Electronics with SI

what is the best graph with SI for the money? One that has a good return on image and doesnt miss things in the water.

Yes......

That is the big question.

To me the answer was the Humminbird Helix 10.

Jeff from Iowa or Flipping Out will be along shortly to tell you I’m sure.

I love my helix 9 mega si. It sow good coverage but I need to learn how to read it better..

Where I know Fords are better than Chevys, and Skeeters are the best out there, my humble opinion is that FOR THE MONEY, Humminbird Helix 12s are far and away the best FOR THE MONEY. Consider the cost of the same units in Lowrance, Garmin, Raymarine, and Bird. The Lowrance HDS Live 12 is going to run around $2900 and the Helix 12 will be around $1500, Garmin 12 around $3500, and Raymarine Axiom 12 around $3100. I know many of us will swear one is better than the others, but I truly believe it is pure personal opinion. Therefore, since the Bird is substantially less expensive, I'd say the Bird is the "best" for the money. From my own experience, Birds are more user friendly and dummy proof. And, I need both of those features. I think Bird and Lowrance both have amazing imaging, and I have no experience with Garmin or Raymarine.

I’d have to think the helix with mega is the best value too.

I have helix units on my boat now, coming from older Lowrance units on my old boat. I will for sure say hummibird..

When I had a hummingbird 999 all I did was talk about how I wanted Lowrance graphs. Now I have two gen3 touches and all I talk about is wanting a new Helix lol. After having both I do think Humminbird has a better sidescan picture.

And see! I got rid of my three Helix units to get Lowrance Active Imaging, because I didn’t like the images from the Humminbirds.

Apples and oranges.

Hummingbird and Lowrance both make good graphs, Garmin livescope is pretty cool too. I’ve ran Lowrance for years and have been well pleased. I recently switched over to hummingbird because I wanted the mega 360 imaging. Helix is going to be the best bang for your buck in a Hummingbird but I personally like the option of touch screen and run Solix units. Lowrance the Elite Ti2 will be your most affordable but will only pair with another Ti2. Not sure about Garmin.

Helix is nice and solix is even better...

The only Humminbird Helix 12 with Side Imaging at the $1500 price point is the limited edition HW CHIRP Promo model that was available for the 2019 Black Friday sales at Bass Pro/Cablelas and this year for a while at Scheels.
The current regular production Helix 12 SI units are MSRP $2500

The Ti2 has the ability to pair with another Ti2 vis Bluetooth. It also has NMEA capabilities to connect to other Lowrance graphs. Also right now you can a 9" Elite Ti with totalscan transducer for only $599 at BassPro and Cabelas

Hook 2 works well. Not a mega by any imagination but very nice for the price.

ease of use, best bang for the buck, garmin imo

more options on expansion later without having to change things. ran birds only since my first flasher in late 70s and garmin has them beat with the touch screen, wifi/phone app/updating and features pre loaded.

only thing I have to add to my 93sv plus is a map upgrade for some extra features. very happy with them.

I ran Lowrance HDS units on my last boat. I've got Humminbird Helix MEGA SI units now. Hands down Helix SI definition is the best.

I went the other way from hopalong, my 'Cat came with a Solix 12 G2 and Helix 12 G3 on bow. Solix 12 G2 has an underpowered CPU, was flaky, and not nearly as good of a touch screen interface as a Carbon/Live, very laggy. It also really can't do SI Mosaic recording...basically period (unless they fixed the flakiness). The SI images were slightly better on the Solix than on my HDS Live now that I have it dialed in, the down imaging was quite a bit better than the Live although I find the fish reveal part of Lowrance's DI technology helpful at times. Navionics runs better on Lowrance units than on that Solix for sure (in my opinion), smoother, less clumsy zoom, keeping up at 70mph etc.
The Helix is not a bad non-touch unit, fast, more stable software, but overpriced in my opinion for a non-touch unit. The networking between the two was flaky, had to power up the Helix first or they wouldn't connect. The birds had very low limits on the number of waypoints that you could have as well. I think the 360 technology (just from seeing videos) is pretty cool, and if you wanted that, obviously the Bird route is better. After talking to Humminbird support, posting up videos of the problems to a dropbox 7 or 8 times, system boards replaced twice, I finally cried uncle and went back to Lowrance. If you were only going to have two units and price was a big deal, as another poster mentioned, Ti2 units. Just my 2 cents from experiences over the past year.

PS. I have a HDS Live 12 out in California at the repair center having the system board that went out replaced...they all have their pros and cons

Toss-up between the Helix and the Garmin Echomap UHD but I give it to the Garmin for being touchscreen and more user friendly. . HDS & Ti2 have some good options but their imaging is a bit behind.