In article ,
Thomas Borchert wrote:

Dave,

What Garmin
and Lowrance models have equivalent function and a 3:1 price differential?


Equivalent is a big word. Have a look at the Lowrance Airmap 600c and the
Garmin 296. Very similar in their capabilities. Yes, the displays are a
little different. So is the stuff that comes with them. But generally, they
do the same thing. At a price difference of at least a factor 2.

The Lowrance 600c and Garmin 296 are not comparable. In particular, the
296 has a much larger, higher-quality display with greater resolution.
The 296 is also a full featured marine GPS, and a full featured
automotive GPS with full auto-route calculation capability. And, if I
remember correctly, there are no approach waypoints in the aviation
database. Whether any of that matters to you is something only you can
determine.

Those are just some of the big differences that come to mind, but the
biggest difference, in my opinion, is the quality of the display. I
spent some time at the Lowrance booth at Sun-n-Fun this past week, and I
was not impressed with the displays on the 2000c or 600c. While
Lowrance has the screen orientation right (and Garmin has it wrong), the
display quality of the 296/396/496 is far superior to that of the
Lowrance units. I was quite disappointed in Lowrance, and certainly any
attempt to overlay XM weather on these lousy screens is going to be
quite disappointing.



JKG