Siglent - 11/20 - New SDS1104X-U, 4 channel 100MHz, 1Gsa/s economy oscilloscope

[Bathyscaphe]

I am considering to buy either SDS1104X-U or SDS1202X-E as my first oscilloscope. I am asking your opinion which scope I should purchase.
Currently, I have no intentions to operate the scope at high frequencies of over 100MHz+, or using more than two channels, so the decision is tough. SDS1202X-E has somewhat better and less noisy frontend than Siglent's budget 4 channel scope, and it has also better FFT resolution, but I do not know if they are worth of 2 extra channels.

I definitely need I2C and UART decoders and preferably triggers as well (my interest is to debug noisy and long I2C transmission lines and various simple frequency-output sensors), so these Siglent scopes are the ones I consider the best for me. Have you regretted of buying a 2 channel scope over a 4 channel one? Or vice versa, do you think a 200 MHz scope with good noise and FFT features is better than a worse 4 channel scope?
 

[tautech]

I am considering to buy either SDS1104X-U or SDS1202X-E as my first oscilloscope. I am asking your opinion which scope I should purchase.
Currently, I have no intentions to operate the scope at high frequencies of over 100MHz+, or using more than two channels, so the decision is tough. SDS1202X-E has somewhat better and less noisy frontend than Siglent's budget 4 channel scope, and it has also better FFT resolution, but I do not know if they are worth of 2 extra channels.

I definitely need I2C and UART decoders and preferably triggers as well (my interest is to debug noisy and long I2C transmission lines and various simple frequency-output sensors), so these Siglent scopes are the ones I consider the best for me. Have you regretted of buying a 2 channel scope over a 4 channel one? Or vice versa, do you think a 200 MHz scope with good noise and FFT features is better than a worse 4 channel scope?

Welcome to the forum.

If you are to do much in the way of decoding a X-U is simpler to use as there is no need to set a Clk Timeout when you have additional channels available.
However if you are confident you can work with just 2 channels a SDS1202X-E does have individual vertical controls which are initially more intuitive to use although it takes little time to get acquainted with multiplexed controls.

I would say your call. 

[Bathyscaphe]

Thanks for your kind reply. I wonder if there are any differences between firmware matureness or PCB/components quality?
Finally, if I am going to play with signals having frequency over 100 MHz (for instance to measure attenuation of a RF filter at 130 MHz), would a scope bandwidth of 100 MHz be fine if I just measure the scope's attenuation beforehand and take it into account? Am I correct?

[Andrew_Debbie]

 

I wonder if there are any differences between firmware matureness or PCB/components quality?

Have you watched the  tear down videos on YouTube?

https://youtu.be/Y6gzYbuMjOA

https://youtu.be/slBXLf4YKtA

[Bathyscaphe]

Have you watched the  tear down videos on YouTube?

https://youtu.be/Y6gzYbuMjOA

https://youtu.be/slBXLf4YKtA

Yes, I have. There is indeed a small difference between the ADC implementations that affect the noise levels, but I did not understand if the components such as the capacitors are more durable and better in general.

[tautech]

I wonder if there are any differences between firmware matureness or PCB/components quality?

Certainly there are some maturity differences and one in particular is addressed with a recent firmware addition that provides for EasyScopeX support in X-U models. I am not aware of any other issues.
All our new stock has to be updated with this version before sale.

I don't believe Siglent have made changes to any component quality.

Finally, if I am going to play with signals having frequency over 100 MHz (for instance to measure attenuation of a RF filter at 130 MHz), would a scope bandwidth of 100 MHz be fine if I just measure the scope's attenuation beforehand and take it into account? Am I correct?

You could and results would be indicative of performance but amplitude would of course not be correct.

SDS1202X-E could be the better choice for you at this price point.

[Bathyscaphe]

Thanks for your help, I decided to purchase a SDS1202X-E. If I ever needed a four channel scope some day for decoding multiple digital transmissions, I could buy a logic analyser. Otherwise I have no need for 4 channels. I would be even happy to just see whether the transmission is OK or not.

[tzok]

After some time, it is worth to mention, that SDS1104X-U is still the only X-U series model, and for all that time it received 1 firmware update, while SDS1104X-E had 4 FW updates and 2 OS updates since last (and only) FW update of X-U