In November Humminbird introduced a new series of fishfinders – Helix 5. The units feature a brilliant, extra-wide, 480 x 800 resolution display that depicts 256-colors on a 5-inch screen complete with backlighting that ensures clear, crisp images in all types of lighting conditions day and night. The new display is essentially the main innovation in the Helix series, the transducers and the software are borrowed from the predecessors – 800 and 600 series. The familiar, large digits that provide water temperature, depth and vessel speed take up a lot of the display real estate. There there several different versions in the Helix 5 series ranging from the sonar-only unit to the side-imager with GPS.
Helix 5 SI GPS is essentially a scaled down version of the 7 inch 899 model. The main difference is the size of the display. The internal GPS seems to be slightly improved and it provides more accurate position readings compared to the older models. In addition to chart-plotting, the unit comes preloaded with UniMap cartography and a micro SD slot for additional map software or for the option of saving waypoints. The UniMap provides 3D charts for inland lakes, rivers and the contiguous U.S. coastline. Charts are displayed in detailed, color topography. The unit itself has storage capa