Raymarine Dragonfly 5PRO Review

The display on this unit is absolutely brilliant, much better than any Garmin or Lowrance sonar I’ve had in the past. I bought one with US Coastal Gold & Inland Lakes, not a very good map. No detail in the ocean, but that’s not Raymarine’s fault, I just need to upgrade to a better map pack. The fishfinder by itself is superb.

I recently bought a new boat and since the Humminbird 998si was a selling point on my old one I let it go with it. Having become accustomed to top end electronics I knew what I was looking for in a sonar/GPS. I was however hesitant to run out and drop another $1500 bucks without at least seeing what was else available and fit my needs. I saw an advertisement for Dragonfly somewhere or other and the name stuck in my head. I read up on it and was pretty impressed by the price, especially considering the stats. It had everything my old 998 had except for the larger screen. I decided that was not enough of a difference to justify spending the extra $1000 and saved a ton of money this time around.
The installation is basically the same as every other unit I have owned. The only difficult part is routing the cables. The transducer is a bit larger than I expected and I was afraid it would get damaged easily, but it has managed to take several good licks and stay put and working like new. I was really interested to see if it could live up to the hype out on the water, and I was blown away. Switching from the massive 998si, I was concerned about the smaller screen size and visibility being an issue. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The horizontal orientation provides plenty of room for displaying everything you need. The display itself is sharp as a razor and the viewing angles are nearly limitless. My buddy and I were able to watch the fish swim by in amazing clarity from anywhere on my boat. The image was far clearer than my 998 even with the smaller viewing area. The level of detail on their 2d sonar is unreal. Where Lowrance and Humminbird use dual frequencies to scan, Dragonfly takes advantage of the full spectrum from high to low. There really is nothing out there I have seen that can come close on image quality. The controls are easy to pick up. If you can use an ipad you will have this one figured out in five minutes tops. The ability to connect other devices by wifi is a nice feature as well. I would more than recommend this for anyone from recreational to full time pro. You won’t get a better fish finder even if you shell out another thousand for a Lowrance or Humminbird.

The display is crystal clear and bright enough to be read from anywhere on my 19 foot boat. Image quality and detail on down vision are every bit as amazing as they advertise. The GPS and maps are accurate and the full function navigation is nice to have. I do wish they had thought to include an anchor alarm but that is a pretty minor fault. The fish alarm makes plenty of noise though – in my opinion a bit too much noise – but most of them do. I am happy with my decision to give Raymarine a try and will keep an eye on them in the future. If the Dragonfly line is any indication they are headed to the top in the sonar/fish finder/ marine GPS markets.

This is a true high definition fishfinder. Lowrance models claim to have CHIRP support by simply adding CHIRP in the name. Raymarine gives you true high definition chirp and it shows in the quality of the output. Dragonfly’s display is also better than Humminbird or Lowrance, you can see that easily by comparing units at a store (make sure you’re in a well-lit area). Also, get a separate battery to avoid interference. Do yourself a favor and spend a few extra bucks on a good fishfinder like Dragonfly, I’m glad I did.

The sonar is wonderful, very clear images of the bottom. Not great though, lack of battery voltage display. Even my 10-year old Eagle fish finder had the voltage menu.

Had a Dragonfly for Two years when I broke off a pin on the plug unit. Contacted Raymarine and was told their policy was to replace the unit for first year, after that throw it away and buy another
Avoid Raymarine as they have no after sales service. You pay big bucks for a disposable product