Hey, hey! What’s up Garmin fans! I’m Kevin, your host here at Garmin’s training video series.
From enjoying a day on the lake, to chasing a giant tuna, or even sailing around the world, a dependable chartplotter is one of the most important purchases you’ll make when outfitting your boat.
So today, we’re going to talk about choosing the right marine chartplotter for you.
Here at Garmin, we believe everyone uses their boat differently.
So, let's take a look at the Striker Plus, Echomap and GPSMAP series from Garmin – each of which have features to support however you might choose to enjoy your time on the water.
The first series we’re going to look at is a great choice for lakes, ponds, and even inland coastal waters. Let me introduce you to the Striker Plus Series.
These GPS/Chirp Sonar units are economically priced and are available in 4 inch, 5 inch and 7 inch screen sizes.
All Striker Plus units are sold complete with a mount and transducer in the box.
The 4 inch model is available either with a Traditional transducer or with a Traditional ClearVU combo transducer.
Whereas the 5 inch is only available with a Traditional ClearVU combo.
And stepping up to the 7 inch will add our all-in-one scanning transducer, which includes SideVU technology.
Technically, the Striker Plus series aren’t chartplotters.
However, all Striker Plus units do have built-in GPS so you can mark up to 5000 waypoints, create routes and view your boat speed.
And while the Striker Plus units are not available with cartography built in, they do have Quickdraw contour capabilities,
which allows for creating 1 foot fishing contours on any body of water – allowing you to build your own and most up to date mapping.
At this point you might be thinking to yourself, while the Striker Plus series is great, I’m a more serious angler or day sailor who needs more features and capabilities.
So if you’re a boater looking for more at a value price, we’ve designed the Echomap UHD and Echomap ULTRA Series with you in mind.
The ECHOMAP UHD units are available in 4 inch, 6 inch, 7 inch and 9 inch screen sizes.
Echomap UHD units are also available with four different preloaded mapping options.
You can select from a worldwide base map, US LakeVU g3 with both Garmin and Navionics cartography – including over 17,000 US lakes with over 13,000 of those with 1 foot contours.
For the coastal and offshore boaters, we offer an option for BlueChart G3, which also includes both Garmin and Navionics cartography.
And we even offer an option for Canada LakeVU g3 mapping.
Of course, all the Echomap family has Quickdraw capabilities as well.
The built-in sonar capabilities of the Echomap UHD series provides an ultra high definition image of what’s below and around the boat.
The 7 inch and 9 inch units are also available with SideVU, and they’re Panoptix Livescope capable.
Stepping up to the Echomap ULTRA units will give you the same great features as the Echomap UHD units, but with preloaded Coastal and Inland Garmin and Navionics mapping included.
You’ll also get built-in Auto-guidance, all in a larger 10 inch or 12 inch display.
If you have multiple ULTRA or Echomap UHD units, 7 inch and up, you can now share information – such as sonar, user data and even charts.
These units are also NMEA 2000 capable so you can connect to compatible autopilots, FUSION-Link audio systems, VHF’s and more, all from the Multi-Function Display.
For the serious sport fisherman, cruiser or sailors looking to add key features like Radar and weather, the GPSMAP series is the right choice for you.
The sunlight-readable screen ranges in size from 7 inch all the way up to 24 inch, and the Multi-Function Displays provide a superior user experience to make your time on the water fun and enjoyable.
The GPSMAP series is preloaded with the best mapping from Garmin and Navionics which includes inland as well as coastal offshore, and all of the Bahamas.
The GPSMAP series even checks all the boxes with a built-in, dual-channel chirp sonar with ClearVU scanning – giving you superior target separation.
And select models even include SideVU scanning.
If the built-in thousand watts of sonar power in the XSV units aren’t quite enough, then you can opt to add the GSD 26 Black Box.
When you pair the GSD 26 with your choice of transducer, you’ll have up to three thousand watts of power.
No fish can hide from this combination.
If you’re searching for storms, other vessels or trying to find those diving birds, the GPSMAP series is capable of handling all of our Radars,
from the Fantom series featuring Motion Scope technology, which can highlight targets moving toward or away from you, up to our long range 25kw, 96 mile open array option.
And if you want satellite weather, add on the GXM 54 so you can see detailed weather right on your chartplotter.
Alright, so we haven’t forgotten about you sailors out there either.
The GPSMAP series is packed with special sailing features such as SailAssist, which provides you with critical data and prerace guidance to help you maintain that edge.
You’ll also have need-to-know data at a glance including, true and apparent wind angles, wind speed, and even view lay lines as well as race start lines.
With our premium GPSMAP series, you have the ability for adding more integration into your chartplotter than ever, making your time on the water more enjoyable.
For the ultimate connected boating experience, you can even pair your WiFi enabled ECHOMAP or GPSMAP series chartplotter with our free, Active Captain all-in-one mobile app.
With Active Captain, you’ll have the ability to purchase and download additional Garmin mapping,
share your quickdraw data with the Active Captain community, plan your trips, and manage your waypoints.
You can also receive smart notifications on your Multi-Function Display, update your Software and with the GPSMAP series, you can even control your chartplotter, all from the Active Captain App.
Folks, as you can see the Striker Plus, Echomap and GPSMAP series are all packed full of features.
And I hope that we made it a little easier for you to choose which series is right for you.
But no matter which choice you make, you’ll have a dependable and easy to use GPS Fishfinder or Multi-Function Display to compliment your boating adventures.
For more information on these products, check out the links in the description of the video.
Hey, thanks for taking the time to learn more about choosing the right Garmin Chartplotter.
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For now, that’s all I‘ve got.
This is Kevin from Garmin, wishing you the best wherever your adventure takes you.
Until next time, we’ll see you on the water!