HP35s any good for EE?

[emece67]

I've used for EE many HP calcs, from my first ever HP, a 28C, to my last, an 48GX, with 15C, 41, 32S, and 42S in between. From a pure practical perspective, IMHO, the sweet point for everyday EE use is between a "top-end" RPN machine (say, the 42S) and a "low-end" RPL one (say a 28S or 48S/SX).

Being the 42S scarce and expensive and the 28S also scarce, I think that a used 48S/SX, that you can buy at really good prices, is a nice option for EE work. It transparently works with complex numbers and matrices and, as a premium, it also works with units, a capability I really miss in RPN calculators. The 48, being it one of the first incarnations of the RPL style, lacks some later "features" I think are not necessary for an everyday calculator (say: big CAS, too many "menu applications"*, equation libraries,...). It does also have the classic HP keys on its classical orange/blue colour theme.

Of course it is not perfect, I miss better probability distribution support & eigenvalues (48G does this last).

Hope this helps, regards.


(*) I mean, such things as the menus you can find in the 48G to set system flags, or entering the solver, the 48S lacks. I think they turn the machine slow and inefficient to work with.