Review of the Siglent SDS812X HD - 12-bit Digital Storage Oscilloscope

After 10 years of experience with his Siglent SDS1202X Digital Storage Scope, Brian was keen to review Siglent's new 12-Bit High Resolution scope, the SDS812X HD.

- Brian Millier

When I first saw Siglent's new SDS800X HD line of 12-bit Digital Storage Oscilloscopes in Saelig's email Newsletter, I was suitably impressed.

To put it in context, over a 40-year career in electronics, at work I used high-end, high-bandwidth Tektronix scopes: both analog, and later, digital models.

Electronics is also my main hobby, so I also needed a scope at home. The scopes at work cost as much as a car, so I initially settled on a used analog scope for home purposes. When the Siglent SDS1202X became available about 10 years ago, it was within my price range, so I bought one for home use.

While the Siglent SDS1202X worked great, being an early entry in the digital scope market, it didn't have a lot of the features that are present in digital scopes today. I was impressed enough with the new SDS800X HD line of scopes to ask the Saelig company to send me one to review. They kindly obliged, and sent me the SDS812X HD, which is the 2-channel 100 MHz model.

PHYSICAL FEATURES

Let's examine the physical features of this oscilloscope.

Figure 1 shows the unit on my bench. In this review, I won't make a lot of comparisons to similar competitive models.

Instead, I'll compare it to my Siglent SDS1202X, which was a comparably priced model about 10 years ago. That scope has served me very well.

The SDS800X HD line of oscilloscopes is offered in 70, 100 and 200 MHz bandwidths: I received the 100 MHz model. It uses a 7" LCD screen with a capacitive touchscreen having multi-touch capability. The screen resolution is 1024 x 600this compares to the somewhat larger 8" screen on my SDS1202X which is only 800 x 480, and non-touch. Due to the higher resolution, the SDS812X HD display is visibly sharper than my older scope.