New HP-50G owner and new to the forums

[HP67]

Hi, welcome to the forums and thanks for introducing yourself.

I am an old HP user but did not have much experience with stuff made later than the 1970s until recently. I bought some used 48 models which led to buying some new 50gs. I agree with you, the 48 set the bar pretty high. You don't find double-shot keys on every calculator you pick up. Unfortunately, they are notoriously hard to open as you found out. One of the used ones I bought is a butt-ugly wreck of a perfectly good device that somebody boogered up. But it still works great.

The 50g does some things better but it's not the same quality as a 48. It's good enough and cheap enough right now and plenty useful. I love having the SD card, it's a huge time saver. I think the 48 is easier to program on because of less menus and less keystrokes to get around. But the 50g is faster enough to make a difference and has a lot of great stuff built in like ARM and Saturn assemblers and a SysRpl compiler. And plenty of memory! I can't pick just one.