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What's your favorite calculator?

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jrmymllr:
I have an original TI-89 I ordered from an educational supply company 25 years ago using my Motorola bag phone. It got me through my engineering degree and I always found new things it could do.

And I think it's pretty cool that it uses a 68K CPU  ;D

tooki:

--- Quote from: onsenwombat on October 28, 2022, 09:02:45 am ---TI-85 any day, every day.

--- End quote ---
The TI-85 was my first graphing calculator. We were required to get one at school. After a year or so, I got a TI-86 and sold the TI-85. (First and foremost because of the TI-86’s much better display.) Alas, I don’t know what happened to the TI-86. On my last big move, I must have sold it, lost it, or given it away.

With that said, I absolutely love my HP Prime.

Sal Ammoniac:
How are the keys on the HP Prime? As good as the ones on the HP-67 and HP-41?

iMo:
My favorite one is HP-25, I bought it 20y back on local flee market for 8Euro in perfect condition, replaced batteries for the modern nimh ones, and since then I fire up the gadget often and try to learn RPN finally (playing lunar landing), while watching its beautiful display, especially at night. The buttons are still working fine, best one ever made. Otherwise I own HP-48GX and WP-34S, but those are just gathering dust as they do not lit at night, and are too complex to use..  :D

Howardlong:

--- Quote from: Sal Ammoniac on October 28, 2022, 09:34:34 pm ---How are the keys on the HP Prime? As good as the ones on the HP-67 and HP-41?

--- End quote ---

They're OK IME, although on the original version of the Prime, the contrast on the colouring of the keys made it almost impossible to use without good lighting.

As a calculator, it's interesting, but frankly if you're going to do anything outside of the classroom or exam room, you'd do it on a proper computer: the limitations of the non-qwerty keyboard interface and small screen are its biggest drawback for real, practical engineering purposes. The one exception to this is that I found it of some limited use on commuter train journeys where you often can't practically get a laptop out: I've done a fair bit of complex DSP modelling on the Prime at various times.

Like many non-trivial calculators, you really need to use it reasonably frequently to keep current and use it to its greatest capabilities.

I think that's why I'm still quite a fan of the specific Casio line FX-100D/115D/570xD/991D: they're just so very straightforward to use, offering immediate execution, and they persist the engineering display mode.

Although I have an FX-61F, I never found that I had much practical use for it, preferring the FX-100D etc mentioned above.

In recent years, I've found myself drifting over to RPN, and have become a bit of a fan boy of the HP Voyager series, although I find there displays are rather limiting compared to modern alternatives. The form factor is just my cup of tea though.

In practice, my daily drivers nowadays are either the WP-34S or the DM42: one I have with me at work, and the other at home.

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