maps, otherwise you would only be able to plan routes on a computer instead of having the unit do it for you. I mean I could be wrong, but it all has to be compatible, so I assume there is programming of the unit itself involved. You do make a good point, and I am basing my thoughts on assumption.

Edited April 1, 2007 by Airmapper

[+Steel City Seekers]

I assume the receivers have to be programmed to use Auto-routing maps

 

Oh, yes, this could certainly be a difference that I wasn't considering. Actually, if you look at my new posts over at your site, I did consider it, but didn't apply it here.

[segler999]

No, the H2Oc does NOT have the SirfIII chipset. I emailed Lowrance about that. They said no. It does, however, have what appears to be a pretty good and sensitive chipset that seems to pull in the sats under tree cover as well, or nearly so, as the SirfIII does.

[+ICHTHYS]

 

The choice is yours, my thoughts are you get what you pay for. I know of 2 different people who had the Iway5000 both of which had problems from day one. If the handheld units are of the same quality I would pay $500.00 more for the GARMIN.

 

If the criteria to reject a GPS is based on a couple people having troubles with one, I wouldn't buy a Garmin either. Because this forum alone is full of people who have had troubles with their Garmin. So I know a couple people who are having problems with Garmins, so don't go with one of them either.

[+Ellteejak]

No, the H2Oc does NOT have the SirfIII chipset. I emailed Lowrance about that. They said no. It does, however, have what appears to be a pretty good and sensitive chipset that seems to pull in the sats under tree cover as well, or nearly so, as the SirfIII does.

 

I saw on the WIKIPEDIA web site reference for SIRFIII chip that the H2OC DOES have the SIRFIII chip. BUT I am sure that is FALSE reference information as I can find no data to backup the WIKI page. What I do see is that a SIRFIII (like the garmin products) has twelve channels of data, while the Lowarnce has 16 channels of acquiring data.

 

Anyone have other data on this?

Edited April 4, 2007 by Ellteejak

[+egami]

I saw on the WIKIPEDIA web site reference for SIRFIII chip that the H2OC DOES have the SIRFIII chip. BUT I am sure that is FALSE reference information as I can find no data to backup the WIKI page. What I do see is that a SIRFIII (like the garmin products) has twelve channels of data, while the Lowarnce has 16 channels of acquiring data.

 

Anyone have other data on this?

 

Nothing on Lowrance's site would lead me to believe it has SIRFIII chips in these devices...we use them here at work in the field and I've played with most of the iFinder units. They are all good units, but none of them I played with side by side my 60CSx seemed to perform as well consistantly in all forms of coverage.

 

That being said...they are all great units for the price. We've been very satisfied with them and their customer service when we have units that went bad (which have been few).