I disagree about the whole feature part. That is why the Uni-T line is a valid option. Good price for the feature set. Its the build and design quality on some of their meters (not all or most, just some), that leaves me wondering if they are worth the price after a couple years. I'm not saying they they should be considered against the upper echelon of measurement devices. Clearly they are a company that is going for feature set and price. HP (now Agilent), Fluke, BK precision, and others have a great history with making meters that once can trust over time. Uni-T has only been in the open market a few years now, but they are gaining a big following. Great. I own a couple of Uni-T's and I think I'm getting the value of the price I paid for them. But what I don't know is just how long will that value last. Why should any potential customer buy a Uni-T tool when another 20%-30% more cash will net a name brand like Extech that will offer name that stands behind their products.
Well the obvious answer to that question is this: to support another company so that we have more options to chose from. As I said, they are fairly new to the world outside of China. It will take time to earn a name from measurement confidence and that will only come from design/build quality, and product support. So far, they seem to have done a fairly decent job on the level of support from what I've read when people have problems with their meters. But again, some of their meters seem to suffer from quality control issues. Thats the part that leaves me wondering if they will be around in 5 to 10 years.
Their 61 series meters has earned some good, though critical reviews. I own a UT61E and think its a fine little meter. But as many other 61 series owners have pointed out, they are constantly revising the line with new boards and change of parts on almost every run. Sometimes they stack multiple parts on each other in one version of a board, then in the next one, they replace the stacked parts with just one component, only to go back to the stacked parts again in a third revision. There is never a reason to stack components on any commercial product. If a design has those kind of issues, stop and fix it. End of story.
The original 60 series, the 70 series, and the 71 series simply have not earned a very good reputation. Thew few reviews I've seen (videos and blogs) have shown them to be fairly flawed and not well supported. They seem to be making some headway with the 61 series and I like that. Their pocket meters seem to offer great value from their decent design/build quality. I'm really liking what I seem in their 90II series and looking forward to the 90C that MJ is going to review.
In the end, yes I agree that they are a safe bet for their price. But only on some of their current product lines. Those that have shown to have significant flaws in design, build, and support should be ignored and another brand sought. Those quickly turn out to be junk and there is no value in junk. I can see that Uni-T is really trying to compete in the meter market, and are not just a fly by night company. Because of that, I will continue to buy some of their meters. But I want to see some real improvements or dropped lines if need be. I want them show me that real effort is being made to stay in the market place, and I'll be more than happy to recommend them as a worthwhile tool to friends and coworkers. As it stands now, I feel like I'm just test driving them. If I owned a design firm, I wouldn't give my engineers or technicians a Uni-T meter and stake my firms reputation on the output of those meters. Maybe in 5 10 years when they have had a real chance to show us what they can do, that would be different.