Since this thread was woken up again I just wanted to mention I bought a U1253A several months ago based primarily on Dave's review of it. I didn't really need another DMM (I have bought a few over the decades) but when a U1253A came up on EBay for cheap I went for it.
Two things:
1) Dave's review briefly mentioned how quick this meter is to take a measurement and lock into a correct reading, but I didn't realize how quick it really is until I used it. It's very impressive! I hit the circuit with the probes and bang! it's made up its mind what the voltage is and its opinion doesn't change. It's much quicker than my other meters. It's really something to see in person!
2) In practice I don't find the continuity check to be slow. I was ohm'ing out a dead microwave and thinking I'd have to be cautious with probing then waiting for the meter to beep, but I quickly learned I can go as fast as I want along a circuit. It did seem strange that if all I was doing was touching and releasing the probes in my hands I could get a bit of slowness from the meter, but that doesn't happen when probing actual circuits.
The microwave: It ended up being an open winding on the primary side of the transformer for the circuit board electronics (it was the small transformer, not the big inverter transformer). I thought this was very strange, as I thought components downstream of a transformer would blow long before a winding on a transformer itself. Nevertheless, that's what it was. I replaced only the transformer and the microwave worked fine again.
The microwave had been plugged into a branch circuit that the homeowner had been having problems with for several months, and a few microwave ovens before this had gone bad after a few months of use. They called me when the branch circuit finally got bad enough their refrigerator would not run when plugged into a socket on the branch. I traced the source of that problem too (using the U1253A though any general-purpose DMM would have worked). It was an open neutral on a multiwire branch circuit (I should mention I'm from the United States so these electrician terms may be different in .au). You can see a good Powerpoint presentation of what happens to the voltages on such a broken circuit here if you're interested:
http://www.code-elec.com/userimages/Lost Neutral.ppt
I found:
a) all the neutrals from two branches were not pre-twisted together (some people disagree if pre-twisting is necessary; I think it is).
b) the wire nut was not on tight at all. The straight exposed copper shafts from the stripped neutrals were just barely touching each other.