Shortly after introduction of commercial automatic chemical detectors, mostly based on ion mobility spectrometry technology, at the end of 20 th century field devices using other chemical detection techniques (FTIR, Raman, GC-MS, surface acoustic wave, photoacoustic, electrochemical, biosensor and others) were developed. Among these techniques, portable GC-MS detectors provide very reliable qualitative and quantitative chemical analysis, but high cost of these devices, the complexity of operating with them and the complexity of sample preparation for analysis present a problem. Some chemical detection technologies cannot be used for the development of a reliable hand-held chemical detector, and not a single technique, for the time being, allows the development of a universal chemical detector. A potential solution is the development of a multi-sensor device that compensates negative sides of each of the sensors. This paper provides an overview of commercially available chemical detectors based on new generation detection technologies and an overview of scientific research focused on further development of detection with simpler, more reliable and preferably cheaper solutions is given.