Re: HP15C LE Keyboard Issues (...and 3.5 Years Ago) Message #6 Posted by Lincoln R. on 4 Oct 2011, 2:05 a.m., in response to message #1 by Kerem Kapkin (Silicon Valley, CA)
For what it's worth, the 35s's "25 screw" keyboard had hollow heat stakes with screws screwed into the heat stakes. They're still melted over, so you can't unscrew it and take the keyboard out. Also, several people have apparently had issues with 35s keyboards. Once again I'm not a mechanical engineer, but I can't see those screws doing too much other than possibly holding the top of the heat stake on if it cracks off (or on the negative side making the heat stake crack down the sides from having the screw inside it).
Anyhow, I see the calculator division's recent work as gradual improvement. The 49g+ had a lot of keyboard issues, the 50g seems to have mostly solved that. The 35s had buggy firmware and a decent, but not ideal (and according to some prone to wear-out) keyboard but started to look like a classic HP again (Orange and Blue shift keys, big enter key, etc.)
The 20b and 12c+ were cool hacker platforms, and the 12c+ was more fuel for the "bring back the 15c" fire, but the 20b had a not-so-great keyboard and the 12c+ was (to those other than finance types) teasing those who wanted 15c and 16c reissues.
The 30b is a lot like the 20b, just as hacker-friendly, but has a much better keyboard (perhaps the best in HP's modern lineup).
And now we finally have that 15c people have been wanting, but the excitement has been at least slightly diminished by a manufacturing screw-up (or heatstake-up as it might be more accurately called) and some repairable firmware bugs.
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