If you’re looking for the most affordable and the most performant fish finder with Down Imaging, the HELIX 5 DI GPS has got to be IT. It’s one of the brand new units released by Humminbird for 2015, and has just about all the features of the 688ci HD DI Combo, only it’s less expensive. Let’s see what it can do.
First of all, it has a 5-inch diagonal display, just like the fish finders in the 600 series. However, the pixel matrix has a different layout, which gives you a better view of the sonar readings and maps. It has a LED backlit, 256 Color TFT screen, with a pixel resolution of 480V x 800H.
The sonar capabilities of this Humminbird HELIX unit include Down Imaging and DualBeam Plus sonar. The DI sonar can offer crystal clear views at depths up to 350 ft., which makes it a great choice for down dropping with various jigs, or when looking for bottom feeding fish. It allows you to select from two sonar beams, 75° / 455 kHz for a wider but less accurate view, or 45° / 800 kHz for a sharper image. The DualBeam Plus sonar, offers traditional sonar views, with a depth capability of 600 ft., and also two sonar beams: 28° / 200 kHz and 16° / 455 kHz. Although various sites list that the depth capability of the traditional sonar of this fish finder is up 1500 ft., that is not correct. As I mentioned here, it’s 350 ft. for Down Imaging and 600 ft. for DualBeam Plus, traditional imaging.
This unit has a power out put of 500 Watts RMS (4000 Watts PTP), and comes with a standard Transom Transducer, XNT 9 DI T.
The GPS and chartplotting capabilities of the Humminbird HELIX 5 DI GPS, include internal Speed GPS, and the UniMap cartography pack. However, the unit features micro SD card slot for various other mapping packs, such as Navionics Gold or Humminbird Mapping. Does not support Navionics Platinum or C-Map 4D. The unit can store up to 2500 waypoints, 45 routes and 50 tracks (20,000 points each).
Other features worth to be mentioned, regarding this HELIX fish finder and chartplotter, are the Selective Fish ID+, Water Temperature Alarm, Snap Shot and Freeze Frame function, Sonar Recording, and quite a few others.
