HP Prime: The Logic of Purchasing

[Joe Horn]

(04-02-2015 05:35 AM)Sukiari Wrote:  I am also relatively new to the HP calculator world, but I have a 12C, a 48G, and a 50G. All three are amazing products, and one of the most important things about them is that they are *high quality* machines that have a finished quality to them.

Yeah, NOW they do, after the bugs in the early versions got ironed out, which took many years and many revisions. And not only were bugs removed, but missing features got added too. At least that's certainly true of the 48 and 50, which (unlike the 12C) are very complicated graphing calculators, like Prime.

Quote:I looked at the Prime with great interest when it came out. After reading about it and playing with the emulator, I can say that I would be interested in it, if it were finished. I don't like the idea of buying a calculator that has admitted problems, with only promises to improve it later.

In that case, you should certainly wait as many years to buy a Prime as elapsed between the product announcements of the 48 and 50 and your purchase of them. That way you'll be giving the Prime the same chance of being "complete" as the 48 and 50 eventually became.

The reason that so many people at MoHPC got Primes right away is because most of us are both "early adopters" of technology in general, and fans of HP calculators specifically. That's why I had an HP 48 version "A", and a beta 50g, neither of which had the "finished quality" you see in your 48 and 50. What does the VERSION command return on your 48G? "R"? Aha! See what I mean?