Simrad NSO 4-22 22-Inch Touchscreen MFD, Worldwide Basemap

The Simrad NSO 4-22 is a 22-inch glass-helm multifunction display built for boaters who want one big, clean screen running everything. Charts, sonar, radar, engine data, onboard lighting, audio, it all lands on a full HD 1920 x 1080 touchscreen. If you're building out a serious helm on a center-console, express cruiser, or sportfish, this is the anchor display everything else talks to.

First thing to know: it's big. The display measures 20.6 inches wide, 12.6 inches tall, and only 3.1 inches deep, so you need at least 21 inches of flat, solid helm space to mount it cleanly. On a lot of fiberglass dashes that means adding a backing plate behind the cutout so the panel doesn't flex when you lean on it in a chop. Plan the mount before you cut. Measure twice, then measure again. And think about sightlines while you're at it, because a screen this size can block a gauge or a windshield mullion if you rush the layout.

The full HD screen is sharp and stays readable in direct sun, which matters when you're running an inlet at noon. Two honest notes from the water. Fingerprints and salt haze build up fast on a touchscreen this size, so a matte screen protector and a microfiber cloth in the glovebox go a long way. And if you wear polarized sunglasses, touch response can feel a little dead at certain angles, so plenty of folks pair the display with a knob or remote control at the helm for backup.

This is a power-hungry display once you load it up. With radar and engine data running, draw sits around 25 to 35 watts, which is enough to nuisance-trip an undersized 12V breaker on a smaller boat. Give it a dedicated feed off the panel, size the wire and breaker to the manual, and you'll skip the random reboots people chase for weeks. It's worth running that circuit off a clean, switched source too, so the display powers up and down with the rest of your electronics instead of hanging on the bus.

Where a screen this big earns its keep is split-screen work. You can run a chart on one side, downscan sonar on another, and keep radar and engine data in their own windows without any of it feeling cramped. Out of the box it's a chartplotter, fishfinder, and radar display, and it reads engine and system data over NMEA 2000. Wire in compatible engines and you get RPM, fuel, and trim right on the screen. Some engine setups need the correct gateway to unlock every gauge page, so check what your motors support before you expect full engine dashboards. Radar overlay and chart sync run smoothest on current firmware, so update to the latest version before your first real trip.

The NSO 4-22 ships with a worldwide basemap, which is a solid foundation for route planning and coastal running. It's a basemap, though, so the detail thins out once you leave heavily charted US and European waters. Most owners drop in a detailed chart card for their home waters right away and never look back. If you fish structure or run skinny water, that card is the difference between a rough outline and the depth contours you actually steer by.

It's a sealed, waterproof-rated display made to live on an open helm. If you're mounting it somewhere exposed, it's worth adding sealing boots to the side ports to keep spray out of the connectors. So who's it for? Anyone building a big-boat glass helm who wants room to split the screen four ways and still read every window clearly. Who's it not for? A small skiff with a tight dash and a modest battery bank. For that boat, a smaller display makes more sense, and we're happy to point you to one.