Re: ENTER key on HP 33S Message #10 Posted by e. young on 25 Jan 2006, 9:11 a.m., in response to message #9 by Jan
The quality of current HP calc's is no match for the "old days" to be sure. I also think the cosmetics of the 33s are seriously flawed, and the fact that the 33s was released for sale with a horrible display and keyboard is outrageous. However, now that the display and keyboards have been fixed, I am satisfied with the functionality of the 33s. I still don't like the cosmetics though. In its current form (with the fixes) it is an acceptable calculator. Since it's based on the 32sII it almost has to be. I'm not saying that it's perfect by any means, but I think the quality problems it had with the initial models have poisoned many people against, understandably so. Once I accepted that the HP that we knew and loved is gone for good I was able to appreciate the fixed 33s for the qualities that it does have. It is still the only programable RPN scientific on the market. Hopefully HP will address some of the continuing shortcommings in a latter version.
If you need a basic RPN scientific with some programming capability, and don't want to pay over $150 for something for an old 32sII on ebay, then I recommend the 33S. Just make sure that you get one that has a serial number CNA 5XXXX or latter. I think that the one I just purchased is just a manufacturing fluke. Although the older HP's were designed much better, I'm sure that occaisionally a lemon slipped through the cracks. However, I agree that in the old days they would never have released a calculator for sale that had an unreliable keyboard or had a dsiplay with a decimal point that was indistinguishable from the number 2. I still find that mind boggling.
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