Definitely a more-sensitive meter is called for, e.g. a Pentax DSM will get you down to EV1 reliably. That's probably about as dark as most people would go when shooting portraits on film (EI1600, f/1.4, 1/15s = EV1).
However if you're shooting at night (well below EV0) then there are basically NO instant-reading meters that will give you an accurate result. You need a meter with extremely high sensitivity, high quality large-aperture optics and the ability to integrate light over a duration of several seconds. It's called a "cheap DSLR" and they can be cheaper than a good spot-meter!
Consider a night exposure I did recently; it called for ISO f/8 30 minutes, which is about EV-5. That's 6 stops less light than even a good spot-meter can reliably take a reading from, which makes it basically impossible to directly meter. However by setting my DSLR to f/1.4 ISO3200 and taking a few handheld test exposures (motion-smeared but who cares?), I discovered that 1.6s gave a decent result. Convert the change in aperture and ISO (multiply by 1024 in my case) and you get the meter reading that you want. Even better, you can look at the histogram on the screen and see that the distribution of tones is what you want to see, etc. Once I added a correction for reciprocity failure, I got a perfect exposure on a chrome. Pity my composition sucked
EV 1 over EV4 gives you three stops, which is nice but let's be honest: it's not going to solve k.hendrick's problem. I, too, find it odd, that $500+ light meters have less range than smart phone cameras, it's not like we expect sharp high res images from light meters ...
One note to k.hendrick: don't forget about reciprocity failure, even if a perfect light meter tells you "5 minutes exposure at F/4" this will most likely not give you good results.
I can recommend this one: http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Gossen_Profisix_/_Lunasix_F
Expensive light meter isn't all that sensitive although something like the sekonic 308 can measure to EV0 ISO 100. They are accurate and that's what needed. Portraiture at illumination less than EV0?? I doubt that.
I would second that. My old Lunasix will get a reading with my hand over the sensor when in regular daylight. They are very good for low light.
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