Garmin echomap chirp plus first thoughts

[jbmaine]

I started out this spring with a new Garmin echomap chirp 73 on my console. As some of you may have read I had a malfunction with it and Garmin replaced it with a plus unit. Yesterday was the first time I had a chance to use it, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on it. First let me say I'm no expert on electronics and do not embrace new technology easily ( still don't have a smart phone or "I" anything.)

 

 Screen-- it is definitely clearer and sharper than the non plus unit. Also the field of view is a great improvement. We have a multi species boat and my wife can see this screen from the left seat. She could not see anything on the non plus unit unless I pointed it right at her.

 

Touch screen functions-- I thought this was going to take time to get used to and be a pain in the butt, however within a few minutes I was calling up the different functions much faster than using push buttons. I really like it.

 

Sonar-- I was using this at the same lake, and going over the same places, that I used the non plus unit on, and I was seeing more and sharper detail, and this was with factory settings. So far another definite improvement. I've tried regular sonar, down scan, and side scan and got good sharp detail on all three.

 

Also-- as this doesn't have as many buttons, the whole unit is about an inch shorter in length than the non plus one, so it takes up less space. I think that at some point down the road, because of it's shorter length, I would probably have room to fit a 9" screen on the console.

 

Dislikes-- So far nothing I can see except I still have a non plus unit in the bow, and I caught my self tapping the screen trying to get it to do things.

 

This is by no means a technical review, but just my initial thoughts and impressions. If this changes down the road, I'll let you know.

 

                                             Thanks for looking

                                                                  Jim

 

 

[J Francho]

42 minutes ago, jbmaine said:

I caught my self tapping the screen trying to get it to do things.

I tried to "stretch" a picture in a magazine with my fingers, like you would on a smart phone.