Personally I'd go for the Bendix stuff over the cheaper Garmins any day of the week. The 196 is pretty awful, and I don't particularly rate the 296 either. The SkyMap 3 and AV8OR are both superior units for clarity of reference and features IMHO. The 496 and newer are pretty tidy, but very expensive.
I don't understand what is meant by the CAA charts pixelating. How far do you really need to zoom?! Now if only someone had figured out how to get the CAA VFR charts up and running on the iPhone....
