Hantek 2D72 vs. OWON HD272S – Which Scopemeter is Better?

I did a detailed side by side comparison between the Hantek 2D72 and OWON HDS272S. Both of the Hantek 2000 series and OWON HDS200 series offer comparable specifications. After watching this video you should be able to decide which one better fits your needs.

00:00 Introduction
01:36 Specification comparison
07:41 Power consumption comparison
12:43 USB-C port, probe compensation test point
13:50 Power-on power-off performance comparison
14:35 Update rate comparisons
15:54 Automatic acquisition speed, bandwidth comparison
21:03 AM/FM signals
24:12 X-Y mode comparison, Lissajous figure
26:42 Digital Multimeter comparison
29:36 Arbitrary waveform generator comparison
34:34 Conclusion

[KerryWongBlog]

Please turn off "Stable Volume" in the video playback setting (the first menu item after clicking the gear icon) as for some reason, this new YouTube playback feature made the video much noisier than usual.

[scriptguru]

Thanks for the comparison! I wanted to buy Hantek (because I have a desktop scope from Hantek, and it works well), but bought Owon instead after watching your review.
Tested it with a 200 MHz probe to make sure the the probe is not the limiting factor. The max frequency this scope can measure is 84 MHz. At this frequency it still shows a decent sine wave of proper amplitude and shows the frequency. At higher frequencies it still can draw the curve on screen decently, but can't measure frequency anymore (shows ???).
The signal generator in it is not great, but definitely usable.
Overall, a fantastic tool sold at reasonable price.

[raindropsrising]

Thank you for your time putting this together. Appreciate your thoughts and review. Just bought the Owon HDS272S after your evaluation. Been looking around for handheld in the last 2 years for hobby and toying around.

[brianterry]

Outstanding, in-depth review. You even covered continuity testing! (Personally I prefer "scratchy", but that isn't a dealbreaker.)
I was trying to choose between these two exact devices, and you told me everything I needed and more. Much appreciated!

[layka]

I have the HDS272S as a portable option to my bench scopes and AWGs. And I am very satisfied with this instrument. I've never tried the X-Y mode, but as I can see in your video this is just amazing for a digital scope.

[jasmonahan]

Kerry, this was the exact side-by-side review I was looking for. And your presentation was awesome! Thank you so much for taking the time to make this presentation. 12 out of 10!

[toddsands]

I recently purchased an OWON HDS2102S. There are a lot of qualities I like about the HD72 O-Scope. From what you mentioned, I'm now glad I made the investment towards the HDS2102S since it is a true RMS meter which is important for my work since I deal with a lot of electricity issues on how electronic devices react to electrical changes. Thanks.

[qua]

Thanks for providing such a detailed, and comprehensive review. You speak in a clear way, and pace that was easy for me to understand despite a slight accent relative to my part of the world. You were able to cover a lot of information as quickly as possible. I learned a little about the functionality of each in a way that you cannot by simply reading the manuals. I think I will be keeping my Hantek, because I need the longer battery life, and easier user interface more than the higher level functionality of the Owon for the work I'm doing.

[tetsujin_]

Very enlightening, thanks for the detailed information. I've been looking at the Hantek as my first scope for various tasks (mostly repairing, altering, and maintaining old computers and CRT monitors, but also because my son is interested in electronics and I'd really like to show him how waveforms relate to sounds as we hear them) but it definitely sounds like I should spend some time considering the OWON before I make my decision.

[steelplasma]

The hantek does have a test point for the probe. It is the AWG output even on models without the AWG the connector is still there and outputs 1MHz for you to tune your probe.

[geirendre]

Excellent and thorough review.
I bought the Owon HDS 242 back in April, and are verry pleased with it.
The only thing I'm missing is firmware updates from Owon.
It doesn't look like Owon releases updates for any of their products.
That's to bad as mine is at version 1.8.0 while the new ones are at version 3.x.x i belive.

[steveb.]

Great job Kerry! Lot's of great comments, relative to the specifications, and so really nice experimental head to head measurements. There is one area though where you could make a major improvement,

Sadly, a lot's of these Chinese Handheld scopes list fantasy-land specs claiming "Real Time Sampling" up to some impressively high frequency, but actually silently switch to what euphemistically used to be called "equivalent time" multi-pass sampling for all the fastest ns/div sweep ranges, making them USELESS for any kind of high speed one shot capture (like the the FNIRSI 5012H).


"Equivelent Time" sampling is a technological fossil record technique that was used ages back (some time around the late Jurassic I think), in Dinosaur DSO scopes by big-guns like HP and LeCroy to boost their claimed sampling bandwidth. It works by taking multiple passes at the waveform, at multiple points in time, over multiple cycles - and therefore can ONLY work with a static perfectly repetitive non-changing waveform.

In the modern world, most digital waveforms are anything but 'repetitive and non-changing' so all of those Dinosaur DSO "equivalent time" oscilloscopes became extinct virtually overnight when, like a meteor dropping into the Yucatan, Tektronix dropped the TDS-210/220 series into the market and showed everyone that a reasonably priced scope really could offer REAL no-B.S. "real time" sampling at 1 Gs/sec.

Unfortunately, some of the manufactures of these Chinese handheld scopes have figured out how to extract the Dino DSO DNA and resurrect "equivalent time" sampling so they can cut corners and shave a few bucks off the cost of their scopes (like the FNIRSI 5012H) .

The careful sine wave tests you have done so far prove NOTHING because any repetitive signal will sample fine under "equivalent time" sampling mode.

But it's not that hard to find out if "equivalent time" sampling is being used. Just set up a high speed non-repetitive signal, like a very high speed SPI data bus signal running at say 30 Mbits/sec (generated by something like a raspberry pi pico, or pi zero), and then try to one-shot capture a SINGLE SPI DATA FRAME and see if you get a waveform that accurately captures the data that was sent, or one that is total garbage (which will happen if the high speed sweep ranges use any kind of non-realtime "equivelent time" sampling).

Technically, at 90 MHz analog bandwidth, and at a 250Ms/s sample rate, all these scopes should handle the fundamental, second, and third harmonics of a 30MHz NRZ data stream, allowing the data to be rendered reasonably well, but it shure would be nice to see some examples of how badly each scope's anti aliasing interpolation filters chew up the data waveform (or whether it can even be captured at all) before I go out and plonk down a couple hundred bucks to buy one.

[randypullman]

Fantastic review! I wish I owned the OWON after watching. I hope the vast number of accessories and the abilities they will afford my new handheld Oscilloscope can nudge it up. I hope to see more reviews challenging these two in real world tasks. Cheers!

[TradieTrev]

I've got mixed feelings about this review; I like the features of both! Mostly the DMM I'd use the most, so the slow continuity on the Owen I'm not pleased about; Hantek has 3rd party software too that works with linux! The function gen I'd use in the field to trick bits of PLC gear. Great video either way mate!

[mikemorrell]

Thank you Kerry. I really appreciate your detailed reviews and comparisons. They are very helpful when it comes to making test equipment purchases. Keep up the good work.

[leonerduk]

I feel like a major difference in the way those two scopes display the waveforms (especially visible in X-Y mode) is that the Hantek is capturing a single sample sweep, displaying it, then going around again, whereas the OWON's display seems to be a blend of multiple triggering rounds. Hence you see a thin trace jumping around on the Hantek, whereas a thicker but smooth and stable blended trace on the OWON. I wonder if that is a mode configuration on either of them? I know on my Rigol bench scope that's a setting I can adjust, to get either behaviour.

[EntropicRemnants]

Pretty much made up my mind to get the Owon. Thanks again for an excellent analysis. Subscribed.

[barrykery]

What a great review. The selling point for me is the current drain in standby. Knowing I have to charge the batteries in less than every six months would annoy me. And, that's if you don't use the meter. Now i use the meter maybe twice a month, I better keep an extra set of batteries laying around.
Thanks for posting such a great review.
Barry

[Shawnelec]

A very good and detailed comparison indeed! It will surely help me to choose well between the Hantek or Owon oscilloscope
Thank you

[GabrielAssis]

Thanks for this side by side! Owon is a totally win for me, that Hantek standby current is a no deal, way too high if you don use/recharge it very often. Add your affiliate link to the description!