making actual use of 12 bit requires some new features as well like filtering and being able to zoom in so you can look at a signal at like 10uV/div. Knowing Rigol's history, there will be tons of bugs that takes years to fix. People get all exited about new equipment and then are super happy with every firmware release that fixes problems/bugs that should not have been there in the first place. Look at how many people have returned the Rigol MSO5000. So, yeah, I'm sceptical.
Well I thought that some of these things were demo'd fairly concisely in Dave's 1 hour full review today. Including things like the 12-bits resolution (zooming) and some certain specific bugs he noticed during the course of his review.
But in addition Dave also demo'd pretty well a couple of bugs or not working, and alluded to perhaps getting a 900 series in later on in the future. To do some additional reviewing of that model too. (which would be great, to also then see those extra stuff it comes with and the higher bandwidth probes etc).
And yes - in terms of people not getting on with the MSO5000 I myself considered that scope, and finally was a hard pass on it. But just because the MSO5000 was not up to my own standards doesn't mean that this DHO800 isn't acceptable, when also considering the significantly lower price point.
However as for the unfixed bugs I do agree completely and that does indeed still remain the biggest concern for me overall. Especially when looking at how long the other DHO1000/DHO4000 series have already been out for.
The better question is what can we do, to increase the chances of them fixing known firmware bugs? And what are Rigol's future plans for those firmware teams and the software platform, these hardware platforms overall?
The thing that I would expect is for them to next focus on producing a version of HDO1000 series with LA and AWG. If the current 1000 is like the 800, then it needs a mixed signal version to complete the lineup, and that would also finally replace / retire the slightly older MSO5000 series.