[Very] Cheap USB multimeter or USB oscilloscope?

[kalel]

Hi there,

The very low (bottom) range is probably not of much interest to most experienced people, but might be interesting to beginners with less knowledge and budget to invest (used market aside, some people can score really great deals used, but those vary by country and specific date).

With USB oscilloscopes going down to about $50-60 from China with shipping, and no idea about how much their USB multimeters are going for, assuming you can't get both, which of those two items would you find more useful for a true beginner?

Is a USB multimeter slightly cheaper to construct than an oscilloscope, and could that mean a potential better quality of usb multimeters vs oscilloscopes for a similar cheap price?

On the other hand, would a USB oscilloscope offer most of the functionality of a USB multimeter?

Maybe another way to ask would be if you had to choose one of these two item types, which would you choose. Edit: This might be a wrong way to ask since as not being a beginner, you might have different specific needs and low end gear could simply lack the functionality you need altogether.

[kalel]

Thanks. Well I assume the bottom line products of either category aren't perfect performers, I'm just trying to determine if there are any reasons why one of the two types might be of better quality for a similar price (e.g. needs less expensive hardware, can work with cheaper parts, etc)

Which item type would be more useful to a beginner is probably as important as well, but you can get handheld multimeters (non-usb) very cheaply, and you can't get oscilloscopes for that price. Actually, there are those $16 DSO kits, but they seem to be much more limited than the $50 USB units.