Fascinating calculators!

[edward]

Well I mean difficult ))

When I were a young man, just before University, back in 1990 I purchased a 28S in Edinburgh at the local Blackwells bookstore (I remember they carried the 41CX! the days when academic bookstores carried the entire HP range), and with plenty of spare time became accustomed to RPL, this followed me through the 48 series and the 50G, and I am now back with the 28S (now thirty years old and still working!).

The 28S is easily my favourite calculator, despite the battery latch issues (fixable in many ways, even late stage) and the peg failures (hard to fix, didn't Jeff Quickfall do this and mention it was hard? mine has slight issue here but manageable with a little pressure and has been for a decade!). I only wish they had made it better. Somebody made a third party case (3D printing?) not sure how that went.

So coming to the 41X is a "culture shock".

I'll say one thing for the 41X, and that is the build is better than any calculator I have ever handled, it is supremely built beyond anything even HP I have used (28S/48 series/50G and briefly the Prime).

[grsbanks]

Funnily enough, I had the exact opposite journey to yours.

I started out with the HP-15C and then the HP-42S but only "discovered" the 28S long after I'd left education. I have no idea where that machine is now but in the last few years have managed to find another on eBay that is in really excellent condition. Meanwhile I had bought a 48GX, which I still have and still works except for the classic "need to apply pressure below the LCD" problem (I have since bought other machines in that series and now have at least one each of the 48GX, 48G, 48SX, 48S and 48G+). More recently I seem to have amassed several HP50g machines, both black and blue, and others in the same series (49g+ and both variants of the 48gII). Not to mention the "Frozen Hamster Butt" 49G.

[toml_12953]

More recently I seem to have amassed several HP50g machines, both black and blue, and others in the same series (49g+ and both variants of the 48gII). Not to mention the "Frozen Hamster Butt" 49G.

I started with an HP-45. I was going to buy a 35 but by the time I had saved up enough, the 45 had come out for about the same price. As for the blue color, I really liked the 49G. I was into the Bondi Blue iMac and other devices of various shades of blue. Now the only real HP machines I have are a 50g (black, unfortunately) and a 35s. All my other HP-style calculators are SwissMicros models.

[STS-741]

I just purchased a DM41X and would recommend, but the learning curve at least for me was/is steep. What SM need to do is bring out a 50X ... RPL reborn! That would keep me occupied for life.

I wouldn't worry too much about the learning curve, every calculator makes its own demands. Even the HP Prime requires a lot of learning before it can be used independently of other systems.