Nimrod, I would suggest reading a lot on the electronics board. They are both good, humminbird customer service is far and away better than Lowrance. Ease of use is easier on Birds. To me the biggest thing is with birds when it is out of warranty you can always get a unit repaired right here in the US for a flat fee. Yes it is expensive ( around 400.00) but a 1500.00 unit after 3/4 years for basically a new unit is cheap. Lowrance customer service sucks and out of warranty they will offer you a discount on a new unit if you want to buy another one. And yes they both break down. If I was buying new today I would sure look at the new Garmin units. They have come out with some units that are really nice and very competitive on pricing couple of good threads on electronics board on them.