I'm looking forward to Rigol's UltraVision iii.
The advantage of 12-bit is the higher dynamic range, the smaller noise floor.
Users who need 12 bits will carefully observe the fft function.
The difference between 8-bit and 12-bit is because the dynamic range of fft can be easily distinguished.
I want max-hold and average in the fft view.
As it was said before, 12 Bit doesn't mean less noise implicitly.. First, 12 bit is only ADC specification, and you can pair it with front end that is noisy and you still get suboptimal results. Second, you can have 12 Bit converter that has 5 bits of noise.
Of course I'm not saying Rigol did that. I'm just saying that just looking at 12Bit specification is misleading. Scope is a system, and should be evaluated as such.
But you made interesting point, that adds to my previous posts on this topic. Just having good front end means nothing if you can just look at nice waveforms. Like one poster said, there is Owon hires scope on a market for few years now. Apart from hires ADC it has no capabilities to speak of. And it seems not really a bestseller.
So even if Rigol did it right this time, hardware wise, they have to fix many things in their analysis package and measurements for these scopes to play in market segment. You can't make DS1000Z a 12 Bit with big touchscreen and say it is now same as RTB2000 or SDS2000X HD. It's not, it's missing lots of other stuff that make difference to usability and capabilities. So they either have to upgrade software to parity, or they will have to drop prices. They do seem to have made completely new touch GUI/OS/scope application platform, so maybe they are working on software side too..
Interesting times..