The best portable ultrasound machines will perform as well or at close to the level of a console based ultrasound system with very little markup to price. Portable ultrasound machines can be categorized into to catagories; plug-ins, and battery-powered. The first portables all needed to be plugged in for power, and lower-cost portables continue this format. The newer battery-powered portable ultrasound machines are usually smaller, lighter, and laptop shaped with the trade off being a higher price. Some of the top 5 portable ultrasounds we list are application specialized, like the Cypress, while others like the Mindray M7 are closer to shared service systems able to do almost all applications equally well.