What's your favorite calculator?

[zbrown]

I personally like the HP Prime a lot, as it's touchscreen, has the best keyboard on any calculator I've ever used, and a lot of EE tools for it can be found online. What are your picks?

[oPossum]

HP 41CX

[0culus]

I have to pick one? 

My HP-15C is probably the one I reach for the most. I have choices though:

HP-15C
2 x HP-16C (one lives in my desk at work)
HP-45 (mint condition with all the original stuff in the nice box)
HP-35 reissue (probably one of the best modern RPN calculators still available new)
HP-50g (pretty rare I use it; if I need to do plotting, computer tools are way better)

[Ampera]

Hello me from the past! I recall making the same exact forum post with the same exact answer.

I could easily say the HP Prime, as it's a modern calculator with a (for a calculator) blazing fast 400Mhz ARM processor, colour touch screen, and good implementations of giac and RPN, along with a great suite of graphing utilities that fully take advantage of the touch screen.

However I'm not going to say that it's my favourite, and while it's definitely the most impressive one I own, I have to give that trophy to the HP 50g, which has one of, if not the best RPN implementations available. RPN CAS with textbook notation! It's amazingly fluid too, especially if you are used to RPN, and it is one of the rare instances where I think a calculator is actually fun to use.

The HP 48g, which is my only other calculator, takes third place, but shouldn't be considered as bad either. For the time it was available, it was easily one of the most impressive calculators around, and I wish I had one of the variations that had CAS, as I'm wondering if it has the same system the HP 50g has (making it both historically and visually interesting, as well as crazily useful).

The answers you will get,  however, depends on who is doing what. HP calcs have been a fan of EEs and more power users for decades, but almost everyone on the planet has had the misfortune to use a Z80 based Ti calculator, and a lot of people only think of those as the best graphing calculators can be, which just annoys me. I am actually rather interested in the 68k calcs (as I love the 68k) but I don't expect those to be particularly impressive compared to a Saturn or ARM based HP calculator of similar vintage.

[floobydust]

I didn't like RPN and went with Sharp pocket calculators, like EL5103 and EL9000.
The HP's would plot equations and do integration, so they were the best in university though.

[Cyberdragon]

Do we have to actually own them or can they be totally unubtanium?

1. Curta
2. Wang 700
3. Anita Mk 10

[windsmurf]

I always thought this was really cool.... not my favorite as I don't have one, and have never handled one before...



Oh Curta was mentioned above so I'm adding this:

[Cyberdragon]

Ah a fellow Curta man, I see you are a man of class.

[Ampera]

Oh yeah the math grenade is a real neat piece of kit.

[Kjelt]

HP48GX been using it for over 25 years

[mc172]

My fx-85GT does me well but I'm led to believe that in the elite calculator circles this isn't good enough. No idea why!

[rsjsouza]

I also replied to Ampera's old thread as well. My heart belongs to many models, and I am faithful to all of them!

My favourite is the HP48 - I got a 48SX in 1991 but about 20 years later it simply died. My wife then kindly gave me her 48GX which is still alive and well. At work I have a HP35S that does an excellent job for me (too afraid to leave the 48GX there and have it "borrowed" by someone that does not intend to return it).

I started with my dad's TI-59 (first thing I ever programmed) and I currently have a TI-66 just to flex my programming muscle memory. I love both, although the 59 still holds a special place in my heart.

My first actual calculator was a Casio fx-39 given to me by my dad in 1982. I still have it, along with my brother's and another one I got a few years ago in the hopes to get it working again. Unfortunately the Casios of the time had a very bad keyboard resistive mat that becomes brittle and ceases to work after a few years...

(edit) oh, and I forgot a HP11C that I got a few years back on the local market with the intention to turn a profit. Something about the Voyager calculators (TI66 as well) made me fall in love with it. Never sold it and currently don't plan to do it.

[NiHaoMike]

TI-89 Titanium. I had to get one for college, and it still works, so why not keep using it?

[SiliconWizard]

I still have a HP48G+. I don't use it very often anymore though, but it works perfectly. When in front of a computer, I use computer tools and calculators. If not, most often my phone (using free42 mostly).
But it's nice to go back to a real calculator every once in a while.

[DIPLover]

T.I. 92 plus

MAN I love that thing.

[eugenenine]

HP 48sx, died last year so I had to fix it.

[Mr. Scram]

The nearest one with the feature I need.

[VK3DRB]

RealCalc Scientific Calculator (Android only). Why?

- Brilliantly designed by an electronics engineer.
- Does RPN as well as traditional algebraic.
- Best GUI around, with haptic keypress feedback.
- Great for embedded programming.
- Does conversions etc.
- Extremely convenient.
- Is free, but worth the couple of dollars for the extra features and to reward the developer.

For a desk based calculator, I use have the Farad 808 scientific calculator - still working since I bought it in 1976 during my final year of high school, with its beautiful green vacuum fluorescent display. I've had many, many calculators since 1976. But almost exclusively I use RealCalc now. Favourite programmable calculator was the TI SR56, which I bought for uni in 1977.

[David Hess]

My first choice is the HP48g but only because the HP50g which replaced it is slower and less reliable.

[Rick Law]

HP45.  I love that calculator.  I have the calculator case still, but I have no recollection what might have happened to it.

[2N3055]

Casio fx-61F.

[emece67]

.

[Keicar]

Sharp EL-5100

[tszaboo]

It's a beauty, does all kinds of engineering stuff.

[JPortici]

^ ssssh, they're going to label you as a bean counter 

my calc of choice is the CASIO FX-991EX
i'm a casio guy. They just feel so natural to me