News Flash: Raymarine has announced a new MFD, the Axiom 2, which is faster and more potent than ever. At the heart of the tech upgrade you’ll find six-core processing power. That means the Axiom 2 starts up 10 percent faster and renders charts 30 percent faster, so you don’t have to stand there and wait while the screen redraws every time you pan or zoom. And those charts can come from any number of sources; the Axiom 2 comes with Lighthouse Charts Gen 2 already loaded up, which provides coverage for all of North America, but you can expand the chartography with Navionics, C-Map, CMOR, Strikelines, and additional specialty digital charts.
Enough about the charts—we want to know about the Axiom 2’s fish-finding prowess. Units tagged RV have Raymarine’s full suite of RealVision sonar with 600-watt 50/200 kHz standard sonar, high frequency CHIRP, 350 kHz SideVision side scanning sonar, 350 kHz DownVision down scanning, and RealVision 3D. And switching between views is a piece of cake, because the Lighthouse operating system is a simple icon-based interface that allows you to change from one to the other or split the screen with just a few taps and swipes of the touch screen.
That screen itself is another high point for the Axiom 2. It’s an in-plane switching LCD that delivers vibrant views at wide angles, so you won’t lose sight of those fish when you’re off to the side of the helm. Better yet it’s treated with an oleophobic nano-coating called HydroTough, which repels both water and oil. That means your taps and swipes will continue working even when your hands are dripping with fish goo, and it also means the IPX6 waterproof screen has a smooth, silky feel when you touch it.
Along with all the chart plotting and fish finding the Axiom 2 offers complete expandability via RayNet ethernet, NMEA 2000, Bluetooth, WiFi, and USB connectivity. It can link up with your engine to display monitoring data, see through the fog or darkness with Quantum 2 radar, display AIS when linked to a AIS700 transceiver, and more. The Axiom 2 can also run apps—lots and lots of apps—which you can use for everything from controlling the boat’s stereo system to streaming Netflix.
Axiom 2 models are available in seven-, nine- and 12-inch displays and come with an unusually long three-year warranty; note that most competitors offer only one or two years of coverage. They can be flush- or binnacle-mounted (hardware for both comes in the box) and match up with Raymarine’s RV transom-mount and through-hull transducers. Price: $1749/$2049.99/$3549.99. Visit Raymarine to see what you’ve been missing—beneath the water’s surface.