Digilent Analog Discovery

I've found Analog Discovery true to its name -- great for exploring analog. The scope portion is limited in channel sensitivity and frequency. It's also a bit of a kludge, in that the probes attach via a 2x20 (?) front-panel 0.1" center connector to an adaptor board that has BNC females for the scope probes. I have one of those (AD2; there is a newer AD3 available), and it's quite a lot of 'stuff' in one package. I wish I had one when I was learning EE. But these days, I use them as 'data acquisition and control' modules to generate and capture signals under program (Python) control. I think of them sort of as a fancy Arduino -- although it can do many more analog tricks. Recommended.

As a beginner, I've been a big fan of the Digilent Analog Discovery. This guide lists it under "logic analyzers", but it's also a passable oscilloscope if you don't need more than 30MHz bandwidth. Because the target market is undergraduates learning electrical engineering, it's designed to be inexpensive, doesn't take up much space, is easy to get started with, etc.

I have both an Analog Discovery 2 and a Rigol DS1054Z. If I want to look at an easy to find waveform, I always use the AD2. Both because I can use it on battery power with a laptop and if I'm at my desk I get to use my large monitor. It's also great for doing data acquisition straight to the computer (e.g., to capture power usage over time). I only use the Rigol when I need to do a lot of fiddling with knobs while debugging a circuit - it's hard to beat physical controls. I keep dreaming of a USB device with a handful of high quality knobs that integrates with Digilent's software. If Digilent sold something like that for a reasonable price, I'd sell my Rigol.

I own AD2 and it is great little tool at the price (which was around $280-300 at the time IIRC), but this slowly creeped up to price of say Rigol 1054Z with far less acquire capability.

Well, if you need to fit the lab in laptop case sure, also great as a learning tool for a classroom (which I think was original idea behind it?) but in most cases you'd be far better off with say Rigol 1054Z + whatever cheapest logic analyzer/generator you can get off aliexpress. I have AD2 and it had some unique niches it is good at (14 bits makes it somewhat capable at doing some analysis on audio devices), but I by far prefer to use my cheap-ish scope for near-anything else. Just amount of memory alone is big advantage, higher input range (AD only have like...2 or 3 IIRC, rest is faked by wasting bits on ADC), proper probe sockets without needing adapter, ability to just press buttons and knobs to do what you need without getting back to the computer and going thru menus etc. Then again, ability to script measurement is also pretty nifty. Can be done on many scopes but by far more effort than on AD

I got a discounted Analog Discovery 2 to play with and it was quite nice with only minor UI clunkiness. If they can keep the price around $200 I think it would be a good all-in-one starter electronics lab for a lot of hobbyists.

I was a huge Saleae fan but with the last few projects I've been converted into a Digilent Analog Discovery 2 fan. You get analog oscilloscope features, good enough for almost everything you will need on a typical project aside from RF or DRAM. Really good logic analyzer capabilities including protocol decoding and injection of signals - with analog waveform generation, digital protocols, and a small 5V voltage supply. Saleae still can't send a byte over UART. And it's scriptable! Python, C++, and LabView. Again, something Logic can't do. I'm not saying someone just getting started needs one, but if you've been in the business for a while and/or are working remote and need something on your bench, this can do almost everything in one go. The Pro model looks even more serious but I've never needed anything that powerful.