The Oscilloscope Guide: About Handheld Oscilloscopes

Handheld Oscilloscopes

Hand-held oscilloscopes, sometimes called scope meters, are small, portable battery-powered oscilloscopes. They are ideal in mobile applications and in harsh environements. Most have color, LCD-type displays.

However, bear in mind that handheld oscilloscope displays are much smaller than that of benchtop oscilloscopes and can be hard to read in sunlight. They also tend to have a short battery life. For a given performance level they also tend to be the most expensive option. But then again, they can be taken into environments that other scopes (including laptop PC oscilloscopes) can't.