Lowrance 600c vs. Garmin 96C

I am ready to buy a portable gps and have narrowed it down to these two models. Any advice pro and con concerning ease of use, screen readability, battery life, ease of updating, or anything else? I have read here that Garmin is better than Lowrance in the customer service area. I plan to run it on batteries, no external antenna, under the canopy of my RV4. Both gps's are about 500 bucks but the Lowrance unit includes a bunch of accessories for which Garmin charges dearly. Thanks!

I carry a 600C

I have never used the Garmin... so I can only speak for my 600C...

I am very impressed with the unit. Lots of great features for the money. Bright, easy to read screen. I've only used it in high-wing aircraft so far... so don't know if it would get more washed out in direct sunlight. I'm kind of cheering on the under-dog. I like the size/format of the 2000C... and I hope they come up with weather and other features to compete with the much more expensive Garmin. DJ

A highly-biased response here... I've flown Garmin 296, AvMap EKP-IV and Lowrance 1000 & 2000c. The Lowrance wins hands-down in terms of true value for the dollar and ease of use. Garmin is, from my perspective, dead last in terms of value. They're king of the hill and charge accordingly.

There's another thread going on here dealing with Lowrance and you'll see some opinions expressed there as well.

If you've got the real estate to go to the 2000c, I'd highly recommend it. The display is bright, easily readable by not-so-young eyes. If you still want 'cheap' the Lowrance 1000 is black-and-white which produces fantastic sunlight readability and it runs forever on batteries, which the colour units don't because of their need for constant backlight use.

With the Lowrance, if you're going to buy a 12V adapter cable, spend the extra few bucks and get the power/data cable because eventually you'll want to use the GPS data to drive something else like an EFIS or autopilot.

No question - the 600C over the 96C.

If you want to compare the Lowrance 600C features to a Garmin unit, it's actually better to compare it to the Garmin 296. Because that's essentially what it is. The number one reason for people choosing the 296 over the 600C is size (or they may not even know about the 600C). If the size is okay, then I would even recommend the 600C over the 296. In fact, the 600C has a terrain side-view page that the 296 does not - it can only show the top view. So if you're coming up on some mountains, you can go to this page on the Lowrance and see the actual peaks.

As far as weather, it does not look like Lowrance is going to add that to any of their units anytime soon (if ever).

Thanks

Thanks, guys. Appears that I will limber up the plastic card and order a 600C tomorrow. My only concern is the alleged poor customer service from Lowrance, but no one has mentioned that here. Any others?

Before you do that......

I'm using a 2000c in my RV4 and find it a big step up visually over my backseat 500. I loved the form factor of the 500 (fits in a shirt pocket) but the small screen just got too hard to read.

I have it set up with a ballmount on the lower left corner of the panel. It blocks sight of the G meter and part of the intercom. Otherwise, it's a perfect fit leaving me a good view of all the important stuff.

Lastly, I would recommend the external antenna wtih any GPS (even in the RV4). My 500 would (rarely) lose satellite lock and was a bit sensitive to position. Once I started using the external antenna, I haven't lost it since.

YMMV

John

I got a 96c for $275 (employee discount program). I'd say it's worth that, but not more. It makes a good backup because of the small size, and it runs on AAs (not sure about the 600C).

Here it is in-flight. We found a great spot for it on the CT, doesn't take up any space. You could use a similar arrangement on a slider.



TODR