besides cosmedics, what is the real differnces? are firmware updates the same for both?
Apples and oranges.... The BC796D is a very nice radio (perhaps even great for its' time). The 996XT is a significant improvement on many, many levels. It is very difficult to make a fair comparison between two units that began production approx. (7) years apart.
The 996XT is the current "State-of-the-Art". The BC79D was also... once upon a time but, its' time has now passed. Read up on the difference between conventional memory allocation (BC796D) and Dynamic Memory Allocation (BCD996XT/BCD996T). That difference alone puts the XT series light years ahead of the BC796D in terms of technology and programming flexibility.