I have had 4 handhelds over the past 20 years. I've had 2 lowences and 2 Garmin's. For me the lowences are much more user friendly. Totally opposite for me in the depth finder world though. I've been able to enter coords on all of them. Garmin's are more computer friendly to me but you have to be able to understand computers, which I don't. Lawrence is more friendly using the unit than the Garmin is, too me.
Garmin acquires a signal faster though. Maps were better in Garmin though but that may have been just age difference. And the maps were street maps not nautical. My older Lawrence had better LAND maps though. Showed a lot more detail than my newer Garmin. Although my current Garmin does have topo maps on it, it still doesn't show all the land features that my older Lawrence did. Small ponds, levees, even pond, bridge, and slew names. Never once did I have any kind of problem with either one of my Lawrence units. My first unit was a Garmin and I did have problem with it acquiring signal sometimes but it was when they first come out. Ithink it might have been just tree or cloud cover blocking it. Found out though that they will not float.
Second and third unit were Lawrence. Never had a lick of problems out of either one of them. Stayed in my truck year around and used them just about every day. Geocaching and boy scouts.
The unit I have now is a Garmin Oregon 550t. Have had several issues with it. Ranging from not coming on to deleting all saved waypoints and tracks. To do anything with it you need a computer (again which I'm not very good at) to save anything with. There program is not easy for me to understand. You may find it easy I don't know. Customer service SUCKS!!!!!!!
I've had to call them several times just to get it to come on and to restore the contour lines, which are not working at this time. Have paid for the maps/ aerial maps and you have to renew every year. You can download them and they will stay on there but the picture is very grainy and really no good. If I didn't download a body of water I would have to pay for another year's subscription just to download it.
Signal is better on it though. Batteries don't seem to last as long as the Lawrence but I didn't have to but a special cigarette plug for the Garmin like I did the Lawrence.
None of them had depth contour lines for water though. Just some pros and cons of both units as I see them. My personal opinion at this time is if I had to buy another one today it would be a Lawrence.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Crappie.com Fishing mobile app