Having a meter like this being controlled from a PC means we can automate various tests. For example, I made a simple menu to walk through a battery life test for the handheld meters. In the following, the Brymen BM869s is measure twice. The voltage is set, then the meter is turned on. The backlight is then turned on. All the functions of the meter are then selected.
I then repeat the test for the Fluke 189. The 189 has two backlight settings. We can also see the current draw is not flat like the Brymen.
The software measures the nominal current, the backlight current and the cutoff voltage. It also calculates the battery life. For the BM869s which uses a single transistor battery, it estimates 80 hours. For the 189 with it's 4 X AA, 127 hours. These are just using some Wiki numbers for alkalines. All of this data would be saved for later.
I ran one other meter for fun that also uses a 9V. There are some major differences. Of course battery life for something you use in the lab may not be as high a priority as say measurement performance.