The unit is very portable - it is small and comes with a compact carrying case. I found the unit easy to use - once I figured it out how the display works (more on that later). I cannot attest to the accuracy of the unit (as I have no way to test this) - but I can say that the readings are very consistent (which bodes well). Note: Socratic Coffee did a test against the VST III and found both units to be equally accurate (google for more info). There is one important thing to be aware of when using the unit - after placing a sample in the well (of the unit) it needs time for the temperature to stabilize to get an accurate reading - so simply do multiple reading until you get 2 or 3 in a row that are consistent (within 0.01 or 0.02) and use this as your reading.Don’t make my silly mistake - a bit of humour (but also unfortunately at the time very frustrating for me :)How the display works... it took me 4 days to figure out how the display works - because it gives 5 different readings and I could not figure out which one was the TDS - and the instructions were only in Japanese so that did not help. I spent many hours searching the internet - but everyone else was just “reading the TDS from the display” it seems that I was the only person in the whole world that has this problem. I was at my wits end - why was something so basic not documented - I started looking for a Japanese translator... I watched dozens of videos hoping to see a photo of the dipslay and the corresponding reading written down - to no avail - further confirmation that nobody else had any difficulty with the basic issue of reading the display. The solution when I eventually figured out was simple - there is only one reading and it scrolls across the display (this is because the display is small and only shows 3 digits and decimal point). To be fair this is documented in the Japanese instructions that come with the unit (but apparently nowhere else in the world that I could find :)