Need help choosing new unit

[bigbasshunter]

Looking to add a new unit to my boat this winter. Right now I have a Lowrance Touch 7 gen2 and HDS 8 gen2. Currently the HDS8 is on the console with Lss2 and 2d mounted on the transom, touch 7 is up on the bow with the HDI transducer on the trolling motor for DI/2d. 

I have been looking at some of Humminbirds new offerings and the Onix and Helix look amazing. The auto chart live is what really got me looking at them. Right now I utilize Insight Genesis, it's kind of a pain to have to upload and wait and wait and wait for the maps to be viewable then you have to create the map for download.

The 2 Birds I've been looking at are the Onix 8 si and the Helix 10 si. Their both about the same price but the Helix is larger. Is the Onix that much better to justify the higher cost per model versus the Helix? What would you recommend?

I plan on keeping the Lowrance units but don't know whether I should use them on the bow or console. I'm leaning more toward the console since the lss2 transducer is giant and already mounted on the transom. 

Any help, opinions or experience please chime in. 

[eddallen]

If you mix brands you give up the opportunity to SHARE between units, add waypoints to ALL units at once, and you will find it very confusing working with two totally different user interfaces. I would suggest selling the Gen2 keypad unit (8") and getting a second Gen-2 7" Touch. This way when you add the Gen-3 you can share EVERYTHING across the Ethernet network and the N2K. Map cards, CHIRP, StructureScan and external devices like temp sensores and GPS modules are all shared.

Here's the thing with IG. The process in place allows the IG software to VERIFY your submitted data so it can be added to the SocialMap files. This is the only way to hold up the integrity of the SocialMaps. The whole process, depending on internet speed and file size, takes about an hour or two before you can create the map. Creating the map takes maybe 10 minutes. Now you have a map that you can trust, not to mention there are many things you can do with IG that can't be done with any others on the market. So if you go as I suggested above, you need only to create a single map and place the card into any HDS, and share it across your entire network of Lowrance equipment. And NOW with IG you can put many many maps on a single Micro SD card instead of having lots of cards.

[bigbasshunter]

I'd love to put my trust back into lowrance but the customer service lacks big time. Have had 2 touch 7s that were not completely assembled(sidescan module not wired in). And a 3rd that doesn't load maps off SD card, but will update off the same card. Oh and they want me to pay shipping for a 3rd time to send this t7 in.

Then a big issue Im having with IG is they have separated my home fishery into multiple "lake maps"(I dont participate in social maps). There is no dam or locks that separate any part but IG decided that it would be appropriate to negate 3gb of data on the upper end of my map. 

Then we get to the sidescan on lowrance, lacks in comparison to the HB units. The touch 9 gen 3 cost $700 more than the helix 10 si for what reason.