Which HP12 to buy?

[Siriuslux]

Hello dear forum colleagues,

I already have a couple of HP calculators but wanted to buy a finance calculator.
Probably the HP12 is a good example to use. I therefore would like to know your experiences with the keyboards, are there any preferences?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

It's probably a matter of taste, but I would look for an original one from the 1980ies. With a little luck you can find one that still runs on it's first set of batteries and will continue to do so for years to come. The price to pay is lower speed comparerd to the later ones, but who cares? There are far better tools for calculations that require quick results.
Anyway, compared to other calculators, the HP-12 can be found so "dirt cheap" that you can simply buy one of each series and compare them for yourself.

Regards
Max

[rprosperi]

The 12C is an excellent machine, everyone should have one or two. The 12C has been continuously produced since 1980, and in at least 6 countries, and there are many millions of them out there, so they are quite inexpensive and easy to find on eBay, etc. Generally, folks consider the units made in USA to have the best keyboards, though the units from Brazil also seem fine to me. Don't buy the new ones, still being made in China and the Philippines.

Another fine choice is the HP-17BII+ (Silver, NOT Gold version) which is still being produced. Excellent keyboard and clear 2-line LCD display, it has all the typical finance features with an easy to learn menu system. Although it has a flexible equation solver, it does not support keystroke programming like your other models have, so this is not a good choice if you plan to use programming.

A bit more info about what you plan to use it for might help to make other/better suggestions.

[Allen]

If you're interested in a financial calculator and like the pioneer series ( 32s,42s, etc..) I really enjoy the original HP17bii, which is superior in many ways to the 12C and is about the same cost.

As far as the HP 12C, I have owned at one time, all of the 12c variants.
My collection is down to only eleven 12c models- I kept only 3-celled versions and 2-cell versions, and sold the others.

I would suggest one of these:

• 12c early models- Made in USA, Brazil, Singapore, or Malaysia - inexpensive, but many used calculators are well-worn.
• Any 12c model with 3-cell battery except made in China
• Any 12c model with 2-cell battery (platinum or 30th anniversary)- Very Very Fast, though some of the displays do not have good contrast.
  

I do not recommend:

• Any 12c variant with 1 cell battery, including 25th anniversary (most from China)- cheap keyboard, display.
  

I prefer the original gold/blue colour scheme over the later platinum or prestige colors, but others may have different preferences.

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(03-06-2021 02:06 PM)Allen Wrote:  I prefer the original gold/blue colour scheme over the later platinum or prestige colors, but others may have different preferences.

In terms of "prettiness", my favorite financial calculator from HP is the 20b (even my wife, who does not care very much about my calculators lying everywhere around the house, commented: "now that's a real cute calculator that you have there!" when she first saw it). The keybord sux, but one can flash it to be a WP34s...

Regards
Max

[rprosperi]

(03-06-2021 02:37 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  In terms of "prettiness", my favorite financial calculator from HP is the 20b (even my wife, who does not care very much about my calculators lying everywhere around the house, commented: "now that's a real cute calculator that you have there!" when she first saw it). The keybord sux, but one can flash it to be a WP34s...

Regards
Max

That WP34S keyboard will still suck, the 20b keyboard design is horrid. The 30b keyboard is definitely better (as well as being a much better machine overall) but even that keyboard still sux....

[Siriuslux]

(03-06-2021 01:56 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  The 12C is an excellent machine, everyone should have one or two. The 12C has been continuously produced since 1980, and in at least 6 countries, and there are many millions of them out there, so they are quite inexpensive and easy to find on eBay, etc. Generally, folks consider the units made in USA to have the best keyboards, though the units from Brazil also seem fine to me. Don't buy the new ones, still being made in China and the Philippines.

Another fine choice is the HP-17BII+ (Silver, NOT Gold version) which is still being produced. Excellent keyboard and clear 2-line LCD display, it has all the typical finance features with an easy to learn menu system. Although it has a flexible equation solver, it does not support keystroke programming like your other models have, so this is not a good choice if you plan to use programming.

A bit more info about what you plan to use it for might help to make other/better suggestions.

You guys are great! So many helpful replies.

What do I want to do? Well, I am a mechanical engineer and am going to do an MBA starting in about 10 days from now, so I thought why not get a finance calculator, of course it has to be RPN, anything else can be done with Libre Office or EXCEL.
As a day-to-day calculator I use the m48+ on my iPhone but obviously a real calculator is better as I can use it blindly.
So I will check to get an original HP12C and an HP17BII so I can check both as a new toy.

[rprosperi]

Just to be clear, these are the ones to get, and not get:

Do get (examples just to show exact style):

17BII and 17BII+ Silver

Do NOT get the 17BII+ Gold

Note that there are actually 3 different color schemes of the 17BII, but they are all equally good, as long as there is no "+", you are safe.

Most used 12Cs do not list the country of manufacture in the description, so you usually need to examine the photos, or sometimes ask the seller to check the back of the unit.

[Valentin Albillo]

.
Hi, S., welcome to the MoHPC fora,

(03-06-2021 12:12 PM)Siriuslux Wrote:  I already have a couple of HP calculators but wanted to buy a finance calculator. Probably the HP12 is a good example to use. I therefore would like to know your experiences with the keyboards, are there any preferences?

I own several HP-12C and the best ones physically speaking are the Made in USA ones hands down so I'll advice you to get one of those. Never needed to replace its batteries, they still work.

Also, programmability is very important, as it allows you to use it for arbitrary computations not directly financial-related, such as computing all trigonometric functions quickly and accurately, finding real roots of polynomial equations of arbitrary degree, finding real roots of any equation, solving differential equations, playing games and of course, implementing very complex financial computations, say Black Scholes equation.

Most of those you cannot do without programmability. Visit my site (link below in my signature) for my HP-12C programs which implement those functionalities, or click these links to directly download them as PDF documents:

      Long Live the HP-12C, (6-page article, includes a program to play a game of Bridge-It vs. the HP-12C)
      Tried and Tricky Trigonometrics, (10-page article, fits all 6 trigonometric functions accurately in a single program)
      HP-12C Serendipitous Solver, (8-page article, includes a 37-step program to find roots of (and evaluate) Nth-degree polynomials quickly and accurately,
                                                      up to 1,480^th degree in some cases)

Try them in your new HP-12C when you receive it !

V.

[SlideRule]

(03-06-2021 09:11 PM)Siriuslux Wrote:  What do I want to do? Well, I am a mechanical engineer and am going to do an MBA starting in about 10 days from now, so I thought why not get a finance calculator, of course it has to be RPN, …

I am a civil engineer (BSCE) with an MBA (scl) & I used an HP-19BII for my business/finance coursework. Although I have 12C's, 17B's, 20B & 30B finance calcs, my consistent go-to b/f calculator (ever ready at my desk) is a 19BII.

BEST!
SlideRule

[Gamo]

If you're consider only the HP-12C there are various model.

I own three type

1. HP-12C (made in Singapore) the 90's version
2. HP-12C+ (made in China) the 20's version
3. HP-12C Platinum (made in Philippines)

For my personal experience on these three 12C
I like all of them each have pro and con so get
any 12C to try them out since they're not expensive.

The 12C Singapore give you true feeling of it original 12C like the USA edition.
The 12C+ China give you all the same functions with much faster computation speed.
The 12C Platinum give you more options and features that can be use both in RPN or ALG mode
plus large capactiy of the programming space and extra goodies like Back Space, Undo and X^2 functions.

Gamo

[Dave Britten]

(03-07-2021 12:58 PM)SlideRule Wrote:  

(03-06-2021 09:11 PM)Siriuslux Wrote:  What do I want to do? Well, I am a mechanical engineer and am going to do an MBA starting in about 10 days from now, so I thought why not get a finance calculator, of course it has to be RPN, …

I am a civil engineer (BSCE) with an MBA (scl) & I used an HP-19BII for my business/finance coursework. Although I have 12C's, 17B's, 20B & 30B finance calcs, my consistent go-to b/f calculator (ever ready at my desk) is a 19BII.

BEST!
SlideRule

The 19BII is great, as long as you don't mind the reduced portability of its form factor, or the awful battery door design. But aside from that, it's got a fantastic set of functions. It's also worth mentioning the 95LX, 100LX, and 200LX, which have an "HP Calc" application that encompasses nearly all the functionality of the 19BII, including the solver. I think the 95LX may be lacking bonds and depreciation, but those can be handled using the solver, and you've got a huge screen and a QWERTY keyboard to make entering and editing formulas easier. Granted, the palmtops don't work with the 82240 infrared printer quite as seamlessly.

[SlideRule]

(03-08-2021 01:29 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  The 19BII is great, as long as you don't mind the reduced portability of its form factor, or the awful battery door design. But aside from that …

FOUR of my 19BII's have the door on the back (dob), versus the slide on the side (sos).

BEST!
SlideRule

[Siriuslux]

Hello everybody,
In the meantime I found a US model that apparently is not at all used and a Brazilian one that is unused as well. Both are built in the 1980s, one comes with box and German manual. I‘ll have to wait for a couple of days for them to arrive.
On top of that I found a silver HP17BII+ that I probably will get handed over next Sunday.
So let’s see where this takes me.
BTW: The HP95 and 200 are impressive but not what I am looking for, too big.
The HP19B with its foldable design is certainly nice but several decades back my brother got the same thing as engineering calculator and it never appealed to me. I instead continued with the 41CX and eventually the 48S, both during my engineering studies.
Some 8 to 10 years ago I figured an additional 48G was really cheap to get, so I bought one that was almost new.

[Chr Yoko]

Hereby a quite inspired model in production ?



https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/329176964...gLKmv&mp=1

[Siriuslux]

Looks worse than anything I have seen from TI

[Don Shepherd]

I've got both a 19b and 19bii with the battery door on the side, and the door and the case sides are fine. Don't pay inflated prices on Ebay for 19b's with the battery door on the back. It's always a bit of a trick to install new batteries, but the cells do last a long time.

The alpha keyboard makes entering solver equations a breeze. Be aware, however, of what happens when you enter a solver formula that contains an error. You must fix the error before you exit the solver. If you exit the solver without fixing the error, your whole formula is not saved. No other solver (17b, 17bii, 27s) has this problem.

[Chr Yoko]

(03-08-2021 10:02 PM)Siriuslux Wrote:  Looks worse than anything I have seen from TI

But it is RPN !
8-)

RPN's not Dead !

[Chr Yoko]

(03-09-2021 12:58 AM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  I've got both a 19b and 19bii with the battery door on the side, and the door and the case sides are fine. Don't pay inflated prices on Ebay for 19b's with the battery door on the back. It's always a bit of a trick to install new batteries, but the cells do last a long time.

The alpha keyboard makes entering solver equations a breeze. Be aware, however, of what happens when you enter a solver formula that contains an error. You must fix the error before you exit the solver. If you exit the solver without fixing the error, your whole formula is not saved. No other solver (17b, 17bii, 27s) has this problem.

Agree, the side door is tricky to install properly, but with a bit of care you avoid cracking it.

And if you do not use your calculator for a while, just remove the batteries (nothing new there, but i keep repeating it to myself).

[Thomas Radtke]

The 12C has one advantage: It's cute. Also nice that the manual is printed on the back.

I own one made in brazil, keyboard is perfect.