NEW Tektronix 2 Series MSO Oscilloscope FIRST REACTION 

The industrial design is amazing. The fact they use VESA for the main stand and the kickstand is amazing. You can not only mount the battery to the main stand, or the kickstand to the scope, but also mount the battery to small monitor arm. Then stick a mag base on that. Would be amazing for field work.

According to the Tektronix homepage, the oscilloscope in the configuration shown here costs just under $20,000 (i.e. with 500 MHZ, battery pack, etc.). For this you get a device that takes an eternity to boot up, the cheapest "clickers" as buttons and a mirrored display that is difficult to read. And for this version, apparently not even adequate probes are supplied, but they cost an extra few thousand dollars. Presumably it will be more like $25,000. I first had to look at the calendar to see if it happened to be 1 April... Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be a bad joke. The device seems to be more for dummies who think they can get this device for $1600. And after unpacking it, realise that they have to invest 10 times this amount to get anywhere near what is shown here. Or directly buy a much better device from Keysight for a fraction of this price.

Pretty brave of Tek to allow Dave to do a hot take review on a pre-release product.

It's got CLOUD OMG. Does it have a facebook button so you can share your waveform with friends? :P

membrane switches in a 2k$ scope... No probe id is also a downgrade from the 2000 series scopes. It feels more like a cool gimmick than a low-end everyday use scope.

Daves like a kid at xmas who got the toy he's been wanting for all year!

Paying homage to the design team and the guy saying that the team will really get a kick out of your positive comments is actually really special. As a designer myself, those types of comments give you warm fuzzies like crazy and let you know you've done something right or thought about something that others notice and respect. Thats great.

Too slow, shiny reflective screen, horrible touch buttons, dim LEDs, missing LEDs, bracket too tall, terribly slow boot up, no confidence with that stand with the buttons, small text and missing colour next to dials/buttons, no option to alter angle other than what it comes with that bracket unless you use a bulky vesa bracket, touch screen and menus need to be faster, not sure on the DIN plug for power. Cost is not “Low end”. Does not impress me, would probably piss me off.

My opinions: - UX: Why everyone had to invent new user interface navigations? We are used to the OK/Cancel/Apply kind of functionality, on Linux, Mac and Windows. Just put an OK button on those windows and/or an X on the corner to close it. Clicking outside is so annoying, you always have to be careful, where else do you click to not unintentionally activate something. - UX: I recommend, when the software is reacted to something, just working on it, display a spinner somewhere. Not necessarily in the middle of a screen, possibly blocking some view, but maybe on the header line near the battery symbol, or directly on the button that triggered the event. That would be natural. Dave pressed functions several times, because there is no feedback whether it is registered the touch or physical button event and processing or not registered at all. - Colors: the black/white is too contrasty. The illuminated ring is almost invisible through the video, because the buttons are white. At least make them dark gray if you want a dark theme, including the stripes. Or black background, dark grey buttons, skyblue text or skyblue stripe with black text. But when colors are involved, everyone will have a personal preference of course. 😉 - There is no excuse of leaving out the illiminated buttons and the fact that they are dome buttons. Seriously, how much a LED cost? This is a few k$ thing, absolutely the LEDs are only the cost saving options? If a calculator can have some mechanical (touchy-feely) buttons, then depth surely isn't an issue here. - Stand: When you went this far that it has a VESA mount (which is quite cool), why don't you just include a VESA-ended monitor (like) stand with pivoting functionality? I mean, that's quite a standard thing on better monitors, like Dell, and they are detachable without screwing. It would attach to the battery unit as well. I like standard things, this VESA mount has a lot of possibilities, I love it. - Rubber protector: I see that this is a prototype yet, but I think for field uses it should be a more full protector, covering the back face AND the battery compartment. - Field use: it is nice to have grip on the back, but maybe would be good to integrate some hanging option as well (possibly in the protector), in case you can't or don't want to set it down somewhere near a cabinet.

This scope looks very similar to my Micsig STO1104C which has been around for a few years and is around $500. The Micsig is only 100MHz, but it has real buttons, and a pretty good UI. The Micsig is basically a scope front-end built around an Android tablet, which is obviously a cheaper, less elegant way to built a 'scope, but it's not clear that Tek got much benefit from starting from scratch.

Stop viewing the teardown, first wanted to view this one! I like the “black(label)” layout, high contrast!

‘Low End, Under $2,000’ 😳😳

They had me at VESA mount.

Looks great to me. Looks like premium build quality and a great feature set and I love that the engineers actually took the time to stand there and help you demo it. I feel this content is really suited to your main channel.

How much did they really save by doing dome switches on a $2k scope?

Very nice idea, the market certainly needs more battery options for desktop scopes when a full rugged field scope is just excessive. I do agree with Dave, the front panel design feels a bit weird, however I don't think it's a needs more colour thing but just that it looks weird compared to the white design of the other Tek series scopes plus the strange dome keys probably get use to it pretty quick. It's worth noting the other scopes that have a black colour scheme also use black plastic with only small white/grey accents on the labels. However biggest disappointment for me is the use of a straight 4-pin DIN plug for charging, it juts out quite far making bunching up equipment close together on your bench impossible, a 90 degree plug that has a flush cutout feels like a requirement for this, would look weird on any desk and would be just asking to be pulled out on a VESA mount.

Looks really nice but that glare is a killer for me!

Siglent SDS2000X HD 12-bit Hi-Res Digital Oscilloscope. 200 mhz 4 channel 500,000 wfm $4080. No clumky aluminum stand!

It's got a really nicely engineered stand.

I'm just a hobby guy, but I like it!

You're wrong Dave... the black is the bees knees!

Membrane switches, no. Thats a deal breaker for me. The sticky rubber pad will pick up dust and lose it's grip. And all that stand, battery back etc stuff is messy and inconvenient. It's a fail for me.

my classic vacuum tube Tek scopes heat faster up than this thing boots

The B&W front panel looks just like a Keysight model. The tablet form factor resembles existing Chinese models.

it looks alright, I have positive feeling towards it, my only complain would be the lag on UI, both input and output.

Awesome to see a new scope, eagerly awaiting for the teardown and perhaps a more in-depth look at its features.

big cudos for the vesa mount, i dream of having my scope on a boom harm, this is enabling it to finnaly happen.

Aluminum stand...and it's included with the product ... not 1000 USD extra ... Are you watching this Apple? And not to mention vesa - compatible too..

Not a fan of the screen glare.

A bit of a wankery design and I bet the power adapter doesn't have Nichicon caps.

Tektronix has done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Wow.

This is exactly the form factor I’ve been silently predicting for a while! And leave it black! (If anything, make the rest of the case black, too!)

Some hard baby rubber bumpy buttons should up the whole thing or just do capacitive sens buttons. Screen reflection is horrible and Rigol Siglent equivalent will be cheaper.

not usbC powered?

Non reflective screen and the ability to fold the handle out the way would be nice. Black and white scheme is pretty horrible, I'm not sure it'll tempt me away from my Keysight.

Entry level scope - *only* two grand. :| I think the double-tap-to-select is a UI fail, but if that is the software engineer's preference I think they should include an "open with single tap" option in a preferences dialog, like you'll find in most Linux file managers. Screen glare could be an eye strain problem.

It really needs a magnetic or easy all angle pullout power connector. I can see the current connector breaking. A real pity about the slow boot up screen. My MSO2024 takes an eternity to boot and it's most annoying. Are they membrane switches or PCB tact switches mounted behind a mylar faceplate? If tact switches, make sure that the reinforcement of the mylar faceplate strong enough to last. The legend wears out and the mylar often splits over time.

Wish they had Usb-c power adapter though. That would mean you could share chargers and so on.

The long boot time really is quite a dealbraker for a grab-and-go scope. Also, membrane buttons with probably no reasonable way to repair or replace them on such an expensive instrument is really shitty. Throwaway electronics, no good. I do like the industrial design of the newer Tek scopes, though.

That vesa mount is very handy, combined with an arm you can move it all over the bench. My R&S is much thicker and even there I miss the old heavy scopes that stay put instead of moving all over the shelf (And worse, tip over and kill the display) Not important but I think it is ugly, a 1 minute boot-time is a deal breaker for me. I'm very happy my R&S boots in 15 seconds (But the R&S is a lot more expensive so not a fair compare) The stand seems to be nice but only if you place your scope on the bench. I need bench space so I place my instruments on shelfs. That handle is a lot of waisted space above the scope.

The whole absence of colour thing was a design mania a few years ago; it was an insistence that everything was basically shades of grey. We had a similar stipulation imposed on our audio software product which made it far more difficult to use. :-(

I'm working on a video review of this badboy for my professional RU-vid channel. I don't think this product is ready yet, as I'm comparing it to my R&S RTB scope and finding some weird measurements if you use the product's full bandwidth. I am going to praise the design though, it looks good on the desk. But the screen and display technique is not on par with what you get for your money on the R&S. Overall very mixed feelings when using the product.

Regarding the long boot time - our company can optimise boot times on Linux devices - we'd love to make this boot quicker for Tektronix. Anyone have any contacts at Tektronix?

i don't need this at all but damn i'm getting one

Real innovation would have been: 100MHz (base model), 10bit, 5GS/s, 500.000 wfms/s for about the same price as this... But meh what do I know 😂

I disagree about the colour. I think the minimalism is a benefit. I'm a big fan of Dieter Rams and his bauhaus minimalism. It creates timeless designs that last, and I think Tek has done that here.

These may become cheap to pick up broken, when - inevitably - those membrane switches begin to fail under heavy usage.

Just a few things I didn't like : * Rare and difficult to replace power supply connector if it is lost (wouldn't it be easier to have used usb type C?) * Power supply connected to the side of the oscilloscope: makes it difficult to place other equipment next to it, it could have been behind it.. * It's 2022 and they still can't make a screen without so many borders? * "Touch off" from power on start, and when it's on you can see a horrible cursor, why? * If I drop the oscilloscope to the front, the knobs can break. * The bandwidth should be indicated on the front of the oscilloscope. Otherwise it's a nice oscilloscope with features that put it well ahead of the competition.

I love the design, also it's standard VESA mounting, so there is plenty of free moving stands to choose from!

That stand is sweet boys

Chinese engineers made a tablet scope 10 years ago, Dave reaction: screw this touchy interface thing, give me those stupid buttons around the screen to operate menus! Tektronix released a touch interface scope, Dave reaction: WOW guys you've made something DIFFERENT!

Does it have an option for line trigger at all? Dident look like it did.

Scope Review!!!!

Precision, Durable, Reliability, Accuracy, profession, and trustability are their tier 1 brands gives. but ...........

Ugh high contrast scopes are so ugly. If you're going to make it back, then make it black! Not black with white knobs

Got a grip for late tektronix digital scopes, and this one seams to have same problem, you need to include a visual clue on your menues to indicate that there is more thing in there than what's being displayed and tell us we need to scroll. For those using it every day that might not be a problem cause you get mad the first time then you get used of it. But i'm teaching at uni and we have every years a new army of student that get stuck on that. Plus as teacher depending what room we are assigned we have different scops model/brand and can not keep in mind all the interface subtleties of each. Just put a little arrow that indicate there is more down or up so we have the idea to scroll. Should be a minor thing to add as an update.

these things should just be a usb3 connection to an optional display, otherwise just software running on a Linux desktop.

We love our toys. I love my Micsig more.

How long before someone on the EEVBlog forums figures out how to hack it from 70MHz up to 500MHz?

I love it

Product sounds great! *Check price Never mind...🙃

Seems interesting, though I have to admit for a bit under 2k I would have hoped for buttons. I would let that slide in a

It def. needs more color :P

It's not a puny single-purpose scope! Makes me wonder if you can also use it as a spectrum analyzer or THD+N meter. Having it all in a single device would be nice. The enclosure could use soe more of that lovely traditional Tektronix blue, but it's just me. The only question is when it's gonna hit the dumpsters like other high end scopes, LOL!

the Black Thing--too much. I think we expect to see standard Tek colors. More than historically, it's important subconsciously to use colors to differentiate control fields--input, horizontal, vertical, UI, etc. I'd think twice before buying this black slab.

Those buttons are unforgivable. And it's not a fluid UI/responsive. But that's software and hopefully fixed.

@ 0:28 And further back on the table the disassembly tool :P

It looks nice. I am pleased they are keeping knobs and buttons. I would rather have separate attenuation and position knobs per channel, it is extremely frustrating to frequently adjust the wrong channel with a shared knob. I got used to the ease and efficiency of separate knobs for everything.

This was disappointing after the impressive teardown. It seems to suffer a lot on usability, from boot times to unresponsive touch UI, and that menu bar on a touch device is a terrible idea!

if all else fails, give it a golden sledgehammer tap! nice package! may be I can use one in the next 20 yrs!! ha..ha..

for all 2-6 series i would like custom text label feature like 5000 series does

Aha! So this was the mystery product your review was embargoed on! 🙂

The man have all the answers for Dave's nitpicks :D Also is that default Linux's mouse pointer ?

if you turn it on the screen is color and that will for the color.

This sticky bottom is an obvious last minute addition to fix an obvious fail with buttons. Why not they just go full touch interface, it is beyond any logical reasoning. The sticky layer will absorb dust and sand from the table and lose its stickery function in no time.

Nice video, can this scope be controlled by USB mouse , why they didn't put a HDMI out .

In my next life I will have it 😍

Wow. Thinnest scope I've seen. What would be really a nice touch is if the ring colours for the channels changed when you changed the trace colour.

Low end. Under $2000.😒

It would be nice if they changed the colors of the probe terminal points to match resistor color code. Brown = 1, Red = 2, orange = 3 and yellow = 4.

An odd video where you're answering your own questions in front of these guys.

What is it with this scope and that from R&S when it comes to highly reflective, glossy screens? Apple iMacs used to suffer from that years ago, but at least Apple addressed it with coatings, and on their high end standalone displays they offer nano-texture matte. How is it that top brand scope manufacturers cannot learn from this and either make truly matte screens or glossy with anti-glare coatings? Makes absolutely zero sense not to address that, especially for a mobile scope like this which will be used in many situations where glare really WILL be a problem.

Give me knobs a nice clicking buttons, I think I would hate a touchscreen, touchscreen belong only on phones

Another Micsig :D

11 : 30 The Screws boy

Cheap and very uncomfortable membrane keyboard. It would be better to have touch-sensitive optical buttons.

Wow that interface looks hedious.

Looks like a toy. Price is what? 2k for the base model?

1 Minute to boot ? .... why ?

Hello All & Dave/EEVblog, I have looked through the messages and have not seen any mention of what I thought is both a mistake by Tektronics and an oversight by Dave for not asking about it... Why didn't Tektronics use USB-C with power delivery as the power input and circuitry for the Series 2 scope? It (USB-C) has the capacity to both power the scope and charge the optional dual battery pack and it is a universally available and easy to find replacements... If you want power supply with a right angle plug, you can buy that! If you want to power it via a capable laptop, you can! If you don't have the battery pack, then you could downsize the wattage of the power supply since you don't need the extra capacity to run both scope and charge the batteries! Using that round "S Video" looking DIN connector is a big mistake! Thoughts, anyone? Best Regards...

What a scam! Shameful that Tektronix products are being rationalized to this degree by industrial design that favors form over function.

There is nothing "pioneering" about the battery pack, given there are tons of handheld scopes with built in batteries and slimmer body. Personally, the battery pack looks like an afterthought, or wait a minute, does Tektronix take in all the Apple ideas around making more money through accessories? Couldn't help having this thought when I saw the battery pack, and the handle/stand things for this scope.

Why is the Tek guy Welsh? :)

Wow! Shittsvill is being teased with technology! I must admit: This would bring out the child in me as well! Let me bet: What's up integration, the life or your findings can be set by the creator!

The UI seems rather unresponsive.

Naaaaaaah. Sorry, but the buttons... No. Just no. Conductive rubber buttons wouldn't have been too much of an issue. And I don't buy the "won't fit in". You said "winner" after peeling the button stuff to make the button sticky. Really? The thing wiggles like crazy! What I want from a lab tool is being substantial and heavy. Not moving when I push buttons. For me that's a fail. It looks freaking amazing, but they fell short on the details

It just seems janky. Sorry tek

looks to be all gtk, very Ubuntu....

"Oi Key"... "Oi Key"... "Oi Key"...