Based out of Hong Kong, privately owned Uni-Trend is one of China’s bigger multimeter brands. Along with Mastech, they produce most of the DMMs in Asia, with many of their products also reaching the shores of the West. They often OEM with the likes of Tekpower and Sinometer, so you may see similar devices wearing these badges.
Uni-Trend remains a contentious brand among those in the trade, often being viewed as a gimmicky manufacturer of low-end meters. It is true that they manufacture to budget, since much of their market is in China and Asia, but they are a named brand nonetheless and the quality is acceptable considering the price range.
Products range from handheld DMMs, voltage detectors and clamp meters, to oscilloscopes and waveform generators. The overriding point with picking UNI-T multimeters is quality tends to vary massively between models, and even within a series.
Company Background
Uni-Trend Technology was the original test instrument manufacturer in the Dongguan-Hong Kong-Macao triangle and proudly shows off its Lloyd’s quality certification, which it was awarded in 1998.
Today it has a huge manufacturing plant in the Songshan Lake High-tech Industrial Development Zone of Dongguan City in Guangdong Province, south-eastern China. Here are research and development centers and test facilities. Its products are shipped to around 100 countries worldwide.
Products
The lower end of their catalog tends to be a bit hit and miss, ranging from questionable equipment to passable DMMs. They are inconsistent, with quality control being more lax than a typical outfit in the US, where the testing ratio of, say, Extech units coming off the line would be higher.
In addition, while some of their devices look good and have competent ranges and accuracy, they typically fall short on input protection. While they may tout international norms, certifications, accreditations, category ratings, and so on, most of their devices lack the components to ensure safety when testing at higher voltages.
