Yeah, it can be fairly annoying when trying to determine what armor is the armor you're looking for and what is just normal armor you don't need. At most, the way I've been able to differentiate the different armors is their weight. You see a normal leather chestpiece that is, what, 4 or 5 weight? I forgot the exact number, but its quite light. Next you see leather armor that is all of a sudden over 15 weight and has a heap of resistance that go up to 30 or 40. That's when you'll know.
Me personally, I'm not too fond of how heavy combat armor looks like male characters. Makes you look like a turtle, and I'm not interested in being turtley enough for the turtle club. Looks fine on females though, don't know why it had to be so bulky on males.
Still, though I am more fond of leather armor, I like mixing it with combat armor. http://imgur.com/lEDbKfQ.png.