Looking for an intro down imaging sonar and I am narrowing it down to these two.....I think.  Th elite 4 has the gps built in it but it does not come preloaded with any lakes that I fish.  They told me I would have to pay another $100 to get software for all the maps which starts to get outside my budget, according to my wife.  The rep at Cabelas said the down imaging quality was much better on the 301 than the Lowrance and he said Garmin was much more user friendly than the the Lowrance.  The 4X has mixed reviews so I am not sure if this is the model to go with???? I can get the Lowrance 4x at $174 compared to the Garmin which retails for $269 about the same I can get the Lowrance Elite 4 HDI with the GPS.  Any suggestions????

I've got a Lowrance 4x and an Elite 5x and I can't imagine how much more user friendly any unit could be. I find both of them very easy to use. I'm not a fan of down imaging and made sure not to have it on either of the units I bought, and I've never seen a Garmin but the Lowrance units work better than any other sonar units I've had in the last 25 years. 

I work for a local marine around the Pittsburgh Area and I personally have both units on display were I work and the Lowrance HDI units are the best buy for the money.  One transducer give you both the broadband sonar along with the downscan sonar... The Garmin echo units do not include downscan sonar just your everyday broadband.  Also the screen resolution is much better in the lowrance units than the Garmin units.  Also if mapping is a big deal to you and you have a smartphone you can buy the Navionics App on iTunes or the Google Pay store and get the most up to date maps on the market at the push of a button.

For the money the HDI Elite is more bang for your buck. Just know that the Elite's do have down scan, they will not do side scan, which is something you should look into also.