what chart card?

[rduffy75]

what charts card is everyone running?

Navionics plus or hot maps or other? pros and cons of each from those using them?

thanks duff

[Jig34]

-NAG units come with Navionics+. You could upgrade (buy) Navionics Region chart that will have more detail but fewer (Regional area) Lakes.

Nav+ is 18,000 US and Canada Lakes. Nav Regions are the same lake, just by region and not Country. Also, Nav regions doesn't have Canada.

[Hickory Legend]

I'm running the + chip, I believe the only difference is the overlay on the ground!
Both offer community edits and can be updated, check out their website for the differences.

[Jig34]

Going off memory here, but...
Navionics + is an 8GB card with mapping
Regional is a 16GB card with SonarChart contours.
Nav+ Gives you more lakes
Regional gives more detail and more card space for SonarChart downloads.

Regional charts were reintroduced last fall and are NOT bundled in the box with anyone's units.

[huntertn]

I use a Navionics + card I bought a little over a year ago. It is a 16GB card. There are some plus cards that are 8GB that have a different SKU number but I don't remember what the exact number difference is. The Regional card is cheaper and if you only fish in one region it is a good option. If you are creating you own Sonar Charts live and not uploading them often you should stay away from the smaller capacity cards. I don't have trouble with my 16GB card filling up but I know others with smaller capacity cards who do.

The Navionics platinum will give you a satellite overlay that might be helpful for certain areas.

[Hickory Legend]

What HunterTN said!!!

[rduffy75]

Thanks guys, as always ton of info here on BBC and it helps to throw down 140-200 on a chip with some hands on info. vice just closing my eyes and throwing darts.

Thanks

Duff

[Wayne P.]

Some stuff was excluded with the above descriptions.

All current mapping cards can have the Sonar Charts map layer added or comes preloaded. In every case all the maps can be what you see on the Navionics website's Web App when updated--the Web App is updated daily with about 2,000 additions worldwide. That includes locations that were not on the card when created.

The original Navionics+ card was 2GB with no included maps, you choose what to download to the card up to the 2GB capacity for Nautical Charts and Sonar Charts..
That was discontinued and the Navionics+ Preloaded was introduced. That had all the Nautical Chart maps for the US and Canada and could have your choices of Sonar Charts maps.

Later came the Navionics+ Preloaded with all the current Nautical Charts and Sonar Charts for the day the card was created for the US and Canada. Still can add more if there are more since the card was produced by doing an update.

Then came the Navionics+ Regional cards that have all the Nautical Charts and Sonar Charts preloaded for the day the card was created. Still more can be added if there are more since the card was produced. That card replaced the Navionics Hotmap Premium regional cards (discontinued at the end of 2015 )which only have Nautical Charts-- same MSRP.

All the Navionics+ versions can be purged of all mapping and you choose how much data to download to the card. Some do that for units with slow processors.

The Navionics Hotmaps Platinum regional cards can have your choices of Sonar Charts downloaded also. That was the first product that had the Sonar Charts capability when the Sonar Charts program was activated. The original Platinum card was 8GB and later was updated to a 16 GB size.