Bob - Sorry I must have missed this post over the holidays. The NSS touch screen is very responsice and I can't see there being any issues in the cold. Water may cause a little more of a problem, but not much you can do about that when you are talking about touch screen units. This unit is by far the easiest unit to use that I have ever seen. It is extremely responsive and when you are in rough watch it shouldn't be hard at all. Like Oliver mentioned the keypad on the unit is very useful if you don't want to use the touch screen.

Andrew - Lowrance won't have touch screen anytime soon by the looks of it. They have released teh HDS Gen2 information and they are not touch screen...so those units should take us the next 3-4 years with Lowrance. Simrad is under the Navico umbrella like Lowrance so if you want touch screen your going to have to do to a Simrad. Can't speak for Humminbird, but their current 800, 900, and 1100 units have been around for a while now and a face lift is probably in the works.

If you have a HDS currently on your boat with LSS, Sonar, NMEA 2000, or Ethernet all you need to replace is the power cable and mounting bracket when going to a NSS unit. The LWX1 Sirius Weather will not work, but Simrad has their own should you want that option

-Lawren