HP-48S vs. 48G vs. 42S

[dalupus]

(06-29-2016 01:37 PM)JDW Wrote:  Thank you for the extensive advice, Ron!

I've been reading about 2 performance enhancements for the 48 series:

SpeedUI
Meta Kernel

It seems that SpeedUI can be used on any of the 48 series while the Meta Kernel only works on the GX due to the 128k card requirement. It's not clear though if these can seamlessly work together on a GX or if there is any feature overlap.

But a 50g would beat any 48 in performance regardless of those enhancements, albeit with a much less aesthetically pleasing case and keyboard layout. The SD card would be a strong plus for the 50g though. If I didn't dislike the design so much the 50g would be an easy choice, but the 48G+ is also very appealing.

Ah... decisions, decisions!

I own a 28s as well. I keep the battery cover taped to try and keep it from breaking and also almost always leave it open so as to try and keep the heat stakes from breaking (someone hypothesized that it was the snapping open and close of the clamshell that causes them to fail.)

All that said, I love having the full keyboard on the 28s and sorely miss that in the 50G. But the 50g does have much more capability than the 28s. Many of the things I had to write programs to do in the 28s, the 50g has functions to do OOTB. I don't find the layout too horrible, but then again I never owned any of the 48 series. Given you have never owned any of the 48 calculators, I think you would find all of them equally strange in terms of layout.

As for the build quality and keys of the 50G, I don't find it particularly offensive. It isn't like the 28s had particularly great keys either. If faced with buying something from the 48,49,50 series I would personally just go with the 50g as they are cheap and still being made. Most of the programs written for any of the predecessors should work for the most part. Being able to back up to and install programs from the computer is a huge plus.

Given the 50g is currently made, you could order one from Amazon and try it out for a few weeks then return it if you didn't like it. Obviously you wouldn't be able to do that when buying a used 48 off of ebay.