Bird all the way I had a old 727 bird I sent in for repairs it came back within a week, their custor service is excellent.
Humminbird unit are upgradeable it would be as lowrance fitting the Structure Scan "box" to the older 500 series units.
I own 4 lowrances and 3 birds right now lowrance has some catching to do.

Lowrance is mode expensive after buying the LSS1

Lowrance any day. Plus I've never had any problems really with mine and once when I did they fixed it out of warranty for free.

Humminbird for sure. Like noted lowrance needs to be more comparable in price and customer service. I have 2 bird SI units, good gosh what did I do without them.

lowrance replaced mine in 7 days. Have an 8 and a 7 and i love them.

Lowrance has improved their customer service from a couple months ago. I sent in my unit 2 weeks ago and my replacement was just shipped. That isn't too bad of a wait. I do not regret my decision to go with Lowrance over Humminbird.

I have talked to alot of the marine managers at Bass Pro Shops since I work in the fishing dept. By far, they have fewer problems with the Humminbird than the Lowrance. And the customer service at Humminbird is exceptional. Very poor at Lowrance. Regards, Bart

Both are great units....i think the bird is a little more user friendly if you are a first timer.

I like the bird - if a unit goes out then it goes out. W/ Lowrance you have double the chance of something going out having to purchase the structure scan unit to work with the display unit. I did see Cabellas had some type of rigging where you could get all three front/back and sc unit at a decent package price. I run the 898cSI and am thrilled with it.

LOWRANCE

Here are some pics from my HDS-10 taken yesterday







someone with a Humminbird post some pics so we can do some comparing

Hummingbirds are easy to use. Plug and play.

Lowrance feel cleaner to me, took me a while to get used to the interface. I still have issues time to time helping people load boatlanes or navionics chips. Not exactly sure if lowrance changed the way the card is read from the very first units or if they just vary. Seems some units are different from others in that regard. I know a couple of Lowrance guys post here...would be interesting to get an answer.

I honestly think the Lowrance is a nicer unit if you take the time to set one up and teach yourself. I'm always shocked that someone can have an HDS-10 in the back and an 8 or 10 up front and not know much more than how to turn it on. If you buy a $500 laptop with a new operating system you basically teach yourself, but don't take the time to get acquainted to a $4000 set of graphs?

Have used both and there are things I like about both. I like Lowrances GPS better but the Humminbirds SI is the easiest SI to me and HB's customer service is far ahead of Lowrance. I run HB units.

I Have not messed with the HDS Models at all, but I have had 3 HB units - a 797, 997, and now the 1197. I would not give up my birds for anything.

They were first to market on the side imaging and new 1197 puts out crystal clear images on the side imaging.

Best of luck to you, but I would go with the bird.

can you put 4 different screens at one time on the Bird like you can the Lowrance??