Lowrance Elite-4 HDI Review

 

INEXPENSIVE HDI TECHNOLOGY

If you are looking for something that doesn’t cost too much, but still delivers a powerful fish finding punch, you don’t have to look any further than the Lowrance Elite-4 HDI. The Elite-4 HDI is the newest addition to the HDI family, and packs the same power as its bigger siblings, the Elite-5 and Elite-7 HDI.

HDI stands for Hybrid Dual Imaging – which is a combination of both traditional broadband SONAR(think blobs and arches) to DownScan SONAR(which shows a much better picture). The best part is that you only need one transducer!

elite 4 hdi

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This makes the Elite-4 HDI a great choice for small boats and kayaks – and for beginning fishermen who want the best technology but don’t want to spend too much.

The transducer combines two regular frequencies(usually 83/200 for freshwater and 50/200 for saltwater) and two DownScan frequencies(455/800 kHz).

DOWNSCAN OVERLAY

The HDI series has an amazing feature that combines the benefits of DownScan and traditional SONAR. DownScan is primarily used to find structure – it’s not very accurate for spotting individual fish.

For that, you are better off with traditional SONAR. The Elite-4 HDI has bridged that gap with DownScan overlay – now you can see one screen that shows bottom and structure with DownScan images – so you can see every tree, rock, and submerged object for what it is – and it will also show suspended arches from traditional SONAR, which are most likely fish.

This way, you can catch those sneaky fish that are hiding deep inside cover – which you couldn’t have normally seen with either a traditional or DownScan SONAR.

CONFIGURATIONS

  • No Transducer
  • 83/200/455/800 kHz Transducer
  • 50/200/455/800 kHz Transducer
  • Gold Charts & 83/200/455/800 kHz Transducer
  • Gold Charts & 50/200/455/800 kHz Transducer

BRILLIANT 4.3 INCH DISPLAY

This fish finder sports a brilliant LED-backlit display which makes it really clearly visible even in bright sunlight. The size is a little bigger than previous Elite-4 models, so there is a significant increase in the overall screen area. This lets you view split-screen on a smaller display.

SPLIT SCREEN VIEWING

With such a generously sized display, you can now see more than ever before. If you have ever used the Elite-4 series before, the HDI is going to be a giant step up. You can now split the screen three ways on this little guy, giving you data like never before.

So now you don’t have to break the bank to get functionality like this. Even if you are using a kayak, or only have space for a compact fish finder, you don’t have to sacrifice power and features for size anymore.

POWERFUL GPS AND ACCURATE MAPPING

The base model of the Elite-4 HDI comes with a powerful GPS receiver that can pinpoint your location, and comes loaded with a detailed US map that has 3000 lakes and over 1000 coastal areas. If you are looking for even more charting power, you have the option of going for the Elite-4 HDI Gold, which comes with Navionics Gold maps – which contain many more contours and additional data. To learn more about Navionics Gold, we recommend you check out our page on Fish Finder Charting & Map Packages.

INSIGHT GENESIS MAPPING

Suppose you are in a smaller community, and the body of water you are on doesn’t have a detailed map. With Lowrance Insight Genesis, you can create your own map! Just go into your fish finder’s settings to enable SONAR recording to the memory card, and criss-cross across the entire area that you want to map.

Once you are done, you can go to your computer, upload the maps into the Insight Genesis software(available for a yearly subscription fee from Lowrance), and let it process the data. Once that’s done, you can download the new processed maps onto your memory card, load it into your fish finder, and voila! You have a map with detailed contours, vegetation, and bottom composition.

EASY TO USE

The Elite-4 HDI has a new page selector menu that you can use to switch in between screens using just one finger – no more complicated menus! So whether you want to see just SONAR, just DownScan, a mix of both, or even both SONARs with GPS, all you need to do is literally lift one finger.

The Elite-4 HDI also comes with Lowrance’s signature Advanced Signal Processing technology which automatically adjusts the SONAR signal to make sure you are seeing the best possible picture.

While advanced anglers may prefer to do this manually, the automatic feature is great for you if you don’t want to bother with little tweaks here and there – the software in the fish finder itself will always try and give you the best image possible.

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