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Originally Posted by Prince Charon, post: 20761468, member: 6882
That is basically what most tricorders on Inp-Earth are, at least the ones that aren't pretty much a prop that's gotten empowered (which would thus have the same screen as the original prop, like the image above, or like the classic trek models, which had a slightly bigger - but still too small - screen). Some use an old personal organizer/PDA with a larger case for all the sensors, or get a screen from wherever (e.g. an old Nokia brick) and are pretty much new (recycled) items from the ground up, or are otherwise a single device, but by far, most tricorders are 'something you slot your Android into' (or BlackBerry, or iPhone, or even iPod, whichever).
Some of the 'single device' tricorders do look a fair bit like the TNG prop, until you notice that the whole flat area on the main body of the tricorder is an interactive screen (sometimes, the flat area on the other section is also a screen); the same is true for a lot of the TOS-style and Movie-style tricorders.
In general, tricorders of any build may be a suite of laboratories-on-chips with little or no magic, or a nearly or totally magical device, but most are somewhere in-between, erring toward lower-end magic. Any military tricorder is going to have at least a thoughtform keyed to keep defend against psychic interference, though, and probably some means of detecting psychic activity; it's also going to be heavily ruggedized, as with any device you're taking into combat. The SpecOps troops sent to Dsp-Earth have a few of these.
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