NIR spectrophotometers: are they all the same?

As with any known technology, there are different solutions that sometimes need to be adapted to specific uses. Laboratory instruments, for example, would in no way be applicable in the field or in the process, but this does not mean that they perform better or worse than others.
Within NIR technology, there are very different instruments and they cannot all be considered the same, both in terms of performance and use.

The trend in recent years to offer low-cost products on the market, sometimes so compact as to be even ‘pocket-sized’ and accessible even to a ‘consumer’ audience, has on the one hand contributed to the expansion of technology itself but on the other has introduced into the market technologies whose expectations can certainly not be compared to ‘high-end’ instruments. To be truly high-end it is important that the instruments have specific characteristics: informing users is therefore essential and successful.

Process spectrophotometer: features

As mentioned, a high-end process spectrophotometer must have specific features. What should a process instrument look like? In general, a process instrument should have:

How much can a portable or process NIR spectrophotometer cost?