I don't know where you are getting your prices from but tme.eu is selling the BM257S €104 before shipping. I don't know if you are counting shipping for all the prices or not.
I have not seen this model and believe it's the first Mastech I have seen with some sort of cert. I have ran a few of them and use one for working in the garage and such on low voltage circuits. These have all been fairly low cost and I consider the one I am using disposable. I'm on my second one. The display started going bad in the previous one. If you buy one, I would be interested in seeing what it looks like inside.
Oh Right! Forgot to mention, that was the price with shipping and all the add-ons, like the PC cable, which would put the Brymen BM257S on the same category feature wise as the UT61E
I think someone should buy a Mastech MS8340B and send it to joe to sacrifice it... for science!
All jokes aside, it looks like quite a solid meter on paper. That's why I started this thread initially, i was surprised to see no one mention it on the forum.
It seems most people dislike Mastech because of their quality control issues, maybe they upped their game with this meter?
Would be very interested to see a teardown and thorough test. Have seen both GS and ESL certified. They've been around for a long time, wouldn't be all that surprised if they managed to learn from past mistakes. Know how long the MS8340B has been on the market? Can't seem to find much info.
It seems most people dislike Mastech because of their quality control issues, maybe they upped their game with this meter?
Possible. Funny as many companies appear, to me anyway, to feel the need to offer cheap low end products in order to compete. If Keysight were selling a cheap meter that the detent spring broke after a few thousand cycles, pretty soon people may start to associate the brand with low quality. But it's Keysight, so that won't happen. Oh wait...
Regarding the quality control, I have recently purchased a Mastech MAS830L (the evolution to the ubiquitous M830B). It is a fine meter, but it came with a severe quality control flaw: an extra rotary switch contact spring loose inside the housing. It is much better than the M830B models (a.k.a. Harbor Freight), but to me this alone is too dangerous to pass for the common man.
An
interesting thread where some regulars share their experiences...