Garmin today announced the GPSMAP 700 series, touchscreen controlled stand-alone marine chartplotters with radar and built-in sonar.

One of the models in the series is GPSMAP 740 which comes preloaded with offshore maps for all U.S. coastal areas, including Alaska and Hawaii and even Explorer Charts for Bahamas. Another model is the GPSMAP 720, same features as 740 – but designed for non-US markets. If you want sonar though you’ll have to look for the ’s’ in the name such as GPSMAP 740s and GPSMAP 720s. This will get you a 1kW sonar transceiver that can find fish targets and terrain features as far down as 2,000 feet.

The new GPSMAP 700 is much more affordable than previous Garmin GPSMAP chartplotters. GPSMAP 720 has an MSRP of $1400 and the GPSMAP 720s has a MSRP of $1600. GPSMAP 740 is $1500, and the GPSMAP 740s is $1700. You’ll have to wait until April 2010 for availability.

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