6022BE

At a Glance

Best For

Overview

The Hantek 6022BE is the bottom of the oscilloscope market. At roughly $65, it is a USB dongle with two BNC inputs, no display, no battery, and no standalone capability. You plug it into a PC, open software, and your laptop screen becomes the oscilloscope display. That is the product.

The question is not whether the 6022BE is a good oscilloscope — it is not. The question is whether $65 buys you enough oscilloscope capability to be useful, and the answer depends entirely on what you are trying to do. For verifying that a signal exists, checking audio frequencies, or learning what an oscilloscope display looks like, the 6022BE works. For anything requiring bandwidth, sample rate, or measurement precision, you have already outgrown it.

This review is written for people at a hard $65 budget ceiling who need to decide whether this is worth buying at all, or whether they should save longer for something meaningfully better. We will be direct about the limitations because they matter more here than with any other scope we review.

Pros & Cons

Design & Build Quality

The Hantek 6022BE measures 200 x 100 x 35mm and weighs 200 grams. It is a small blue box with two BNC connectors on one end and a USB cable on the other. That is the entire physical product. There is no display, no battery, no buttons, no knobs. It draws all its power from the USB bus.

The enclosure is plastic and feels like what it is: a $65 piece of test equipment. It is sturdy enough to sit on a bench without concern, and light enough to toss in a laptop bag. The BNC connectors are adequately mounted and accept standard oscilloscope probes without issue. The USB cable is hardwired to the unit rather than being a detachable connector, which means if the cable is damaged, the entire unit is compromised.

The portability factor is the 6022BE's one genuine physical advantage. At 200 grams with no power adapter needed, you can bring this anywhere you bring a laptop. Paired with a laptop and a set of probes, you have a complete (if limited) measurement setup that fits in a coat pocket. No benchtop scope, and very few handheld scopes, match this level of portability.

Included probes are basic 1x/10x passive probes that are functional but unremarkable. They do the job for the level of measurement precision this scope provides. Upgrading probes on a $65 scope is not a rational investment.

Performance & Specifications Deep Dive

The 6022BE provides 20MHz bandwidth with a 48MSa/s sample rate across 2 channels. These numbers need honest context because they define hard walls on what this scope can and cannot do.

20MHz bandwidth means the scope attenuates signals above 20MHz by at least 3dB. In practice, signals above about 15MHz are already degrading noticeably. A 16MHz Arduino clock signal is right at the edge of what this scope can display, and you will not see accurate rise times. SPI communication at 4MHz or below is visible. Anything faster becomes increasingly unreliable.

The 48MSa/s sample rate is the more pressing limitation. By Nyquist theorem, you need at least 2x the signal frequency in sample rate to avoid aliasing. At 48MSa/s, the Nyquist frequency is 24MHz. But real-world oscilloscope practice requires 5-10x oversampling for accurate waveform display. At 5x oversampling, your practical frequency ceiling is about 10MHz. At 10x oversampling (which gives clean waveforms), you are limited to roughly 5MHz signals.

This means the 6022BE is genuinely a low-frequency instrument. Audio work (up to 20kHz) is completely within its capabilities. Slow serial communication (UART at 9600 baud, I2C at 100kHz or 400kHz) is visible, though you cannot decode the protocols. Basic PWM from Arduino is fine. Fast SPI, high-speed digital signals, RF work, and switching power supply analysis are all outside this scope's useful range.

The 1Mpt memory depth is actually the one specification where the 6022BE surprises on the upside. At 48MSa/s, 1 million points gives you about 20 milliseconds of capture at full sample rate. That is actually longer than what the Hantek DSO5072P (40Kpt at 1GSa/s = 40 microseconds) or the FNIRSI DPOX180H (28Kpt at 500MSa/s = 56 microseconds) can capture at their full sample rates. The 6022BE captures lower-bandwidth signals but captures them for longer.

Vertical resolution is 8 bits, which is standard for oscilloscopes in this range. Input coupling supports AC and DC modes. The vertical sensitivity range is 10mV/div to 5V/div, which is adequate for most hobbyist signal levels.

Software & User Experience

The 6022BE ships with Hantek's official software for Windows, and this is where the user experience diverges sharply based on which path you take. The official Hantek software is dated, slow, and awkward to use. The interface looks like it was designed in 2008 and has not been updated meaningfully since. Controls are poorly labeled, the rendering is sluggish, and the overall experience discourages rather than invites exploration.

The saving grace is OpenHantek, an open-source alternative that the hobbyist community has developed specifically for Hantek USB oscilloscopes. OpenHantek is actively maintained, runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and provides a dramatically better user experience. The waveform rendering is smoother, the controls are more intuitive, and the software feels like it was designed by people who actually use oscilloscopes. If you buy a 6022BE, install OpenHantek immediately and do not look back.

OpenHantek supports basic measurements (frequency, amplitude, rise time), FFT analysis, and various trigger modes. It also supports exporting waveform data in formats that other analysis tools can read. The software is the primary reason the 6022BE remains relevant in 2026 — without the open-source community keeping it alive, this would be an abandoned product.

Trigger capabilities are limited to Edge and Pulse triggering. This covers the basic use case of stabilizing a repetitive waveform on screen, but you cannot trigger on complex patterns, serial protocols, or unusual signal events. For learning the concept of triggering and how it stabilizes a display, Edge triggering is sufficient.

Because the 6022BE relies entirely on PC software, the user experience is fundamentally different from a standalone scope. Your screen is as large as your monitor. Your processing power is as fast as your computer. You can resize windows, take screenshots with standard OS tools, and copy-paste measurements into documents. These are genuine advantages for documentation and reporting that standalone scopes lack.

Protocol Decoding & Advanced Features

The 6022BE has no built-in protocol decoding. The hardware does not support it, and neither the official software nor OpenHantek provides serial protocol decoding for SPI, I2C, UART, or any other bus.

This is a hard limitation for embedded development work. If you are debugging communication between a microcontroller and a peripheral, the 6022BE can show you that signals are toggling, but it cannot tell you what data is being transmitted. For protocol analysis at this budget level, a dedicated logic analyzer like the $10-20 Saleae clones or the $379 Digilent Analog Discovery 3 is a better tool.

The 6022BE has no function generator. This means you need a separate signal source for testing and experimentation. For a beginner learning oscilloscope concepts, not having a built-in signal source is a meaningful inconvenience. The FNIRSI 1014D at $115 and the FNIRSI DPOX180H at $110 both include function generators.

There is no WiFi, no waveform recording beyond what the PC software provides, no mask testing, no math functions beyond basic FFT, and no advanced trigger modes. The scope is a USB analog-to-digital converter with BNC inputs. All intelligence lives in the software.

The one area where the USB form factor provides a unique advantage is integration with other software tools. Because waveform data is already on your PC, you can script data capture and analysis using Python, MATLAB, or other tools. Several community projects provide Python libraries for interfacing with the 6022BE hardware directly. For automated test setups where you want to capture waveforms programmatically, this is actually an advantage over standalone scopes that require separate USB connectivity.

Real-World Use Cases

For audio circuit work, the 6022BE is genuinely useful. Audio frequencies (20Hz to 20kHz) are comfortably within the 20MHz bandwidth, and the 48MSa/s sample rate provides extensive oversampling for audio signals. You can verify amplifier output, check for distortion, measure frequency response, and compare input to output waveforms on the two channels. This is the scope's strongest use case.

For basic Arduino verification, the scope handles simple tasks well. Checking that a digital pin is toggling, verifying PWM frequency and duty cycle at standard Arduino frequencies (490Hz, 980Hz), and confirming that an analog output is at the expected voltage are all straightforward. You will not see detailed edge characteristics on digital signals because the sample rate is too low, but for presence-and-frequency verification the 6022BE is adequate.

For slow serial communication, the scope provides limited visibility. You can see UART waveforms at 9600 baud clearly. I2C at 100kHz is visible. SPI at 1MHz is at the edge of useful visibility. You cannot decode any of these protocols, so you are limited to visual inspection of waveform timing and levels.

For power supply debugging, the 6022BE is marginal. You can see switching frequency of a buck converter if it is below about 500kHz, but the noise floor and vertical resolution make small-signal measurements (like output ripple) unreliable. For serious power supply work, any benchtop scope would be a better choice.

For any work above about 5MHz signal frequency, the 6022BE is not useful. Fast SPI, RF signals, high-speed digital interfaces, and switching regulator analysis at typical frequencies (500kHz-2MHz) are all outside the practical capabilities of this scope. The waveforms you see at these frequencies will be aliased, attenuated, or both.

For portable field work with a laptop, the 6022BE fills a niche. At 200 grams with USB bus power, you can bring oscilloscope capability to locations where carrying a benchtop scope is impractical. Paired with a laptop, you have a basic measurement station that fits in a small bag.

Who Should Buy This (And Who Shouldn't)

Buy the Hantek 6022BE if your budget is genuinely fixed at $65 and you need some oscilloscope capability now. At this price, the alternative is no oscilloscope at all, and having even a basic scope is better than having none when you need to verify that a signal exists.

Buy it if you do audio electronics work. The bandwidth and sample rate are perfectly adequate for audio frequencies, and the USB form factor means your PC monitor becomes a large, comfortable display for waveform viewing.

Buy it if you want the most portable oscilloscope possible. At 200 grams with no external power supply, nothing else matches the 6022BE's portability except the Digilent Analog Discovery 3 (which costs $379).

Do not buy the 6022BE if you can afford $110-115 for the FNIRSI DPOX180H or FNIRSI 1014D. For $45-50 more, you get standalone operation (no PC required), higher bandwidth, a built-in function generator, and in the DPOX180H's case, protocol decoding. The capability jump per dollar from $65 to $115 is the steepest in the entire oscilloscope market.

Do not buy it if you are doing embedded development with SPI, I2C, or any digital protocol above 1MHz. The bandwidth and sample rate limitations make protocol-level signal analysis impractical, and the lack of protocol decoding means you cannot interpret the data even if you could see it clearly.

Do not buy it if you expect to use it as your primary bench instrument. The 6022BE is a supplement — a portable secondary scope for quick checks and audio work. It is not a replacement for a real benchtop oscilloscope, and buying it to "save money" on a scope purchase typically means you buy it, realize its limitations, and then buy a proper scope anyway. You end up spending more total.

Alternatives Worth Considering

The FNIRSI 1014D at $115 is the most natural step up. For $50 more, you get a standalone device with a 7-inch touchscreen, 100MHz bandwidth (5x more), 1GSa/s sample rate (20x more), a built-in function generator, and battery power. The 1014D is a fundamentally different class of instrument, and the additional $50 is the best upgrade value in the oscilloscope market.

The FNIRSI DPOX180H at $110 is another strong alternative. It is a pocket-sized handheld with 180MHz bandwidth, 500MSa/s sample rate, protocol decoding for UART, SPI, and I2C, a built-in multimeter, and a function generator. For $45 more than the 6022BE, you get a dramatically more capable device. The 2.8-inch screen and 28Kpt memory are limitations, but the DPOX180H is still a better value proposition than the 6022BE for most users.

The Digilent Analog Discovery 3 at $379 is the premium USB alternative. Like the 6022BE, it connects to a PC and uses software for its display. Unlike the 6022BE, it includes 14 instruments: oscilloscope, logic analyzer, protocol analyzer, function generator, power supplies, network analyzer, and more. The WaveForms software is excellent. If you can afford $379, the Analog Discovery 3 makes the 6022BE obsolete in every dimension.

Saleae logic analyzer clones at $10-20 are worth mentioning because if your primary need is protocol decoding (SPI, I2C, UART), a cheap logic analyzer paired with the free PulseView software is actually more useful than the 6022BE. You get protocol decoding, many more channels, and adequate sample rates for serial communication, all for less money. The trade-off is that a logic analyzer cannot measure analog voltage levels — it only sees digital transitions.

The Rigol DS1054Z at $349 represents a different world. Saving an additional $284 beyond the 6022BE's price gets you 4 channels, 50MHz bandwidth (2.5x more), 1GSa/s sample rate (20x more), 12Mpt memory (12x more), protocol decoding, advanced triggers, and the best community support of any hobbyist oscilloscope. If there is any possibility of stretching your budget, the DS1054Z is worth the wait.

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