I do not claim to be an expert on these by any means. Another thread on here about a cost rise in Navionics prompted me to start this thread. I recently purchased a new boat. My intention at the time was to get a Lowrance HDs live sounder. My boat came with a Garmin 75sv echomap. I did have some conversation with the dealer who advised me that Garmin had just purchased Navionics so if I was familiar with that software it was likely that soon it would be compatible with my unit or at least similar features. Now I must clarify my previous sounder was a Lowrance x25 and I used Navionics on my Android tablet. My Navionics was not the HD version. I also did not have the subscription. Coming from the x25 just about any new sounder would look good. I’m more than happy with the down/side scan and normal sonar. I had read that the maps on Garmin were not as good as Navionics so I took my tablet and compared on my first outing. To me they were labeled slightly different but contour wise and coastal feature wise they all but looked the same. I haven’t carried the tablet since. I have read that in some areas one or the other has better detail. One thing I really think has potential with the Garmin is QuickDraw. QuickDraw allows me to share my soundings to 1 foot contours with others and in the process saves those readings to my base map. I like the idea of cloud sharing mapping details amongst other skippers.
https://buy.garmin.com/en-AU/AU/p/543340
I think that link brings up the QuickDraw details.
At anyrate I started this thread so we can, in a civil way discuss different sounders/plotters.
what plotter/sounder do you have?
Bear