Lowrance Elite 4m chartplotter

[Ru88ell]

Does anyone have experience of this kit? The marketing blurb and videos look pretty good, but what's it like for real? Will the bracket hinge to 90deg?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I had a 5m which has the same features but larger screen. I was pleased with it. It's fairly intuitive to use and has a sharp display. I would seriously consider whether the 4m has a large enough display to be useful and recommend you see one in the flesh rather than buying blind off the internet.

 

[Ru88ell]

Thanks. I don't really have a lot of room for anything bigger, and it's a larger screen than my iPhone.

I have a NASA gps repeater, so working together it should do the job regards waypoints, etc.

 

[prv]

Thanks. I don't really have a lot of room for anything bigger, and it's a larger screen than my iPhone.

It will be a lower resolution than your phone, though, so less will fit on it even though it's physically bigger.

Pete

 

[macd]

It will be a lower resolution than your phone, though, so less will fit on it even though it's physically bigger.

Probably not by much, although I don't have the figures. The best things about Lowrance plotters is the screen resolution and daylight visibility.

 

[prv]

Probably not by much, although I don't have the figures. The best things about Lowrance plotters is the screen resolution and daylight visibility.

Lowrance 4m: 320x240 = 76,800 pixels
iPhone 4: 640x960 = 614,400 pixels
iPhone 5: 640x1136 = 727,040 pixels

So getting on for a factor of ten. I'd call that quite a difference.

Plotters have laughably low-resolution displays compared to other modern technology.

Somewhat related: http://xkcd.com/732/

Pete

 

[neale]

Does anyone have experience of this kit? The marketing blurb and videos look pretty good, but what's it like for real? Will the bracket hinge to 90deg?

Thanks in advance.

I have used one. Pretty good for a circa £200 fixed plotter. The bracket does go to 90° so you could mount it on a vertical surface and still have a vertical screen.

 

[macd]

So getting on for a factor of ten. I'd call that quite a difference.

And so would I. Happy to stand corrected.

 

[ditchcrawler]

As it happens I was in a chandlers today and looked at several Lowrance plotters.
The screen on the Elite series looked fine to me and I would be happy to use it.Whether it is large enough is up to you.

 

[prv]

The screen on the Elite series looked fine to me and I would be happy to use it.

I would too. Just pointing out that comparing physical size is fairly meaningless, it's resolution that determines how much you can fit on it.

Pete

 

[Ru88ell]

Good feedback chaps. Regarding the iPhone comment, I was going to get an old Garmin handheld gps to feed the NASA repeater, but seeing as I can get one of these for not a huge amount more, and I can see pictures, it has to be worth considering if it fits the available space. Living in the Midlands means I can't really pop into a chandlers and take a look.