I had a bench oscilloscope at hand a Tektronix TDS2024 which I could compare with I also would have liked to compare it to a similar pc-scope the Agilent U2702AU2702A which has similar specs(minus the function generator but at much lower cost Unfortunately I could not lay my hands on one
The PicoScope was delivered in a sturdy plastic ‘flight case’, containing the instrument and all accessories. Installation of the software from CD was quick and painless, it guided me instantly to an updated version online (6.2.0.18). I installed the software on a MSI U100 netbook running Windows XP, with 2GB of RAM. This netbook is almost exactly the same size as the PicoScope, and can sit on top of it to make a small combined footprint.
I have never used a pc-oscilloscope before, and that is also the first negative experience I had. I much rather prefer a classic bench top instrument with knobs and buttons. Access to timebase and trigger settings is much faster, and they very often need adjustment.
The TDS2024 has a very small footprint for a self-contained instrument, just slightly bigger than the PicoScope. So the size and weight advantage of a pc-based instrument is not that big.
Another negative point is the noisy fan. It quickly gets very irritating. In contrast, the netbook makes no noise at all. Even when its fan switches on, which doesn’t happen running just the PicoScope software, you hardly can hear it.
The most obvious advantage of the PicoScope is the enormous memory of 128Ms, compared to just 4Ks for the TDS2024. This feature makes analyzing serial traffic, or modulated signals quite easy, among other tasks.
What is a bit unclear is the amount of dead-time between triggers (update rate). This is a ongoing battle among oscilloscope manufacturers, and a valid point when comparing the ability to catch spurious faults. With pc-based instruments, the time needed to transfer captured data over USB to the screen can significally increase the dead-time.
The trigger options are quite extensive, with a whole lot of voltage and time conditions to set up, and logic pattern trigger. Most notable omission is TV triggering, which is commonly found on almost all oscilloscopes, even in a much lower price range.
Another trigger type which is missing (also from the TDS2024) is sequential triggering, which triggers after a certain number of pulses on one channel have passed since a trigger condition on another channel. I used to own a HP54501 oscilloscope which had this feature. Very useful when debugging serial buses.
The PicoScope, as a pc-based instrument, gives you many options to setup your screen layout, and saving measurements as images or data files for post-processing (in Matlab for example) is straightforward. Adding automated measurements to channels is virtually unlimited, as opposed to the fixed screen layouts of most bench top instruments.
The build-in arbitrary waveform generator is a useful extra but could have been the reason for the inflated price With the Agilent U2702AU2702A pc-scope you have the choice of spending the extra money on a matching U2761AU2761A function generator still at a lower combined cost or go without saving a substantial amount The 2-channel PicoScope also costs more than the 4-channel TDS2024
To summarize: a fairly complete pc-based oscilloscope, with many of the bells and whistles you can imagine (but not all), the limitations and possibilities of a pc-based instrument, but at a steep price.