garmin HCx - lowrance H2O - for fathers day

[js2family]

I want to get a gps for fathers day from my kids, I have it down to 2. The Garmin Vista HCx or the Lowrance ifinder H2O. I'm leaning to the lowrance, but I will never be in a boat. Any comments will help.

[+Airmapper]

The Lowrance is a good unit, don't worry about not using it in a boat, it's mostly just marketed as a boat unit, it doesn't lack any land features other Lowrance units have.

[+Miragee]

Welcome to the Forums!

 

The people in these Forums who have the Lowrance seem to be happy with those GPS units. However, there are many more people who use the Garmin units, so there are more people available here to answer your questions.

 

I really like my Vista HCx. I have both City Navigator and Topo maps loaded into it.

[+imajeep]

Both are good units, but Garmin is by far the most popular. That means easier to ger peer group support. Also, Garmin has a very good reputation for customer service.

[MtnHermit]

It's all about the maps!!!

 

For me the only reason to own a GPS is to see your position in the context of a map, better yet a Topo map.

 

Given that Garmin "owns" 90% of the handheld market, all the other players split the remaining 10%, who's likely to have the best maps. Not only Garmin maps, but third party maps too, both free and fee. That map choice alone would sway me, and did . . . Garmin for life!!!

 

Choose your GPS brand based on the maps first, software drives hardware.

[+DonB]

I have both Garmin and Lowrance units, and in my opinion the MapCreate software that I got for my iFinder Hunt is much more detailed then Garmin's

[sjn951]

Lowrance has simulators you can download to sort of try it before you buy it.

 

http://www.lowrance.com/en/Downloads/Product-Emulators/

 

Lowrance also has a free GPX to GPSr utility that you can download install.

 

http://www.lowrance.com/en/Downloads/GPXto...ng-Application/

 

I bought a pair of Lowrance XOGs for my dad and father-in-law and was fairly impressed. Their hand helds seem nice too. Almost wish I had gotten the handheld for my father-in-law as he mainly wanted it for fishing.

 

All that being said I went with Garmin based on what was said earlier. Great support from peer groups and easy to use self service support on the web. I also like how geocaching.com lets you download straight to your Garmin.

Edited June 9, 2008 by sjn951

[js2family]

I want to get a gps for fathers day from my kids, I have it down to 2. The Garmin Vista HCx or the Lowrance ifinder H2O. I'm leaning to the lowrance, but I will never be in a boat. Any comments will help.

 

Thank-you everyone for your help.