Let start by saying that there is a bit of learning to do with fishfinders. First off, these units are basically sonar units. They map beneath the water and show you what's beneath the dark. The price ranges on fishfinders go from $79.00 to over $4000.00 and that’s just for 'consumer' units! Here we've found what we'll call the medium range and in another review we'll look at a high range set.

First we'll take a look at the Lowrance X135 Power-Pro Sonar Fishfinder. This unit comes in at our comparison's lowest price point and has quality in all the right places, to begin with the screen. The x135 starts with a very nice 480 x 480 pixel screen for clean and easy viewing, continues with a 5' diagonal grayscale screen and finishes off with 4000 watts of peak-to-peak power. Outstanding when you also consider that this is the highest powered unit in our comparison with almost 2-times the power of the $570 Hummingbird in this review. This is one of the best entry points out there and one of the best units at the price.

Next we look at the mid-priced entry from Eagle. The Eagle FishElite unit has a singular strong point, a good color screen. The resolution is not as high as others but its TFT LCD manages to remain sharp. The Eagle here has the lowest power of all of the fishfinders in this comparison. Eagle attempts to make up for this with a memory card slot that allows you to store data, which is great for GPS waypoints or even just data on fish populated areas.

Lastly, we look at the Hummingbird 597ci. In the world of getting what you pay for, this fishfinder is the feature rich contender. While the size of the screen is 1/2 inch smaller than the Lowrance, this 4.5 inch monitor has 640 pixels of resolution which makes for a sharp, easy to read, color display. The Hummingbird also features two beams of sonar in 20 and 60 degree spans. GPS+WAAS is standard in this model as are built-in UniMap features. The power here is not super high, it comes in at 2400 watts of peak-to-peak power but that’s where the dual-beam system accommodates you best.

The build quality on all of these units is good. Outstandingly is the Hummingbird who's feature set is a great value, the amateur and the pro angler can love and enjoy. The budget conscious and those concerned with power might do best to forsake a color screen and take a closer look at the Lowrance. If you must have a color screen, the Eagle FishElite is not feature-rich but won't break your wallet either.