Raymarine Axiom vs Axiom Pro

[Kd9truck]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

See, I find it just the opposite. For me the RM Lighthouse three menu system is very intuitive
The Garmin system gives me fits.

Noted, I am not the OP, I have been back and forth with RM for a month and a half, it is now working as advertised but it took a sea of emails and hours of phone calls to get the new Axiom Pro 9s to interface with the pre loaded RM mapsto work properly. I consider the set up of their maps part of the lighthouse 3 system and for me it was a frustrating ordeal.
I am used to Apple products as a point of comparison.

[mjgill1]

I replaced our C90 MFD with the Axiom 9 RV over a year ago and have been impressed with its performance and reliability. What I do not like is that the access to the micro SD card containing the charts is on the back of the unit. Because of that, I have to remove the whole unit in order to update the charts. On the Pro, it is accessible from the front just like the C90 was. In the end, I decided not to pay double the cost for that convenience and installed our unit so that it can be removed without too much trouble. The touch only has given me no problems as of yet. We have back up systems just in case.

Good luck,

[longhorn]

Raymarine makes a separate SD card reader that can be used with the Axiom so you can swap out nav cards quicker.

[MultiCountryDon]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

See, I find it just the opposite. For me the RM Lighthouse three menu system is very intuitive
The Garmin system gives me fits.

+1
I have Axiom on the sailboat and new Garmin on the power boat.
Give me RM anytime and Garmin never.
Don

[goboatingnow]

I loved the interface on the older Garmins I hate the newer interface

[Cliffhanger]

I have a touchscreen-only Axiom 9 that I have had for about 4 years. There are lots of things I don't like about the Axiom but the touchscreen is not one of them (the user interface is awful). For me, I can't see the point in having a rotary dial, not for so much more money. I have had the display become unresponsive only once after a drenching. I wiped it dry and it was fine. Another time it rebooted itself for no reason. That is all in 4 years so I think it is quite reliable. We have a catamaran and the helm is protected from the weather so it rarely gets wet. Also the motion is not the same as a monhull and so operating the unit in even the roughest seas is not a problem. Being undercover it doesn't get direct sunlight either so the display is always bright and easy to read. In fact, my main criticism is that it doesn't dim enough for night use. And if you forget to reset the display it is really hard to see to get bright again in full daylight!

So, I think it depends a lot on what sort of boat you have and where the unit is located. I think for an open-cockpit sailboat I would probably get the pro version....If I bought Raymarine at all..... I think there are better options out there.

[Sailer_Med]

Last spring I did a NAV upgrade on my my boat. I never considered Garmin. I've had lots of Garmin devices over the years for hiking, cycling etc and really disliked the interface but appreciated the durability on those applications.

I went with the Axiom+ 12" and love it. It's mounted on a removable mount at the helm which is not shaded most of the time. The settings are something that once I setup the screens I typically use I haven't had to mess with them much. The touch screen hasn't had any issues yet and visibility is just fine.

I'm setup on N2K but don't have to have the Axiom for my basic stuff: wind, stw, autopilot. I often run sans Axiom for daysails out of my home cruising ground. I have no MFD in the NAV station below but can mirror the MFD to a phone etc if I wanted.

I'm thinking about a i70 mounted over the companionway for the crew...