Just dropped my prime

[Tugdual]

and it is not broken. Relief... then I wondered how robust it is. Anybody already experienced broken screen, loose keys? How many g the prime can take before it breaks?

[Han]

I dropped mine last week, actually -- from waist height onto asphalt (happened in the parking lot). There's a scratch on the plastic at the top of the calculator above the "HP" in "HP Prime Graphing Calculator." The case was on. Oddly, I just took a closer look and it appears that there are cracks toward the bottom left and right rounded "corners" of the calculator. I don't know if this was related to the drop from last week, but it appears that the cracks are almost symmetrical (left side vs right side appear to show the same hairline cracks).

[Kevin Ouellet]

So far, in real life, the only graphing calculators that I ever saw breaking after falling were TI-80's. Those things were so cheap in every way possible that even piling up 5 or 6 other graphing calculators over it could break it.

[eried]

I never have dropped any calculator in my life but in the university, some guys went one day to the auditorium to show the amazing TI calcs, and I started to ask picky stuff I knew the TIs were unable to do (like 3d trace, step/step, etc) ended my questions with "my hp can do that".

Then the TI guy got mad and asked me: "can your HP do this?" and dropped his TI connected to the projector way away to the floor, retrieved it, reconnected and all was working... then he said: "I didn't came prepared but..." and opened an article about complains with HP calculators quality (49g/49g+ times, nasty quality issues; my own 3 months old 49g+ CN331XXXXXX was in my backpack with 3 broken keys and the paint very faded HAHAHA)

... so in conclusion my Prime looks flawlessly now after 3 months of use, beating by far my first 49g+ after the same time of use.

[Tugdual]

(01-28-2014 12:08 AM)Han Wrote:  I dropped mine last week, actually -- from waist height onto asphalt (happened in the parking lot). There's a scratch on the plastic at the top of the calculator above the "HP" in "HP Prime Graphing Calculator." The case was on. Oddly, I just took a closer look and it appears that there are cracks toward the bottom left and right rounded "corners" of the calculator. I don't know if this was related to the drop from last week, but it appears that the cracks are almost symmetrical (left side vs right side appear to show the same hairline cracks).

Looks like the cracks were caused by the whole structure displacement further to the fall. Unfortunately this looks pretty bad…

Does anybody know if the Prime is designed with the same principles as mobile phones? When you open a mobile phone it is pretty obvious that by design it is made to fall, by avoiding hard joints such as solder by privileging spring contacts, flexible ribbon cables.
Other question I have in mind is related to the calculator dimensions. Being pretty big and thin, it seems a good candidate for twisting and bending. I wonder if the hard sliding case was not chosen instead of a soft clamshell to gain rigidity when the calculator is in a bag.

[a_idiot]

Probably from a fall, my plus key appears to be somewhat lose,and is lower than the other keys on the calculator, since it doesn't feel right and has to be pressed in the middle.

[Han]

(01-28-2014 06:46 AM)eried Wrote:  I never have dropped any calculator in my life but in the university, some guys went one day to the auditorium to show the amazing TI calcs, and I started to ask picky stuff I knew the TIs were unable to do (like 3d trace, step/step, etc) ended my questions with "my hp can do that".

Then the TI guy got mad and asked me: "can your HP do this?" and dropped his TI connected to the projector way away to the floor, retrieved it, reconnected and all was working... then he said: "I didn't came prepared but..." and opened an article about complains with HP calculators quality (49g/49g+ times, nasty quality issues; my own 3 months old 49g+ CN331XXXXXX was in my backpack with 3 broken keys and the paint very faded HAHAHA)

... so in conclusion my Prime looks flawlessly now after 3 months of use, beating by far my first 49g+ after the same time of use.

LOL... this reminds me of an old EduCalc cover -- it showed an HP48SX that was run over by a (semi?) truck and was still functioning. Anyone have a picture of that cover? (Tried googling but came up short)