THIS is the ULTIMATE Scan Tool's better version but is it BETTER? D8 Review

hello and welcome to the car care nut channel in today's video we're gonna be revisiting the ultimate scan tool that we reviewed a while back the x tool d7 scan tool that is very capable at a very good price from a company nobody's heard of many of you have looked at the website of the company and saw that there is an upgraded model of the d7 the d8 so i spent some time with the d8 after they finally sent me it and then they also sent me a smaller scan tool more of a more basic one because in that video i told you that the blue driver was a good basic scan tool if you need very basic capabilities so in today's video we're going to be looking at the x-tool d8 comparing it to the x2 d7 we're also going to be looking at the a30m the one you use for your scan tool and see what's the difference what's what and how do these compare to the ultimate scan tool right after this let's start the review here first you notice the cases are exactly the same let's revisit our d7 let's take it out here is the d7 we already talked about this one but let's look at the d8 [Music] this is the d8 size comparison v8 is bigger it is also a better battery life but not only that when we stand d7 and we let it go it just flops the d8 on the other hand has a nice little stand in the back makes it a lot more functional so that's the first impression because before we even open the thing the other improvement is this has a bigger battery this actually has a ten thousand milliamp hour battery this only has a four thousand if you remember from that review this had a not so great battery life this is a lot better other than these differences guess the company listened for the box the box is exactly the same however the charger is better because they need a bigger charger for that bigger battery tucking everything in here is a little better than the d7 even though it's the same box not the end of the world this still has a wired connection and many of you have voice concerned over this not being a bluetooth connection trust me the bluetooth connection has its ups but it also has its down cable connection makes everything very quick and this thing is lightning quick having said all that we're gonna take a look at the d8 we're going to take a look at the d7 and we'll talk about the main differences between the two but now we have a new kit on the block a30m and this thing the company sent me this because they did not like my comment that if you just want to read codes very simply in very basic data list don't buy this because this is way too much money for way too capable for what you need just buy a blue driver so they sent me this which they told me in their exact words this will blow the blue driver into the middle ages and after some testing it actually does however there is a lot of small problems with this let's start first with the main objective the d7 and the d8 the d7 is very capable and for the price it is extremely capable but the d8 is more money and when you get into the 600 range this be enters a new segment of scan tools becomes very competitive here's where this shines over the d7 this is basically an oem scan tool it has the exact same functionality for example when you wanted to do some of the special features you had to go in the special functions menu and you start fumbling through very confusing menus and all that like key programming for example a lot of you have reported it's very complicated with this because it follows their software and it can get confusing and all that but the d8 follows exactly the same as the manufacturer specified way of program basically a copy of the original scan tool so it has a lot more functionality in that and the main thing is this can do customizations like changing your seat belt chime stuff like that this cannot do that this also has more tpms capabilities than this one this has a lot more capability and this price wise is not there in the very high end scan tools but it actually function wise it is in the high-end scan tool but for diy this will still be the ultimate if you're really that diy advanced user that want to get into the oem level scan tool on high level diagnosis and basically everything that a scan tool can do this will be your answer and it will be well worth the extra expenditure having said that before we dig into the actual test of this and the other one let's talk about this guy so this guy is basically a baby d7 with lust capabilities that works off your phone so it's a little app that you download on your phone and connects to this and i have to admit one thing when you buy it it doesn't come with any instructions all it comes with is this little piece of paper which you will not think twice about it's the little paper you're probably going to throw the box forget about it that is until you finally get the app to download which takes forever to download for some reason you realize that there's an activation and on this little very inconspicuous piece of paper there's an activation code you need this to make this work otherwise it won't work you also need a serial number which is written here and on the thing but then once you activate the app the app is very clunky i have to say that you have to wait forever for all the diagnostic systems to download and they take forever they take a lot of space on your phone and that's really the downside but this ladies and gentlemen can read codes can have special functions and can do bi-directional control but it comes at a huge price because they did not make this and this the same and basically you'll abandon the d7 and go with this this is a very diy scan tool because the d7 the major thing about the d7 is is how lightning speed fast it is you work in a shop environment or you're a diy that is advanced you need to get things done this works at a diy weekend pace it's very slow it's very clunky yes it could do bi-directional control but it is also very slow and sometimes doesn't work very well and you know what i don't blame them for that because you're working off bluetooth and you're working off your phone there's no hardware compatibility 100 things are going to get slow you pay less you get less you pay more you get more that's just how it works with scan tools but at 129 it really puts so many other scandals to shame without further ado let's go to my 2022 toyota camry hybrid behind me hook all these up and i'll show you the difference between the d78 and what this thing is capable of all right so we got the d8 connected here i'm going to hit auto scan one thing i will tell you about this it will not pick up a 2022 of course because they haven't updated it yet this is a 2022 but it's exactly the same as a 2021 so we're gonna go toyota usa model we're gonna go camry hybrid 2021 h71 radar cruise there we go okay now here is the first difference between this and the d7 the d7 will only show you automatic scan so it'll scan everything automatically system selection you'll select which system you want to scan customize settings that actually does not exist in the d7 it does exist in the eight let's take a look at it this is where you check all your settings you can customize the settings like your seat belting like many other options in the car this was something missing from the d7 that i've many of you asked about i told you it's missing but it's actually available in the d7 let's go to warning and this is of course a little slower and this is hopelessly slow on tech stream if you go on the official toyota scan tool this is extremely slow and it's still a lot faster than that but let's look at this driver seat belt warning buzzer function this is the driver's seat belt buzz like the noise the warning when you don't put your seat belt and start driving you can turn that off but what i am more interested in function of the passenger seat belt warning and the reason i want to turn this off let's turn it off it's off now is sometimes i put stuff on the passenger seat like you know a scan tool or something and start driving and it'll beep thinking there's somebody in the seat that is super annoying so now it's off it's done and this customization is exactly the same as it is with the toyota models like with the toyota scan tool and this of course works on other manufacturers as well not just toyota these scan tools work on every make and model so that is your customization another one that is helpful security for example if you have an alarm that keeps going off and until you figure it out you can go in security and actually turn it off and it gives you a lot more options here not just security but in the old models it'll be just security on or off and you can turn it on or off this is the first difference let's scan the car i did with automatic scan and we'll see what's going on now you notice my car will have a bunch of codes because i've been testing a bunch of stuff so we'll actually take a look at these codes this car has 44 computers a lot of computers on this one so it's business as usual here let's go to the hybrid control because we do have a code let's see what that code is you got lost communication with cruise control module message missing that is something that i've been testing so we're not going to worry about that too much but the difference here between the d7 and the d8 you notice special functions that actually didn't exist in the d7 when you go there it'll show you additional stuff this would be if you go on tech stream this will be under utility but let's go to the engine and that's when you'll see where this makes sense special function in engine you can write the vin number and the biggest one learning value reset so you remember in the older cars you could delete codes by pulling the battery disconnecting the battery and it resets everything well you can't do that on the newer cars because they have a stay alive memory that stays there even when you disconnect the battery but you go when you go to learning value reset it actually resets those values and resets everything back to factory stock if you had a non-hybrid model and this is unfortunately the hybrid model that we're working on here if you had a non-hybrid model this is where you'll find your transmission memory reset it'll just set reset memory and that's how you reset the transmission memory that is something that is capable of the d7 didn't other than these two huge things and i i say huge because if you go to tire pressure monitor for example on the old ones and worked on some of them didn't work on others here you just go to special functions in tpms and you have id registration very simple this is exactly how it is in text stream and it's exactly the same here but where this becomes such a big deal because right now you're looking at okay well this is nice but is it worth it this is where it really becomes worth it front recognition camera we go to special functions here you can actually program this front recognition camera this involves a lot more and this is why this becomes a professional grade scan tool is you need to set up targets and you need to follow the repair manual to set up the targets but this actually can do it this is pretty cool you just go to your front recognition camera access misalignment adjustment and then you can set up the targets and set it up this is a very expensive thing at a dealership to do and it has to be done every time you replace the windshield with this scan tool you can actually do it because the target you can print it off the repair manual follow the instructions in the repair setup to target at a specific place and now you can do it with this you don't have to take it to the dealership and the thing goes on and on and on with these special functions every one of these things will have a special function in it we go to smart key for example you want to program a key many people commented to me that in the d7 you had to go in this weird menu under special services or special functions and it asked you a million questions and it was very confusing but in the d7 things are again more advanced you go to special functions and here it is smart code reset if you lose all your keys you can re erase keys you can add keys you can do diagnosis mode this is again more functionality so that's that's about it with the d8 but the one thing that is added is when you go to special function you have two additional things one of them is ee prom this is if you want to upload custom software for the cars not really something big with toyota or with other manufacturers this is actually a big deal and the other one is ecu configurations not for every make and model that these are only these are the makes and model that you can do customizations as of the data film in this video the scan tool is always getting updated so you might want to update it always but this is where you access like if we go toyota usa automatic detection this is where you can do those same customizations but you can do them quicker from here without having to log in the car this will only take you to customization because some other makes and model it doesn't have that readily available so you got to go here but this is the difference the main differences between the d7 and d8 let's look at the a30m now this guy is an app from your phone takes forever to download takes forever to update but i finally got it done so you gotta activate it as soon as you log in but basically you plug the thing in the obd2 connector let's go asia toyota diagnosis for toyota again things are very slow here usa automatic detection and uh take a nap it'll eventually communicate and get you going it didn't pick it up again so camry hybrid 2021 h71 radar cruise automatic scan and the automatic scan also takes an eternity so hang in there it'll uh we'll get there eventually [Music] okay we're finally done again slow because you gotta pay to play if you want fast but when you go here same thing you got your live data which takes forever to log in as well the theme here is very slow so you really have to have a lot of patience which all professional mechanics do not so ah finally so let's select all and here is the live data now i know it's not showing a lot of live data and it's very slow and it doesn't refresh as much the car is off but it does show you a hefty amount of live data of course just like the d7 actuation test again this takes a while d7 we would have already been there you just hit it and it's there but same thing you can pretty much activate everything similar to the scan tool the original scan tool but things are very slow and in some of the tests it actually dropped out halfway and it's not as reliable but you know what for the price i think you know it makes sense it's definitely better than the blue driver but let's go to the special functions which is services here it's not special functions they're pretty much the same as the d7 very similar maybe missing a few but still nonetheless very capable this one does not have the capability to tpms even though it says it here but you need additional tool doesn't have customizations doesn't have any of that but it has very basic features but for its price if you're willing to be patient with it not fall asleep when it's loading it's actually pretty good and that's pretty capable and one more thing folks and actually i'm recording this part later after the filming of that to clarify one thing on the small or portable the bluetooth one there is actually three models one of them is the a30 and then there's the a30d and the a30m of course their prices vary so let me run through them real quick in case you are shopping around and so you would know what's the difference the a30 will be the most basic and the cheapest it'll have less special functions it still does die bi-directional still all these other stuff but it'll have less special functions the a30d will be the middle one it'll have a little bit more special functions but not as much as the top end model of the a30m the a30m is the one you saw in this video if you want something a little cheaper because you're not going to use some of these special functions that will actually make a lot of sense so there you have it folks now as as the date of film in this video the d7 remains the ultimate scan tool for diy but if you're a diy on a budget and you're willing to deal with the compromise of slow and not 100 coverage this is for you because this is really capable for for the price the d8 we now go into real shop equipment this is for a shop i mean you can really run a shop with this and one note on this and everybody have asked about this yes we are using these on toyota but these are capable oh even the d7 this and d8 they're all capable of all makes and model even outside the united states the models that we don't even have renault citroen and many other models this is not exclusive to toyota that i wanted to clarify that because a lot of you have asked about this the d8 might be too advanced for diy home mechanic however if you have the money you want the latest and the greatest you want the best this is it if you're on a budget but you have some money to spend the d7 will be great because it is very very fast and extremely capable if you really own a budget and willing to wait a small guy will do the trick and in the near future i actually am in the process of testing multiple scan tools from other brands comparing it with these three because i think these three are really good price wise but we're going to compare them to some really higher end scan tools to see are they really better than the d8 and justify their price and if you're interested in buying these the manufacturer was again some of there were some issues with availability they will not be available as much because again this is a small company they will sell out quick but they did give me some discount codes i'll leave all the links in the description if you're interested in buying one read some reviews look at them check out the discount code see if this is something in your budget everything will be in the description thank you so much for watching this video i hope it was helpful informative if you like it consider giving it a thumbs up if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing to the channel check out some of my other videos and until the next video folks may the lord bless you and keep you and you have yourself a wonderful day

Channel: The Car Care Nut

Views: 293,730

Keywords: This is the ultimate scan tool, xtool d8 review, xtool a30m review, d7, d8, xtool d7 review, diy scan tool, obd scanner, obd scan tool, diy mechanic, car repair, good scan tool, good scanner, car scanner, the car care nut, car wizard, scotty kilmer, product review, scan tool review, diy tool review, tool review, scanner review, best scan tool, best obd2 scanner, code reader, product reviews, obd scan tool reviews, product review blogger, obd scan tool bluetooth

Id: IVsrqxtlcDI

Length: 20min 38sec (1238 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 08 2022