The 196 is great - I recommend it thoroughly. One of the things I preferred when I compared it with the 295 is the speed of redraw - much faster than the 295.
Very important point: It is absolutely vital that you visit the Garmin website and download the latest database. In older versions, the representation of airspace is not to be trusted. This is improved if you do a database update (although you still need to be careful and obviously use your chart as primary reference). Doing a download is easy with the cable supplied, and you should find a voucher in the box that entitles you to a free download. It only took me about 15 minutes to upgrade both the software and the database.
Do not assume that your 196 will have the latest database when you take it out of the shrink-wrap. It will have been sitting in Transair (or wherever) for several months.
FlyStim... I assume you've done a database upgrade since your post above (if not then you'll also need to upgrade your software before you can upgrade the database... the software version is 3.20 now). You'll be pleasantly surprised about the MATZ stubs, and the size and shape of some ATZ's has been corrected as well.