It is the exact same unit as the 7, I have an elite 7HDI and I have to say it is a really easy unit to use and the sonar works great! Its a nice feature that the downscan and broadband sonar come in one transducer. Also the Navionics chip is a huge plus. The gold chips usually sell for around 150 bucks a piece. Lowrance makes a transducer mount specifically for kayaks, you might want to look into that option and also the navionics chip should be able to be updated to get the sonarcharts on line which is an amazing bonus to have and with the new lowrance update you are able to view them on the elite HDI units