HP-15c: Why so popular?

[Johnh]

Well I think our hp15c 's are appreciated due to their classic status, and the timeless and very functional design of what they do best. That's the basic functionality with a very clear simple display, outstandingly clear tactile buttons and a lot of functionality. The human stories of those engineers and scientists who created it, and those who used it to work on the world's greatest endeavours all add to the legend.

You don't have to use everything it can do to make it worthwhile. The basic number crunching, with some programming, plus 'solve' and 'integrate' are all useful for me.

So many later models add lots more capability. But they also get complex and harder to read and that detracts from the basics.

That being said, I like my hp35S too. It's a worthy descendent and it adds some very useful things, but its not quite as good in its own time as the hp15C was in its time.