Less Watts/Pixals in 35 feet of water?

I’m looking for some thoughts on sonar units.
The common theme I see in posts about sonar’s is “go for the most pixals and the most watts. Not peak watts.”

So hears my question:

I would typicaly be fishing in 35 feet of water or less for walleyes.
Will I be able to tell the differance between a unit that has 100 less watts (400 vs 500) and 160 less pixals (320 vs 480) at that depth?. One last piece, the unit with less watts and pixals is color.

I don’t think the color would make any differance, but never had color before.

Thanx for your thoughts!

The quality of your depth finder should also relate to your ability to interpret the detail you are seeing on the screen. If you don’t know what you are seeing on the screen go for the cheaper unit.

Ask yourself this…Do you I use it for finding depth only or do I actually use it.

Good units with a zoom feature will show the bottom in greater detail enabling you to see a lot of things. You can see four times the pixels with greater seperation. That coupled with increased power and good software will open a new world for you.

The better the unit, the better the software. If it wasn’t they all would cost the same.

I should say I fish in less than 35 feet of water and do not take my off my depth finder when I am vertical jigging or bottom bouncing up front. Of course if you are anchored or casting depth might be the most important thing directly under the boat.

Just to expound on what Kevin stated. It wiil depend on how much information you are looking for from the unit. I have ran a unit with 160 vertical pixels next to a unit with 240 vertical pixels. Both units “marked” but the unit with more pixels painted a better picture. It was easier to tell the difference between brushpiles, weeds, and fish. The lesser unit marked but left alot of guesswork.
The units you are mentioning should have less than a 2 inch target seperation when using the zoom feature.
The more vertical pixals the higher the resolution.
As far as color is concerned, this also is what you feel will work best for you. Strong signals will show up in brighter colors. this may be easier for some to understand what the unit is telling them.
Comparing the two, I would check which one has the best total performance.

Thanks guys!