With unlimited expandable memory (through an SD-card reader/writer slot) and a market-leading 3.5-inch full-color screen, the XL’s raison d’être is onscreen mapping. After a road trip through the interior of British Columbia—with detailed maps uploaded—it was demoralizing to go back to a smaller screen. When I traveled by bike, motorcycle, or car, I found the at-a-glance viewing unbeatable. And despite the impressive screen—and full feature set—the XL comes in at a perfectly portable 12 ounces.
Bonus: The unique fly-through view of Magellan’s MapSend Topo 3D software (available separately) makes it easy to idle away countless hours planning a trip on your PC.
Bummer: The unintuitive menu system, with DOS-style fonts, required us to delve into the user manual more than we liked. 12 oz; www.magellangps.com