take a look at lowrance elite 7m have and love it.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 for 150.00 and Navionics app 50.00 Best boating electronics bang for the buck ever. Also plays your mp3's over your radio via bluetooth or 3.5mm jack cord. Plays them while gps is running. Also can stream Pandora and youtube if you use your Cell phone as hotspot. Hell you dont even need a radio head unit if you use the 3.5 mm jack cord straight to an amp. It is also possible to convert any amp to bluetooth for about 30.00 The Navionics is downloaded to the Tablet so no need for cell service for it to navigate. I used it to navigate to Bimini 2 months ago. The 1000.00 marine GPS racket is OVER..

Chris

Yes I understand you can do it that way but the nice solid mounted touch screen with WiFi Bluetooth and networking ability is just great but yes more expensive. The prices will come down as in HDTV. Good luck.

Bought a Raymarine e7 2 seasons ago. Highly recommend it. Their support is great and I like the hybrid touch screen; makes it much easier to zoom in and out while underway. Also, I think is just looks better than the Garmin products.