Lowrance Hook Reveal vs Eagle

The previous entry-level Lowrance Hook Reveal has been replaced by the new Eagle. Has the Eagle indeed landed, or will it crash and burn?

As the geeks we are here in Team Colibri, we dive into new top-end units and spend hours reading the details and years tweaking every little setting out on the water. But for many users, units like HDS Pro and Elite FS are simply not within the budget. From the perspective of us geeks, it might seem strange, but entry-level units make up the most units sold by far, regardless of brand. Striker is the most sold unit from Garmin, Element is the most sold Raymarine, Piranhamax is the most sold Humminbird - and Eagle will be the most sold Lowrance. Not only is this where the volume is, it is also a very important contributor to the margins for all these companies. Make no mistake - these units might be budget-friendly but they are very important for both users and the companies making them.

Hook Reveal was introduced late December 2019, and replaced the less than stellar Hook2.  With the release of Eagle in March 2024, Lowrance has spent 4 years and change plundering on the few shortcomings of Hook Reveal, and we do expect to see a real difference. Or are we simply seeing the older Hook Reveal re-packaged with a new name? In this article we will dive into the technical differences, and try to decipher those into what really counts, how those differences can impact your fishing and boating.

For those who don`t like long reads, we can sum up the main differences between Hook Reveal and Eagle right now:

• Improved screens (IPS)
• Improved connectors that lock in place
• Improved transducers
• Live sonar (FFS) to come

Before we embark on the details, let`s take a quick glance on the Lowrance-units so far in 2024 so we all know where we are:

Meet the family. (Photo: Navico)

Eagle is available in these configurations:

Eagle lineup (Photo; Navico)

The above overview might look like Navionics is out of the question, but it is not. Lowrance is just doing all it can to front its sister company C-Map instead of the Garmin owned Navionics. Eagle supports Navionics, even Navionics Sonarcharts Live (like Elite FS and HDS does), so if Navionics is your preferred mapping, you can still use that and live-mapping with Eagle.

Speaking of mapping, Eagle does not support shading and satellite imagery,  so stick to the basic mapping from Navionics and C-Map, or why not use the free mapping from Genesismaps.com or make your very own maps in Reefmaster? All of this can be combined with live-mapping, just like with Hook Reveal.

Bullet is a very basic 2D-only transducer, SplitShot HD provides 2D and DownScan, while TripleShot HD versions (7 TripleShot and 9 TripleShot) will also have SideScan, but more on that under transducers. Eagle will most likely be available as a "portable pack" or "ice combo" for those who prefer to use their units outside of their own boat, just like we saw with Hook Reveal.

With that said, let us dive into the details.

Units - hardware

Looking at the housing, there are some changes that might look small, but these changes will make a big difference out on the water. We have spent a lot of time with both Hook Reveal and Eagle, and the IPS screen on Eagle is without a doubt more user-friendly. 

IPS makes a difference. (Photo; Navico)

IPS leads to you being able to view the screen from an angle and still see what is going on. The screen is also easier to see in bright sunlight, the white in the screen is more white and less yellow (giving better contrast) and you can see the screen even with polarized sunglasses on. All good there.

Eagle is the first unit at this price point to use IPS, and we expect to see the competition answering this challenge when they come out with their next generation of units at this price point. The screen on Eagle is not quite as good as on HDS Pro (or Garmin Gpsmap 84/86xx), but definitely better than Hook Reveal. But IPS versus TFT is not all that sets screens apart, the bonding, top layer and resolution plays in as well. Here we compare resolution on a few Lowrance-units, both present and past:

Comparing resolution.

Is the IPS-screen alone reason to upgrade from Hook Reveal to Eagle? In our eyes the answer to that is "no, it is not". 

There are times in life where one changes something just to end up thinking it was better before the change, and sometimes taking a step back fixes it. The connectors used on Eagle are just like that. In all honesty the push-in connectors first used on Hook2 and then continued on Hook Reveal, have proven to be unreliable. 

Left is the old style - right is the new lock.

To their defense, push-connectors are also used by other brands at the same price point (even well above it). Unfortunately they all have one thing in common, at some point they will fail. It is a question of "when",  not a question "if", and with the design Lowrance used that "when" unfortunately happened way too soon for many users. 

Push-in meets lock-nut. (Photo; Navico)

If we step back a decade or so, to units like Elite HDI, Elite CHIRP and Hook, those units had the same screw-on type connectors as we see on today`s Elite FS and HDS. When Hook was replaced by Hook2, we went from the trustworthy screw-in connectors to the troublesome push-in style connector. Now it seems that Lowrance has taken that step back, because with Eagle we see a brand new connector.

New style connector to the left, old style to the right.

The groove on the new connector is there for the new lock-nut. That nut comes in two sizes, one for power and one for transducers.

Eagle lock-nuts from the side.

Eagle lock-nuts from the top.

It is yet to be seen to how the new connectors will stand the test of time. But we have yet to see one post on forums or Facebook about users with issues with the new connectors and that is a good sign almost one full season after the release of these units. The unit Navico was kind enough to lend to us for testing has also behaved as it should, no issues with connectors (or anything else) during these months of some pretty hard use in various conditions. It is a good sign that we can pull on the cables after locking them in place, without any glitches seen on the unit. So far so good on the longevity of redesigned connectors.

Are the new connectors alone reason to upgrade from Hook Reveal to Eagle? In our eyes the answer to that is "no, it is not unless the connectors on your Hook Reveal have failed".

Units - software

If we look purely at the functionality, there is no difference between Hook Reveal and Eagle (apart from Eagle Eye, more on that further down). They support the exact same mapping and have the same sonar-capabilities in regards to having 2D, down- and sidescan.

2D, down- and sidescan on Eagle (saltwater).

In all honesty we have not seen any signs of improved signal processing from the unit itself during our testing, but the signal processing was already very good with Hook Reveal and we do tweak settings ourselves and rarely run any sonar like it came straight out of the box. (Read more on how you can and should adjust settings for your sonar in THIS article). We do see slightly better range on SideScan versus Hook Reveal with SideScan, but the difference is not huge and seems related more to the transducer than the unit. In addition to testing Eagle with the TripleShot HD transducer Lowrance sent us, we have tested it against our own transducers including med/high-HDI, low/high-HDI, HST-DFSBL and HST-WSBL. We see no difference between Hook Reveal and Eagle with any of these transducers.

Then we have Eagle Eye.... 

Eagle Eye has not been a part of our testing (yet) as it has not been released. We hope to get back to you on a later stage, but that will depend on Navicos willingness to lend us a unit and transducer and as all others we have to wait in turn in order to get our hands on one. Eagle Eye has BIG changes in software versus ANY unit, including Hook Reveal. Eagle Eye supports forward seeing sonar, or live-sonar as it is called, a first in this price point.

Lowrance Eagle Eye.

As we have yet to test Eagle Eye we will just sum up what sets it apart from the other Eagle-versions:

• Live sonar supporting Forward and Down modes (at the same time)
• No SideScan 

Eagle Eye is only compatible with its own transducer, and that transducer is only compatible with Eagle Eye.

Is the combination of Eagle Eye up front and Eagle with TripleShot HD at the console the ultimate in budget-class marine electronics? We will leave that question hanging there while we wait for a unit and transducer to test.

Transducers

We strongly disliked the old Bullet, SplitShot and TripleShot transducers, but at least on paper they provided:

• Bullet - 2D
• SplitShot - 2D and DownScan
• TripleShot - 2D, Down- and SideScan

For the cheapest Eagle, Eagle 4x, Bullet continues. But for the other Eagle-units we see the letters "HD" added to both SplitShot HD and TripleShot HD, and after a few hundred hours on the water with our Eagle we can conclude that Lowrance really has redesigned both these transducers. They still have their strength in shallow water (less than 20 meters/ 60 feet), but that is related to the whopping coneangle of 44 degrees on 200kHz when using 2D. Not the low sensitivity we saw with the old SplitShot and TripleShot sold with Hook2 and Hook Reveal. TripleShot HD also had its outer housing redesigned, strengthening both the mounting-bracket and the transducer itself to prevent breakage. Our TripleShot HD reads depth from 2D while on plane up to as fast as our boat will go, 40 knots, in depths of less than 50 meters (150 feet) and that is more than approved from us. We have tested it both in depths where we expect it to shine (less than 20 meters/ 60 feet) and in depths we expect it to have shortcomings.

Eagle with TripleShot HD handles depths of 0 to 20 meters with ease. Here are a few screenshots from these depths in freshwater.

In shallow water we often combine charts, down- and sidescan like in the below screenshot. With FishReveal overlaid on DownScan, but FishReveal set at lower sensitivity than default, we get a good view of both structure and fish, and the FishReveal ends up marking the bigger fish (harder hits):

Fish-galore at slow speed

Something that has improved with Eagle and TripleShot HD, is how SideScan looks at low speed (like in the above screenshot going only 0,6 knots). When slowing down, SideScan has a tendency to smear as scrollspeed is constant while the speed of the boat decreases. With Eagle and TripleShot HD, we still see some smear, but remarkably less than we did with Hook Reveal and almost as good as Elite FS/ HDS is with Active Imaging.

In the below screenshot we go quite a bit faster, passing over some overgrown rocks. The rock does not "pop out" as they are covered with growth, but it is still easy to identify both that we see fish, and hard bottom.

Eagle DownScan at speed.

But in all honesty the real improvement with TripleShot HD (and SplitShot HD) is with 2D:

Coming in over some baitfish with Lowrance Eagle.

The huge coneangle from the previous TripleShot and SplitShot is still there, but the sensitivity and target separation has improved immensely. Our criticism of the old transducers has gone from "stay away" to "good choices in shallow water" with the new HD-versions. And that big cone on 2D is a dream when fishing vertically.

Eagle and TripleShot HD is designed for the shallow water guys. But even those fishermen and -women venture out over deeper water once in while, so we have also tested the combination in deeper saltwater, down to 90-ish meters.

87 meters (287 feet) in saltwater.

In both these screenshots we are running sensitivity in auto, and the unit will therefore adjust gain to the transducer on itself. From the top screenshot we see dramatically better results than from the old TripleShot/ SplitShot, those transducers would have given up at half this depth. 

Detecting fish at almost 60 meters (and 35). 

Below is Eagle with 50/200-HDI as deep as we have ventured during our testing, 291 meters or close to 900 feet:

Eagle with 50/200-HDI.

In addition to Bullet, SplitShot HD and TripleShot HD, the excellent HDI-transducers continues with Eagle:

• Eagle 5 50/200 HDI ROW - SKU 000-16310-001
• Eagle 7 50/200 HDI ROW - SKU 000-16311-001
• Eagle 9 50/200 HDI ROW - SKU 000-16124-001
• Eagle 5 83/200 HDI ROW - SKU 000-16307-001
• Eagle 7 50/200 HDI ROW - SKU 000-16308-001

These are the same transducers as sold with Hook Reveal, but with the lock-nut connectors. HDI are the go-to transducers for deeper water, so if that is where you spend most of your time you want to get that HDI. As before HDI provides 2D and DownScan (like Splitshot) but with better 2D-elements. If most of your fishing is in 0-40 meters, look to 83/200-HDI, and if most of your fishing is in 40+ you should look at 50/200-HDI.

And finally we must mention Eagle Eye again, as that unit has its own transducer, that is not compatible with any other units but provides 2D, DownScan and live-sonar in forward and down-mode.

Are the new transducers alone reason to upgrade from Hook Reveal to Eagle? In our eyes the answer to that is "no, upgrade the transducer you have instead". (As for Eagle Eye, again we want to spend some time with that unit and transducer before we conclude on that combination.)

Conclusion

As you probably summed up yourself, we don`t see that it is worth the cost to upgrade from Hook Reveal to Eagle, but we do see it as worth it to upgrade from Hook2 to Eagle. Lowrance has managed to lift the performance we know from Hook Reveal to a higher level, and Lowrance now has transducers (and connectors) at this price point that we can recommend.

Yes, Lowrance landed this bird nicely!