Who needs expensive dealership level tools like ISTA, VCDS and Xentry, when one tablet can do it all in one easy, and fairly inexpensive package? This is the LAUNCH X431 Elite BBA. That last part is the important one – BBA stands for Benz, BMW, and Audi. This specific model actually does the full VAG group, so VW, Audi, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti, Skoda and Seat, along with Mercedes, Smart, Maybach and Sprinter vans, plus BMW, Rolls Royce and Mini – all from this one little tablet. It’s not just a basic OBD code reader either – this does full module scans with dealership level codes, the same as something like VCDS does for VAG cars, or ISTA does for BMWs. You’ve also got access to a decent list of service functions, things like setting the electric handbrake into pad change mode for example, plus a bunch of coding options, like enabling hidden features, or just outright coding new functions into various modules. Pretty impressive for one bit of hardware, right?
Let’s take a quick look at that hardware – this is an Android tablet with a 4” touchscreen, a 3000mAh battery, physical buttons if you’d rather, a serial type port at the top for the removable OBD II cable, and a recessed USB C port for charging, plus the power button on the top. It’s fairly light, and almost deceptively small. It does have a hard rubber outer shell so it’s reasonably durable, plus it comes in a nice little carrying case which makes it easy to keep in your glovebox or carry around.
Software wise, this is just an Android device with a custom home screen and otherwise locked down. I tested this with both VAG and BMW vehicles, although I’ll focus on my Audi S4 for the majority of this video. Once you’ve got the OBD II port connected, you’ll want to head to the “Diagnose” option, select the make of vehicle, hit ok, then let it detect the vehicle. Once there you’ll be presented with a list of all the options. The top one, “Health Scan” is the all module code scan. This is where you’ll be most of the time. It takes a minute to scan each module – no slower than VCDS though – then presents you with a list of all the fault codes present. From there you can either look more into them, or like all good mechanics you can clear them and hope they don’t come back.
If you go module by module you can read all the live data you’d expect, both as a list and in graphed form. The small display means you don’t get much data on screen at once, but it’s still nice to have. It’s much in the same way VCDS lets you view live data although I don’t know if it’s any easier as you can’t start typing to search for the data you need, you’ll need to scroll down and find what you’re looking for, but that isn’t too bad.
Next on the list is “Special Functions”. That’s things like reset the service intervals, enter brake service mode, code a new battery, or things like start an EGR cleaning. Some of the functions, at least when it’s connected to WiFi, have an info icon next to them. Clicking that basically just downloads a PDF guide for how to use that function. It’s not actually from this device, so the UI is a little different, and personally I’d rather this was available outside of the device because trying to read a PDF on this tiny screen is a bit of a pain, but at least it’s there at all I suppose. That is only available for a small handful of the options though, everything else is a your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine type of deal.
Next are the dangerous options. Coding. There technically are “guided functions”, although I was not able to get that to download the required files – and annoyingly that option is only available when the device is connected to the car and during a diagnostic session. You can’t download that file without it connected via the OBD II port, which means the car has to be on the whole time. I left it a good 10 minutes but it didn’t download, and my car’s battery isn’t exactly great, so I couldn’t really leave it much longer.
The online functions are basically a one-click coding option that is frankly terrifying as there is such little information about what it is going to do. You’ve got a big long list of things it can code, but no information beyond “click to code”. I tried coding TPMS – something my car actually doesn’t, and can’t, have, and unsurprisingly it came back to say the module isn’t there. This part is genuinely scary to me – you have a real ability to brick your car here, and with such little information available about what it’s going to do, I would not want to go anywhere near these options. It seems like you’re only one click away from disaster here, and that’s not a desirable attribute.
As for price, this BBA model is listed for £240 – with a £20 off voucher at least right now – or you can get the exact same hardware, just with only Mercedes, or VAG, or BMW for £144 instead. If you want to add more manufacturers, the built-in store app will happily sell you each one for $46 per sub-brand, at least with the current discounted price down from $89. Oh, and you should also get free software updates for life, which is pretty great. There aren’t any restrictions on using this with multiple vehicles either, unlike VCDS, so if you do get the BBA version and end up working on everyone and their dog’s car, that’s perfectly fine with this thing. For £220, this costs about the same, if not less than, the 3 or 10 VIN VCDS unit I have, and for that you get a very similar feature set to VCDS, AND ISTA, AND Xentry, all in one device. That’s not a bad deal.
That’s not to say this is perfect. The screen is tiny making understanding what’s going on difficult, the UI is really pretty basic and I’d argue is a fair bit more abstracted which makes trying to understand what it is doing, or is going to do, a lot more difficult. I prefer using VCDS for certain tasks, and the wealth of info online about how to use VCDS or ISTA is an obvious benefit, although this thing does have more essentially pre-programmed one-click modes that you’d have to do manually in VCDS, and it’s a hell of a lot easier to use than ISTA, so on the whole I’d still recommend this. For coding in particular I’ll likely stick to VCDS, but for keeping a dealer-level scan tool in my car at all times to check fault codes and reset the service intervals, this is my new go-to. I think I’d spring for this BBA version too, mostly because I have both VAG and BMWs to work on regularly, but at £144 the single manufacturer option does look tempting for a more regular user. Either way I’ll link to them in the description if you’re interested!
