Never had side imaging and the cost seems to be less than half of anything lowrance has with structure scan. I'm just a poor married man trying to make it, so cost is a real issue. Anything I should be aware of?

I love my Helix 5. It works as advertised. Its a lot smarter than me though. I takes some time on youtube and here on TFF learning how to use it and understand what all it can do.

The only thing I don't like about it is the 5" screen. I wish I had the 7. On a bright sunny day I have a hard time seeing the detail on the screen when on 3d or SI mode.

The main thing you are not getting with the 5 or 7 is the auto navigate abilities like with Ipilot where you link your unit up with your engine or trolling motor. There are some other bells and whistles the more expensive units have the Helix series don't. But your structure scan, SI, sonar etc all works the same. You wouldn't be disappointed with either one of them.

The Helix units are incredible!

The only real drawback I see is you cannot "link" Helix units to another unit. They are standalone.

I have on helix 5 and am waiting for the helix 7 to come out. They work great and I think are fairly simple to navigate and set up. I watched quite a few videos on youtube to help with the step up.

later...don

Have the Helix 5. Only had to mount it to the bracket. The cables for my 798 fit. Put the 798 on the trolling motor. I was done in about 45 minutes. My only problem was I had to buy a new Lake Master. I had to own the only copy that didn't have the micro chip with it. Now I have an extra copy if anyone ones to have it real cheap. Another cool thing I did was to mount my I-Pad because I have Navionics on it. I run it thru my cell phone hot spot. I want to see which one works the best.