Thread: HDS 7 or 8

Well, depends on your point of view. After fishing for over 60 years, I figure my fish costs about 100 bucks a pound over the years.

to me, NO. That sounds like a killer deal!

Originally Posted by crappie_dan

Well, I just found an hds-7 insight bundle with structure scan for $1410 plus lowrance is still offering a $200 rebate on that unit. Thats prob going to be about $700 cheaper than the 8. Is an inch of screen worth 700 bucks?

A note of caution--$200 rebate is only on the Gen 1 units so yes that package you are pricing is the Gen1 model(although they didn:t call it a Gen1 til now that there's a Gen2)so you won't have that new mapping bottom structure feature.

Originally Posted by crappie_dan

Well, I just found an hds-7 insight bundle with structure scan for $1410 plus lowrance is still offering a $200 rebate on that unit. Thats prob going to be about $700 cheaper than the 8. Is an inch of screen worth 700 bucks?

Well that is up to you to decide. To me it was and I have no regrets. I think the actual for a 7 is 6.4" vs an 8 which is 8". I'm not that good at math but isn't that like 25% bigger or is that 20% bigger. Size does matter.

I just turned 60 so I figured this is probably my last big switch (I said that last time too) so why not get the bigger unit. My eyes aren't getting any younger and I won't be able to stretch the screen later. There are a lot of guys on here who later upgraded smaller units for larger screens. (Both brands)

There's more to it than just the 1.6" of screen size. My eyes are getting older so bigger is better in that respect. Remember there are the soft key's for adjustments too those are nice. You also have the option of 4 screens vs 2 if that's important to you.

I got to say, I went through all this when I was looking too. Virtually everyone I talked to said the same thing "buy the biggest screen you can afford" I figured since everyone said it, it would be cheaper in the long run than buying 2 units...but I did that anyway.

I think u can find the HDS 8 Gen1Insight bundle for just over $1900 with the $200 rebate, so would be around $550 diffence. Not much better, but every little bit helps. They also have the HD7 Gen1 Insight bundle for $1350.

Lowrance HDS-8 Insight Bundle 83/200 w/LSS-1 & Transducer

If you an auto set person, never push buttons a 7 would be fine. The 8 has all the buttons you need to push at the bottom and makes things so much easier and quicker. Just a reminder, when you start dividing up the screen things get very small so yes I would advise an 8.

Originally Posted by brushnjigs

If you an auto set person, never push buttons a 7 would be fine.

On one of my post's some where I asked about adjustments. Canepole said something like "It has buttons, push em"
Good advice!

You never learn much when things are set to automatic. Automatic = idle cerebellum.