Continuity is scratchy. It is latching, but still scratchy while a firm contact is not made. There is a funky multi-tone option for continuity that plays a melody depending on quality of the contact. I find it better than the plain continuity buzzer, but it's funky. The U1272A also has a really nice screen flashing option (backlight turns on), which actually works better than the buzzer. The U1273A has no such option.
U1272A has nice solid buzzer plus it can show full resistance range (in the mega Ohms) in continuity mode if range button is pressed.
Connecting the leads to mains (or any high voltage) for enough time changes measurements on some ranges (e.g. the lowest resistance range). This is possibly due to self-heating. Recovery takes several minutes.
At least they protect and inform you about the danger which is the most important thing. Crap DMMs only show high voltage symbol when
you select high voltage AC/DC range independent of actual voltage - this is utterly useless gimmick.
Capacitance measurements seem marginal. I don't own a DMM I can trust with capacitance tests, so I am not sure how true this is.
Such type of DMMs cannot accurately measure capacitance on low ranges. If you are desperate with low value caps, try using very short leads - it helps reducing overall system capacitance.
Off position is not the left-most one on the rotary selector. There is a "Zlow" selection completely to the left. Minor annoyance.
Annoying, but not quite, other manufacturers also do this if Low Z mode is available. Actually, LowZ mode has much strong de-tent on purpose so lighter turn of knob to the left will land you in off position.
Also,
both off and LowZ positions have a low impedance of ~1.7kOhm, be aware of this.
Beep on power-on. The frequency of the beep can be picked (or the beep can be turned off), but this option changes the beeps of all functions, including continuity. The most ridiculous is the U1273A that has a melody option on power-up...
U1272 beep cannot be fully turned off - beeper is not completely disconnected and you can hear faint clicks in silent room. You only have option of beeps or silence (meaning only one setting for turn on beep, button beeps, continuity beep). Separate settings would be nice.
Provided leads are good quality but the handle is in two parts, which makes it quite long. Nothing a good set of Fluke TL71 can't fix...
Get single piece construction Agilent leads if you don't like two piece design.
Nice and accurate meter overall, has arbitrary amps/volts conversion factor and smart-Ohms measurement.