Well, the word that comes to my mind would be 'bland'. Don't get me wrong, their housing design is completely practical, it just looks awfully boring.
Something tells me you're thinking of the previous generation of Instek scopes, which are what I would think of as bland:
This isn't the 'previous generation', this is a scope that was sold in 2008 (and at that time pretty much all entry level scopes had a similar design).
The previous generation were the GDS-2000A and the GDS-1000A and all of them had a similar case design as the current GDS-1000B and GDS-2000E.
The new ones however look to me like the complete opposite of bland, obnoxiously funky:
I'm sorry but I can't see anything 'funky' on these scopes, there is no overuse of bright colors and no glitter effects.
I know you can't argue about looks but to me it just looks bland and boring, although functional.
Really these particular scopes epitomize bad Chinese industrial design to me, it's basically what happens every time a Chinese company decides they need to make themselves stand out.
I agree to some extend, although it's not to stand out but to come up with a design of their own. It's not common in China to leave product design to an experienced designer, often it's done by the same guy that makes the PCB, and he'll just design a box with holes for encoder shafts and screen based on where they are on the PCB. To our Western sensibilities this often looks ugly, but I have to see that the GW instek's are not even close to the horrors I've seen in Chinese products, as they are still perfectly ergonomic and useable.
Also, this is something that over time will go away, as Chinese design evolves and more design and Human Factors educated people get into Chinese companies. Don't forget that Japan once had the role as the global manufacturer of cheap crap, and look where they are today.
Horrible design sensibilities, like they grabbed a random student at Shenzen Municipal Art Instruction Cooperative #6B and forced them to make it at gunpoint. Owons strike me the same way, and it feels like Siglent are heading down this road (before Siglent reps get all bothered, please understand I like what's
inside Siglent scopes just fine. Think of it as constructive criticism.
I like that the DPO/MSO/MDO4k and 5k have full keypads which is nice.
MDO3Ks have this too and it's something I really wish would get copied.
You're right, as a former MDO3k owner I should have known that it also has the keypad
But with more and more scopes employing touch screens the lack of a hardware keypad is no longer an issue.