I have had Lowrance products for the last 15 years on my boats and never a problem. Currently I have the 113HD. Whatever you get, tell your friend to buy as much Power, screen, and pixel count that he can afford. Don't buy less then 2400 watts of peak to peak power or if measured in RMS 300 for salt water fishing (the rough conversion from peak to peak to RMS is to divide the peak to peak number by 8 or for the other way times the RMS number). Good luck.