New Brymen BM2257 Multimeter

[EEVblog]

but is the 257 not based on the 235? or is the 235 based on the 257? or is there some other intermediate model that we have not seen yet that links them all together?   

The BM235 came after the BM257.
I wanted to sell the orignal BM257 but they said no, and to wait for the BM235 they were working on, which took about a year BTW.

[J-R]

A thought on the jack placement:

If you line up all of the Brymen DMMs you can see that they really only have to keep track of a handful of building blocks: enclosures, PCBs, jacks, LCDs, etc.  And I'm confident the final assembly is done by hand.  So it's trivial to add another product to their lineup because they just need to spray the top cover a little differently, apply different stickers and have the pick/place machine add or remove components as the PCB goes by.  Then it's all brought together for assembly/calibration/etc.  They don't have to place an order for a million units and hope they sell over the next 5 years; they can make just enough for that quarter's demands.

To bring that paragraph together, I think they are always going to be adding new products on a regular basis to cover even the furthest corners of the market.  There are probably just as many people who insist on having the A jack next to common as there are people who want mAuA next to common.

Looking back through DMM design, it seems a lot of them don't have a mA jack at all, only A - COM - V, in that order.  So when a designer was initially adding mAuA they probably placed to the side to avoid offending existing users.  Eventually, designs came out with the order changed to what is maybe a more common arrangement of A -mAuA - COM - V, of which Fluke and Brymen's high-end DMMs currently follow.

Ultimately, test equipment is SO different, it's never going to be realistic to standardize on this or even things like selector switch order.  You always need to think before you leap...

[EEVblog]

They don't have to place an order for a million units and hope they sell over the next 5 years; they can make just enough for that quarter's demands.

Brymen don't even do that, they never carry excess stock. They literally make to order, and there is at least a two month lead time on all orders. Dealers like myself have to plan ahead and work around this.
Many times I have forgotten this and been left without stock for months.