We have a Garmin GPS for which we've purchased charts. These include water depths, hazards, ATONs, etc. They show where our boat is on the chart. The screen is small, but in theory our position could be uploaded to my laptop for more viewing area. Just wondering if official "chartplotters" give you anything we don't already have. We looked at some pretty sweet Garmin chartplotters at the Annapolis boat show last weekend, but we're talking $2000+ for anything much larger than a small GPS handheld. The larger screen allowed showing a lot more of the chart area, and I believe they also networked with XM satellite radio for weather overlays, if I understood that part correctly.
I guess the point of my original question is whether a dedicated chartplotter provides added value over a GPS with electronic charts and a laptop. I'm already sold on the virtues of a laptop, being a bit of a computer geek, compulsive emailer, researcher, online shopper, and the like!
Thanks for the posts so far!
elf