Garmin’s GPSMap 196 lacks the 295’s snappy ûcolor but it has an impressive flight display ûpage good enough to get you out of a partial- ûpanel jam.

When Garmin unveiled its GPS 295 three years ago, we thought it closed the door on knock-your-socks-off portable navigators for awhile. It had color, approaches and stone-simple operating logic. What else did you need? And with everyone else essentially out of the aviation portable business, who would take on the 295?

No surprise that Garmin is taking itself on in the form of the GPS 196, its first aviation portable in three years at street price of about $1000. (Did we say three years like we’ve been waiting in breathless suspense? We’re obviously jaded by the long-gone days when Garmin tossed a new handheld into the market and enjoyed a feeding…