HP 50g Graphing Calculator by Hewlett Packard
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Digital camera reviews of HP 50g Graphing Calculator
Digital camera Review: First Impression
Summary: 5 Stars
Unlike the irritating and mistake-prone keypad of my previous HP 48gII, which thankfully put itself out of commission, this baby feels like the HP of old. So far, so good! Otherwise, ignore my star rating for now - it's too early to influence your choice.Digital camera Review: From someone that's never used HP before....
Summary: 4 Stars
After owning my fair share of TI-89s that I believe to have failed prematurely pretty much in every case, I bought the HP 50g out of frustration. As the only real competitor to the TI-89, nobody I knew had ever used a HP calculator, except one professor in engineering school that would an old 80s model out of his shirt pocket and proceed to get the answer faster then I could get even figure out how to situate the parenthesis in my TI calculator. More on that (RPN).
I bought this calculator because of the poor reliability I've had with the TI calculators, so my first impressions were on build quality and perceived durability. 1st, it doesn't weigh nearly as much as the TI-89 Titanium I had. In my mind, weight is somewhat equated with higher quality build parts, although this is generally just a misconception. Relative to the TI-89T that I had though, it weighs almost nothing. The keyboard is very strange coming from the TI models. I'm not sure if I like it better or not. The TI models have what I can describe as a more 'common' type keyboard that doesn't really provide a large amount of tactile feedback. The HP does. It seems to slow me down on input as you have to press harder, but at the same time it's very explicit - you're less likely to make mistakes. Honestly, I think the TI edges the HP out on this, but it's a relatively minor issue. It really feels like you could run into problems 10 years or so down the line. I've never kept any electronic device that long without wanting to upgrade though. Final note on durability - it's survived one 3 ft fall from a desk onto carpet so far. This is one more then any TI I've had. This is where the TI's heavier weight becomes a pitfall - greater force on the LCD when the calculator falls.
There's a lot of reviews on here that seem to be divided between "the calculator is too difficult to use and I'll never be able to handle it" and "the difficulty is a necessary consequence of having more functionality and for speed down the road". I turned it on, and was immediately able to do basic operations in algebraic mode. I switched it to RPN mode however, as the everything I've read suggests that the real power of the calculator comes from its RPN functionality. If you've never used RPN, it's about a 30 minute to 1 hour transition. For simple arithmatic, it vastly speeds things up. On the other hand, it really slows down more complicated equations. Fortunately, you can mix algebraic and RPN mode and place algebraic equations on the RPN stack. Really neat, honestly. The equation builder is much better then anything I've seen in a TI calculator, so consider it a major plus once you learn it. Honestly, the calculator has little of the intuitive UI that the TI ones do, but if you're the type of person that learns by trial and error, and never reads the manual or WANTS to read the manual, you'll actually be alright. You probably know if you're the type of person that goes straight for something, or wants to read a manual on it first. Go elsewhere if you want instructions on how to do things. I'm the type of person that enjoys pushing random buttons to see what they do. The calculator is fairly easy to learn if you're this type of person.
Other stuff - the CAS seems to be quite a bit superior to the TI one. I'm usually doing symbolic simplification, and it seems to come up with more usable answers then my TI did. My "usable" I mean it doesn't always have the same tendency that my TI did that would make the equation I'm trying to simplify end up more complex then it was to begin with. It still doesn't hold a candle to MATLAB or Mathematica. As an aside, I'm still waiting on calculators that have something similar to MATLAB built in. Embedded processors are certainly getting fast enough. Let's see - the display is atrocious compared to the TI-89T. I mean it - it's awful. The viewing angle is so poor that if you set it on a desk a little in fron of you, you'll have trouble reading the screen unless your head is directly over it. It almost harks back to the days of the TI-86. The notation it uses for complex numbers is a little mind numbing to read sometimes. It's much faster then my TI-89T ever was, which is nice. Um, it's eats batteries compared to the TIs. The price you pay for speed, I guess.
So, if you've gotten this far and you're still interested, then you should probably get it. Put it a little time to learn it, and you'll end up saving time in the long run.
Digital camera Review: GOOD PURCHACING
Summary: 5 Stars
THE PRODUCT COME FAST, GOOD PRESENTATIONS, GOOD PACKING, AND EXCELENTSERVICE, THANK YOU VERY MUCHDigital camera Review: Gets every job done
Summary: 4 Stars
A great tool. CAS is effective. My only complaints are the steepness of the learning curve, potentially counterintuitive setup on certain functions, and a very poor (or at least thoroughly unintuitive) user interface for graphing functions.Digital camera Review: Good Calculator
Summary: 4 Stars
This calculator has yet to crash and I have used it for more than 1 year. My 48GX crashes all the time. I have ownedthe 15C, 41CX, 19BII and the 48GX. Will HP Ever come out with something that keeps the number pad with enter and Simple funtions in the same place. They always change every thing. I have been using HP's fopr 25 years and I have to say that the manual for the 50 G is probably the worst I have seen yet and how the machine renders unit convertions is three steps back from how the 48GX handles it and is counter intuitive. No where in the manual does it say you should only use a 1 gig SD card. Anything bigger is a waist of money because you can only access 1 gig.
HP make rugged reliable equipment but it is such a pain to figure them out. I like HP stuff but I also get very frustrated with HP. They should have a program on DVD that you can load on a PC like that for the 49 that takes you step by step though all the functions and features.