I bought a 196 in April, like it allot but don't know it very well, will get allot of use starting Monday on my trip.
I did have an airmap 500 for aprox 2.5 years and loved it, kinda wish I still had it as it can have both the Americas and Atlantic database in it. the detail compared to the Garmin unit and data base isn't quite as good as i remember.
I think looking at the unit for the function/utility you want is priority and the niceties secondary. for myself, the panel layout in the 196 was what I needed for a back-up system, the rest, approcahes, ect. were the benny, just my thought.