Keysight/Agilent U1273A/U1237AX - watch out for screen scratches

[Zbig]

I got a few specks of dust on the OLED screen window of my Keysight U1273A multimeter so I gently ran a clean pad of my finger over it, like I'm used to be doing with my smartphone, tablet, camera screen, watch, calculator - everything with a screen, basically. It ended up with what I initially thought to be smudges so I gently swiped my finger over the screen few more times. It turned out each time I was doing that, the surface of the screen developed a new set of tiny but permanent micro-scratches - see the photo attached. It doesn't impair the display visibility in any way (and, admittedly, doesn't look as bad in real life) but now I've lost a bit of confidence in this gear - if I can damage the display window with my bare skin, what will happen if it actually gets in contact with something hard and pointy, like, I don't know, a wire? I think that's the first time I came across anything like that, almost as if the display window was made out of sugar. In all the years of my usage of digital cameras, smartphones, tablets, you name it, I ridiculed the screen protector films of all sorts and now it seems I'd consider getting one for the first time in my life, for an IP 54, supposedly rugged, industrial-quality multimeter

[marshallh]

This happens very commonly with cheap polystyrene. Even running a soft cloth over this plastic will cause scratches. Never had the same problem with polycarbonate.


You can buy plastic buffers for soft plastic, Megauir's sells PlastX that will probably take those out, but it won't help against future scratches.

[Zbig]

This happens very commonly with cheap polystyrene. Even running a soft cloth over this plastic will cause scratches. Never had the same problem with polycarbonate.

I see. What sucks is, my el-cheapo, pocket Uni-T's don't do that, heck, even my previous, bottom-of-the-barrel meter wasn't like that. I'd expect anything but cheap from Agi... Keysight premium product.

You can buy plastic buffers for soft plastic, Megauir's sells PlastX that will probably take those out, but it won't help against future scratches.

Thank you, I'll note that down. But for this one, I'll try to turn this into an aid to my self-therapy of the slight case of OCD I suspect myself of suffering from

[128er]

I understand your disappointment. Have the same issue with my U1273A.

At my job I often work in really harsh enviroments. But I never noticed something similar at our Fluke, Gossen or other meters. At work I carry my Fluke T5-1000 always with me in my trouser pocket. And the screen cover looks almost like new. And it's several years old. No compare to the Agilent cover. Even if the meter performs very good, the cover is crap.

[lowimpedance]

 Get the screen protector plastic sheet for phones / tablets etc and cut to size and apply. Also tends to hide existing scratches to a degree (depends on how bad, deep etc).
Cheap protection and easily replaced when required.

[Rick Law]

Up until this post, I have been thinking Keysight/Agilent will be my next DMM...  Kind of want to feel like I was back in college days perhaps.  This lack of quality is rather a disappointment.

Question is, now Agilent is Keysight, will it be better or worst.  Anyone care to speculate?

[Zbig]

Up until this post, I have been thinking Keysight/Agilent will be my next DMM...  Kind of want to feel like I was back in college days perhaps.  This lack of quality is rather a disappointment.

Question is, now Agilent is Keysight, will it be better or worst.  Anyone care to speculate?

To be honest, I'm generally impressed by the overall apparent build quality of the meter. The more perplexed I was upon finding out they made the display window out of jelly But then again, I'm taking (too much) good care of it so I'm not really sure how it copes with the kind of environment it's really meant for.