DSO5072P

At a Glance

Best For

Overview

The Hantek DSO5072P occupies a specific position in the budget oscilloscope market: it is the cheapest way to get a traditional benchtop oscilloscope that looks and operates like the instruments you see in professional labs and YouTube teardown videos. At around $180, it provides 70MHz bandwidth across 2 channels, a 7-inch display, and a full set of physical knobs and buttons. It sits on your desk like a real oscilloscope because it is one.

The appeal here is form factor and familiarity. If you have watched EEVblog or read electronics textbooks, the instruments pictured have rotary encoders, dedicated channel buttons, and trigger controls laid out in a specific way. The DSO5072P follows that convention. You learn muscle memory that transfers directly to more expensive scopes later.

But the DSO5072P has a specification that is genuinely difficult to overlook: 40Kpt memory depth. That figure is not just low by modern standards — it is low by 2015 standards. The memory depth limitation defines everything about this scope and who should consider buying it.

Pros & Cons

Design & Build Quality

The Hantek DSO5072P is a conventional benchtop oscilloscope measuring 312 x 152 x 120mm and weighing 2.0kg. It has the standard form factor: display on the left, knobs and buttons on the right, BNC connectors on the front panel. The plastic enclosure is reasonably solid for the price, feeling sturdier than the FNIRSI 1014D's tablet shell but noticeably lighter and less rigid than a Rigol DS1054Z.

The 7-inch TFT LCD is non-touch, which is standard at this price for a benchtop scope. The display is adequate for viewing two-channel waveforms with sufficient brightness for a well-lit workbench. Viewing angles are limited, as expected from a TFT panel. If you are accustomed to the IPS displays on newer Rigol DHO series scopes, this will look washed out from off-axis positions.

The physical controls follow the standard oscilloscope layout: vertical position and scale knobs for each channel, horizontal position and time base knobs, and a trigger level knob. Buttons provide access to menus, measurements, and utility functions. The knobs have reasonable detent feel — not as smooth as Rigol's encoders, but functional. The button presses are clicky and positive.

The fan is worth mentioning because you will hear it. In a quiet room, the DSO5072P's fan produces a noticeable hum that some users find distracting. It is not loud enough to be a problem in a workshop or shared lab space, but in a quiet home office it can be an annoyance. The Rigol DS1054Z has a similar fan noise issue, so this is common at the benchtop budget tier.

Probe quality is basic. The included probes are functional 1x/10x passive probes that get the job done for hobbyist work, but they are not the quality you would get with Rigol or Siglent stock probes. Budget for aftermarket probes if you need better performance.

Performance & Specifications Deep Dive

The DSO5072P provides 70MHz bandwidth at 1GSa/s sample rate across 2 channels. The 70MHz bandwidth is sufficient for the vast majority of hobbyist work. Arduino Uno and Mega signals run at 16MHz with edge rates well within 70MHz. Most SPI communication at typical clock rates (1-8MHz) is comfortably within range. PWM signals, audio circuits, basic RF filtering, and power supply debugging all fall under this bandwidth umbrella.

Where 70MHz starts to limit you: if you are working with ESP32 or Raspberry Pi Pico running SPI at 20MHz+, the scope's bandwidth rolloff means you will not see accurate rise times on the clock edges. If you are doing any RF work above simple crystal oscillator verification, 70MHz is insufficient. The Siglent SDS1202X-E at $379 gives you 200MHz, which provides meaningful headroom for faster signals.

The 1GSa/s sample rate is reasonable for 70MHz bandwidth. At 5x oversampling relative to bandwidth, you get adequate waveform fidelity for the signals this scope can resolve. You will not see aliasing artifacts on signals within the bandwidth specification.

Now, the 40Kpt memory depth. This is the specification that defines the DSO5072P's limitations and the primary reason we struggle to give it a strong recommendation. At 1GSa/s with 40,000 sample points, you get 40 microseconds of capture at full sample rate. That is 40 microseconds. A complete I2C transaction reading a sensor register at 400kHz takes approximately 50-100 microseconds. A UART byte at 9600 baud takes about 1 millisecond. A complete serial message can take tens of milliseconds.

To capture these longer events, the scope must reduce its sample rate, which degrades waveform quality and can miss fast transients. The FNIRSI 1014D at $115 has 240Kpt — six times more memory than this $180 scope. The Rigol DS1054Z at $349 has 12Mpt — 300 times more. The Siglent SDS1202X-E at $379 has 14Mpt — 350 times more. The DSO5072P's memory depth is its most significant weakness.

Trigger types include Edge, Pulse, Video, Slope, and Overtime. The Overtime trigger is somewhat unusual at this price and allows triggering when a signal stays above or below a threshold for a specified duration. It is a modest advantage over the FNIRSI 1014D's trigger set, though far short of the DS1054Z's comprehensive trigger menu.

Software & User Experience

The DSO5072P uses a traditional button-and-menu interface that follows standard oscilloscope conventions. You press a channel button to access its coupling, bandwidth limit, probe ratio, and invert settings. The Trigger menu gives you type selection, source, and level. The Acquire menu controls sample rate and memory depth settings. The Display menu handles persistence, grid brightness, and waveform intensity.

Menu navigation is straightforward if you have used any modern digital oscilloscope. If you have not, the button layout follows the same conventions used by Agilent, Tektronix, and every other oscilloscope manufacturer, so any oscilloscope tutorial online will translate directly to this scope's interface. This is an underappreciated advantage of the traditional benchtop form factor.

Automatic measurements are available for voltage (Vpp, Vmax, Vmin, Vavg, Vrms), time (frequency, period, rise time, fall time, duty cycle), and basic math operations. You can display multiple measurements simultaneously on the right side of the screen. The measurement accuracy is reasonable for a budget scope, though you should expect +/-3% on voltage measurements rather than the +/-1% you would get from Siglent or Rigol.

The math functions include channel addition, subtraction, multiplication, and FFT. The FFT display is basic but functional for identifying dominant frequency components. The FFT window options are limited compared to mid-range scopes.

The scope has no protocol decoding capability whatsoever. There is no SPI decoder, no I2C decoder, no UART decoder. If you need to analyze serial communication, you will need an external logic analyzer or a scope that includes decoding. The Rigol DS1054Z at $349 includes SPI, I2C, UART, and RS232 decoding. Even the $110 FNIRSI DPOX180H includes protocol decoding.

PC connectivity is available through USB, and Hantek provides basic software for waveform capture and screenshot export. The software is functional but dated, and it does not approach the quality of Siglent's SPL scripting environment or Rigol's UltraScope software.

Protocol Decoding & Advanced Features

The DSO5072P has no protocol decoding capability. This is a significant omission at $180 in the current market where even $110 handheld scopes from FNIRSI include basic SPI, I2C, and UART decoding.

The absence of protocol decoding means that if you are debugging embedded systems — which is one of the most common hobbyist oscilloscope use cases — you cannot view decoded data overlaid on your waveforms. You will see the raw digital pulses of an I2C transaction, but the scope cannot tell you that the address byte was 0x48 and the data byte was 0x1A. For this, you need either a scope with decoding (DS1054Z, SDS1202X-E, DHO924S) or a standalone logic analyzer.

The scope does not include a function generator. This means you need a separate signal source for testing and learning. The FNIRSI 1014D at $115 includes a built-in function generator, as does the OWON HDS2202S at $439 and the Rigol DS1104Z-S Plus at $549. For a beginner who does not already own a function generator, the DSO5072P's lack of one means additional cost.

Advanced trigger modes are limited. You get Edge, Pulse, Video, Slope, and Overtime triggers. Missing from the list are Pattern, Duration, Runt, Window, Setup/Hold, and Nth Edge triggers — all of which the Rigol DS1054Z provides at $349. The DSO5072P's trigger set is adequate for basic work but limits your ability to isolate specific events in complex signals.

There is no WiFi connectivity, no waveform recording/playback, no mask testing, and no segmented memory acquisition. These are features found on mid-range and premium scopes, and while their absence is expected at $180, it reinforces the DSO5072P's position as a basic instrument.

Real-World Use Cases

For Arduino and basic microcontroller work, the DSO5072P does the job. Verifying PWM output frequencies, checking that a voltage regulator is providing stable power, and confirming that a signal is present on a GPIO pin are all straightforward tasks. The 70MHz bandwidth is more than sufficient for signals running at Arduino clock speeds, and the benchtop form factor means the scope stays put on your desk with easy-to-reach knobs.

For audio electronics, the scope is adequate. Audio frequencies are trivially within the bandwidth, and the two channels let you view input and output simultaneously. Measuring gain, checking for clipping, and verifying filter rolloff are all possible. The limited memory depth is less of a concern at audio frequencies because the sample rate requirement is much lower.

For power supply design and testing, the scope is marginal. You can verify that a switching regulator is oscillating at the expected frequency and see the general waveform shape, but the vertical resolution and noise floor make it difficult to accurately measure small ripple voltages. For serious power supply work, a scope with lower noise floor specifications is worth the investment.

For embedded serial protocol debugging, the DSO5072P is frustrating. Without protocol decoding, you can see that data is being transmitted on an I2C or SPI bus, but interpreting that data requires manual effort. The 40Kpt memory depth compounds the problem: you often cannot capture a complete transaction at full sample rate. If serial protocol debugging is a primary use case, this is not the right scope.

For learning oscilloscope operation, the DSO5072P is genuinely valuable. The traditional benchtop layout with dedicated knobs and buttons teaches you the standard oscilloscope interface that has been used for decades. Skills you develop on this scope transfer directly to any professional scope. This is a real advantage over tablet-style scopes like the FNIRSI 1014D, whose touchscreen interface does not prepare you for professional instruments.

Who Should Buy This (And Who Shouldn't)

Buy the Hantek DSO5072P if you specifically want a benchtop oscilloscope under $200 that teaches you the standard physical interface. The rotary encoders, dedicated buttons, and conventional layout build muscle memory that transfers to professional instruments. If you are learning electronics in a structured way and want your bench to look and function like a proper workstation, the DSO5072P provides that experience at the lowest possible price.

Buy it if your primary work involves slow signals — audio circuits, basic power supply verification, Arduino PWM — where the 40Kpt memory depth is less of a constraint. At lower sample rates, the memory depth provides adequate capture windows.

Do not buy the DSO5072P if memory depth matters to your work. At 40Kpt, this scope has less capture memory than the $115 FNIRSI 1014D (240Kpt), and dramatically less than the $349 Rigol DS1054Z (12Mpt). If you are capturing serial transactions, long analog events, or using zoom-and-scroll waveform analysis, the memory depth makes this scope genuinely painful to use.

Do not buy it if you need protocol decoding. The complete absence of SPI, I2C, and UART decoding is a hard limitation. Scopes at the same price from FNIRSI now include decoding.

Do not buy it if you can stretch to $349 for the Rigol DS1054Z. The price difference is $170, but the capability difference is orders of magnitude. Four channels, 12Mpt memory, protocol decoding, advanced triggers, and massive community support make the DS1054Z a fundamentally different instrument. Every forum and Reddit thread about beginner oscilloscopes will tell you the same thing: save for the Rigol.

Alternatives Worth Considering

The FNIRSI 1014D at $115 is the direct budget competitor. It costs $65 less, provides 100MHz bandwidth (versus 70MHz), includes a touchscreen and built-in function generator, and has 240Kpt memory depth (versus the DSO5072P's 40Kpt). The trade-off is the tablet form factor and lower build quality. For pure specifications, the FNIRSI offers more for less. The DSO5072P wins only on form factor and interface convention.

The FNIRSI DPOX180H at $110 is a pocket-sized handheld with 180MHz bandwidth, protocol decoding, a function generator, and a multimeter. It costs $70 less than the DSO5072P and includes features (protocol decoding, function generator) that the Hantek completely lacks. The 2.8-inch screen and 28Kpt memory are limitations, but as a feature-per-dollar proposition, the DPOX180H is hard to beat.

The Hantek 6022BE at $65 is Hantek's own USB-based alternative. It requires a PC to operate but costs a third of the DSO5072P's price. The 20MHz bandwidth is severely limiting, but if budget is the primary constraint, it provides basic oscilloscope functionality at the lowest possible cost.

The Rigol DS1054Z at $349 is the scope that makes the DSO5072P a hard recommendation. For $170 more, you get 4 channels, 12Mpt memory (300x deeper), protocol decoding, advanced triggers, and the largest hobbyist community of any oscilloscope. The DS1054Z is the default recommendation in every electronics forum for good reason. If you can stretch your budget to $349, the DS1054Z is a dramatically better investment.

The Rigol DHO924S at $449 is the modern benchmark. 250MHz bandwidth, 4 channels, 50Mpt memory, IPS touchscreen, WiFi, and protocol decoding. If you are spending $180 on the DSO5072P today and plan to upgrade within a year, you would be better served saving the additional $269 and buying the DHO924S from the start.

Frequently Asked Questions

Compare With Similar Scopes