Raymarine C120
12-Inch Multi-Function Display

The Raymarine C120 has the largest screen of all the units in the first generation C-series multi-function display line-up.

C-series screen sizes range from 6 inches to 12 inches, as the C60, C80, and our test product the C120.

Raymarine C120

As its model designation foretells the C120 houses a robust 12-inch screen in a case that is 14 inches wide and nearly 10 and 1/2 inches high.

C-series displays can connect to and display a variety of information from numerous sources.

Several radar options are available, as well as a black box sounder, and a GPS module, all can connect to the C120 via the Raymarine SeaTalk network.

Screen Size and Viewability

The big screen on the C120 has very good resolution at 800 x 600 pixels.

The C120 performed well in daylight viewability testing and earned an excellent rating from our testers. It did however darken when viewed through polarized sunglasses.

The C120 screen brightness controls are accessed with a momentary press of the on/off button. This triggers the onscreen appearance of bar graph showing the current level of brightness and a soft key with day/night palette selection.

Screen backlight level adjustments can be quickly made in up to 64 steps with the rotary enter knob. Toggling the soft key selects a day or night palette selection. A press of the OK button confirms your choice.

As our evaluations progressed to night viewing we dimmed the C120 in the day palette first, then as it got darker we switched to the night palette. Setting the brightness to the lowest levels in both day and night mode will actually take the screen to totally black.

We noticed screen backlighting was perfectly even across the full screen. Keypad lighting on the C120 is linked to the screen brightness level and not separately adjustable.

Our testers liked the night viewability of the Raymarine C120 and rated it good.

Operation

The Raymarine C120 software is some of the most intuitive we've seen in a complex chartplotter. It makes good use of its 5 soft keys and numerous dedicated pushbuttons. We cranked this machine up and started using it right out of the box without any reference to the operating manual.

Cartographic data presentation is also well done. We especially like the increased font size used for the display of water depths on the map display.

Waypoints

Access to waypoint data is accomplished by pressing the WPTS key. This resets the soft keys to perform commonly needed waypoint functions. Waypoint lists can be set up in separate groups for quicker access based on user criteria. The list itself has been updated to include the group name, latitude/longitude, bearing/distance, a 16-character name, and a 32-character comment for each waypoint. All this should make obscure waypoints in a large list much easier to identify and use.

Odds and Ends

The lack of an alphanumeric keypad (an optional keypad can be added to the system) stopped us from giving this Raymarine chartplotter an excellent rating for user interface.

Chart redraws on the C120 were very fast, taking less than a second to fully redraw the chart after a map range change. Minimum range with a C-Map card installed is approximately 1/32 of a mile.