I do a lot of driving for my apartment renters insurance business in Houston. A GPS is a must for me. After reading several reviews, I decided to give the Magellan RoadMate 1700 a try.

List price is $299 but my online sale price was $200 delivered. Setup was easy even without reading the included manual. The windshield mount works fine for my car. I like the big, bright 7″ screen, and I couldn’t find any other brands that had a 7″ screen for a similar price. The usual GPS features work well, including lane assist and “turn-by-turn” voice directions.

The Magellan RoadMate 1700 has a very short battery life, but that’s not a problem for me because the only place I use it is in the car. This model doesn’t have real-time traffic reports and there’s no MP3 player or Bluetooth connectivity. Some reviews suggest that the 1700 is so big that it is only suitable for large vehicles. However, I have a small car and it does not obstruct my view when I ride it a little to the right of center. (Isn’t bigger better for everything?) Sometimes for short trips I put it in the passenger seat or on my lap and it works fine. If you’re worried the unit is too big, you can cut a piece of cardboard the size of a 7″ screen and then see if there’s a good mounting spot on your vehicle that it will fit. The voice sometimes seems to mumble a bit but that’s not really a problem.

Overall I think this is a great GPS for the money if you want a big screen and if you don’t have to have all the top of the line features.