Anything as good as a 50g?

[Tugdual]

In many occasions I praised the qualities of the 50g and it never disappointed me.
I keep thinking it is the best calc ever but possibly dated and I was wondering if there was a more modern challenger, whatever brand. Any suggestion?

[zeno333]

(02-03-2019 09:50 PM)Tugdual Wrote:  In many occasions I praised the qualities of the 50g and it never disappointed me.
I keep thinking it is the best calc ever but possibly dated and I was wondering if there was a more modern challenger, whatever brand. Any suggestion?

The HP Prime is much faster than the 50G, even much faster when the 50G runs native ARM programs and code...The 2 are different, but the Prime can pretty much do everything the 50G can...(Any exceptions to this can be pointed out by others here...). the Prime is blazing fast...

[Leviset]

Although I’ll probably get evicted from The HPCC for this but I’ve not used a really modern calculator that’s better than the TI-nSpire CAS but I think the top retro style scientific & programmable calculators (but no colour visual graphs) running at a modern day speed are the WP34S, the HP-41CL (if you’ve got a spare £700 lying around) or the SwissMicro DM-42L.

[John Keith]

The Prime is much faster than the 50g, has a much better display and is easier to connect to a computer. I still use my 50g about 10 times as much as my prime because the 50g is more intuitive and easier for solving problems interactively, IMHO. This may be because I'm old and have been using RPL since the 28S days.

[burkhard]

(02-03-2019 11:02 PM)Leviset Wrote:  Although I’ll probably get evicted from The HPCC for this but I’ve not used a really modern calculator that’s better than the TI-nSpire CAS but I think the top retro style scientific & programmable calculators (but no colour visual graphs) running at a modern day speed are the WP34S, the HP-41CL (if you’ve got a spare £700 lying around) or the SwissMicro DM-42L.

Those are all great suggestions, but a small quibble--your pricing on the 41CL seems super high.
I bought the kit just about 1 year ago for
41CL board $235
serial port connector $25
serial port cover $6
serial cable $6
replacement rubber feet/screws (optional) $5
US shipping (with tracking and insurance) $12
=========
$289 for the kit. This would have been $38 extra for tracked/insured UK shipping instead.

The donor calculator itself was a nice fullnut CV I bought off the auction site at the same time for $89. Yeah, that was a pretty good price for a nice one with zero corrosion, but I do occasionally see them as Buy-It-Nows. A decent & cheap plain 41C (which is just as good to make a CL) is more common of course.

So my total outlay was $378, which would have been $416 with UK shipping on the CL kit.
That works out I think to about £320.
It's still not cheap, but that's less than ½ of the £700 you offered. A 41CL is really a must-have for any die-hard 41 fan, so I'd hope the lower number scares away a few less people. The conversion process is very easy as well.

[grsbanks]

You must add the $65 for Monte's Time Module mounted on the board, although it still doesn't bring it anywhere close to £700.

[David Hayden]

There's also Claudio's newRPL running on the 50g. It's much faster than the HP ROMs but probably has less functionality.

[burkhard]

(02-07-2019 06:14 PM)grsbanks Wrote:  You must add the $65 for Monte's Time Module mounted on the board, although it still doesn't bring it anywhere close to £700.

Ahhh, you are right about that—thanks. My kit came from shortly before he had that ready, but I happened to have an original Time Module lying around why I used. I should have factored that in, though.

[cdmackay]

You might also get hit with import duty and VAT, which could add a lot.

I've seen them advertised at that higher price for ready-made units, presumably with some sort of warranty, but yes, DIY will be a lot cheaper if you can find a good donor unit without internal issues.