Garmin GPS vs. Other GPS

[nitroant]

Might buy a gps in the near future, so I have started to look around a little. I have not spent a lot of time trying to figure out the difference between them all yet, but can anyone explain why a Garmin 76C is like $500 and a Lowrance color gps is like $250? I also see that the lakemaster chip works for Lowrance but not Garmin. What are the + and - for garmin vs. others. Is the Garmin really worth the extra money? I assume that there is some type of chip out there for garmin that covers our area lakes?

Thanks for the help.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I couldn't tell you why they want so much. I do know that the maps that you want to have will have to be downloaded from your computer. The internal memory is big enough so that you would probably only have to do this on time (download the entire lakemaster minnesota database), but youll have to do it everytime you by an update. The H2O and H2OC have been the hot ticket starting this last fall. Like you mentioned the color version is half the price. It uses a MMC/SD card. Pop it in and your ready to go!! Other than that there isn't a whole lot of differenceas far as I'm concerned.

I have the H2O and found it to be a must have over the winter. One of the guys I work/fish with purchased his shortly after seeing mine. My stepmom heard me talking about it with my dad and bought one for him for christmas. You'll hear a lot of chatter on this site about these units.

[Fireguy]

I have an older Garmin unit (EMap)that was the predisesor to the 76 series. I also bought an H2O. In my opininon the Garmin units are more accurate and better for navigation. I do wish that Garmin would get out of the old propriotorship age and design in a way to use the navionics chips.

[DTro]

If you are looking for a handheld, look at the For Sale forum......quick!

[katoguy]

Lowrance is a great depth finder company dabbling with GPS.

Garmin is a great GPS company dabbling with sonar.

Depends on what you are trying to do. For normal fishing either should work.