110% Garmin. I've run the HDS7, 898 Humminbird, Elite series Lowrance, and nothing will ever beat a Garmin.

I agree, Garmin is the new leader, Humminbird isn't too far behind but Lowrance is lagging way behing these two.

I run lowrance graphs so I went with the Ghost TM. I will say that most all of the above comments I agree with; e.g. quieter, great integration with lowrance graphs, built in transducer, spot lock is great, great on power consumption...BUT. My next boat will have an ultrex just due to the foot control and video game feel to the foot pedal. It also gets laggy or behind. Honestly, there may be a software update that may fix it but my experience with the Ghost has not been all positive.

Lowrance units are too laggy IMO. You press a button and it freezes for a second then opens.. Lags way too much to spend that kind of money. Also the map doesn't seem to update your position nearly as quick as Garmin maps do.

By the way OP, Garmin's are MUCH simpler to use. I'm a younger guy that can operate computers and what not, but the simplicty of Garmin is really what sold me. A good comparsion is.... Lowrance and Bird are the Androids, Garmins are the iPhones (I know iPhones are junk but they are much easier to use than Android.) Humminbird is a cluster [censored] to operate unless you've been running them awhile and know what buttons do what. Lowrance is simpler than Bird, but no where near Garmin. I run Garmin's on the big boat, and even have a 4" Garmin chartplotter/fish finder on my little bass buster..

Oh yeah another thing.. If you go Lowrance or Humminbird, you'll need to get a Navionics chip to get any kind of real in depth detail on the lake maps. Garmin's chartplotters come preloaded with U.S lake maps, with 17,000 (I think that's the right number) lakes with 1' contours. Just go to bass pro and zoom in on a lake like Rayburn.. The detail of the Garmin maps are FAR SUPERIOR above Lowrance and HB maps. Garmin is a plug and play unit, bottom line.