New HP-50G owner and new to the forums

[javimm]

(07-01-2014 08:06 AM)Thomas Radtke Wrote:  

(07-01-2014 07:59 AM)javimm Wrote:  I hope I like the calc.

I had one in my hands to program something for a colleague. I must say the keyboard feels better than that of my Indonesian 48G. The housing also is nicer.

My 48 is from Singapore, and it says 1993 so I guess that's why not all the 48s I 've tested feel the same.

(07-01-2014 08:10 AM)HP67 Wrote:  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.

I can't expect the same quality from the 50G, that's something I have to assume. After trying the 49 back when it was introduced, I was totally disapointed by the quality compared to the 48. When the 49+ came out and I read about the faulty keyboard, I knew that the 48 build quality was not coming back. I confirmed this when I bought the 35S to serve as a pocket RPN calc. The keyboard does not feel good to me, to the extent that I much prefer picking the 48 instead even being bulkier.
Anyway, the 50G seems to be a bit better. I can always buy another 48GX... :-)