Lowrance HDS 5M v SH CP180i

[brians]

Narrowed the choice of plotter down to the above two. Lowrance looks good because of square screen and Navionics which seems preferable to C Map Max.

I have seen a lot of good comments about the CP180i but not a lot about the HDS 5M. Any users out there who can advise?

 

[doug748]

I like the idea of a square screen as well.

Did you see the comparative test in Jan Yachting monthly?

 

[Skylark]

Don't know the 5 but I have a Lowrance HD7 at my wheel and an HD8 at the nav station. They are integrated into broadband radar and Comar class B AIS.

Day and night screen / graphics are good. Speed of response is quick. Fairly intuitive to find your way around the features. Both have had an intermittent lost of pixel on screen digits. A bit annoying. Shutting down and restarting cures the problem but it shouldn't be necessary.

I've up-loaded the latest software version but it still has the problem from time to time.

 

[pvb]

Biggest (and most important) difference is the screen definition. The Lowrance has 480x480 pixels - 3 times better than the CP180's 320x230 pixels! More pixels means a crisper, easier-to-read display. Well worth the extra £70 or so. There's a newer "Gen 2" version of the HDS5M out, which is supposed to be even faster in operation, so it would be worth looking for one of those at around £395 if you decide on Lowrance.

I think the square screen format of the Lowrance is perhaps more user-friendly. The landscape-format screen of the CP180 can get a bit thin once you've got some data boxes displayed at the top.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I'm not sure but don't think that the Lowrance 5 will accept AIS input which might be a drawback. Lowrance have a new model out which will. If AIS is not important to you, the model you're looking at is a good buy and heavily discounted at the moment.