XTOOL D8W: Solid Features but Frustrating Live Data Recording

Overall, this scan tool is a good value when you compare the purchase price, the capabilities, and the fact that you receive three full years of updates. Most competitors only offer one year of updates, or possibly two at the most. While there are many pros, there are also some cons as addressed below. Pros: 3 full years of updates. Bi-directional control of components (this will vary based on your vehicles capabilities). Latest update added topology scan option. CAN FD Bluetooth adapter. Main screen is very intuitive and provides easy access to all the main menu options. Can send reports via email using Xtool servers without setting up the email app. Suppose to have the ability to Wi-Fi print to your online printer; couldn’t find my printer. Has both 2.4 and 5GHz wireless connections. Excellent and responsive customer service support. Cons: The biggest con with this scan tool is its live data recording function. There is no way to set an automatic trigger event to start recording a parameter that is above/below a threshold. You cannot flag a point in the recording if you detect a problem while on the road test. Perhaps the worst aspect of the recording function is that there is no way to quickly fast forward through what you recorded while looking for abnormalities. Your only options are to advance frame by frame or watch the whole recording. I went on an approximately 7-minute road test while recording 8 parameters. This data event resulted in over 20,000 frames that you would have to either manually advance through one by one or watch the whole recording in its entirety. This is not practical or efficient. Xtool should mimic what Autel has done with their data recording by incorporating automatic trigger recording, flagging anomalies, and most importantly incorporating a slider bar that you can use to quickly skim through the whole recording; see comparison photos (Xtool is 1st, Autel is 2nd). I have had issues with mileage populating as kilometers even though U.S. units were selected, and even then, the km reading is way off from what a converted mileage would be. I was not able to Wi-Fi print to my printer as the scan tool could not find my printer on the same network. You cannot expand the storage by adding a Micro SD card to the tool. There are some grammar errors with the translation that could be confusing. Overall, this is a good product and worth the price. Xtool’s customer service is excellent and very responsive to inquiries. However, if you rely heavily on live data recordings for your diagnostics, this scanner completely fails at providing a usable platform for that capability.