hp 50G build quality in today's standards (2018)

[DavidM]

My 50g has had regular use since I obtained it in 2006, including what I would guess to be higher-than-normal levels of complete wiping and restoring of port memory. I've never had any problems with it that weren't caused by my own software .

The keys don't have as nice a feel as my 48-series calcs, but I'm not experiencing any problems with them. The same cannot be said for my 49g+, which started having problems within a couple of years after I acquired it. While on the outside they appear to have similar construction and merely different coloring, the 50g keyboard actually has a much better feel.

I've never been inside the 50g, but have read numerous critiques of those who have inspected their own. Most of those have been highly critical of the quality level of assembly and general construction (particularly the poor quality of solder joints).

My progression of regularly-used hp calculator products has been: 33C -> 41C (with lots of add-ons) -> 48sx -> 49g+ -> 50g. In my view, the "general quality level" was quite high up until the 49g+, which showed a significant decline. The 50g was a step up from the 49g+, but still nowhere near the previous standards. Note that I'm referring specifically to the overall "feel" of the system, not the functionality.

Functionally speaking, the 50g is far ahead of the other systems, though it is almost the same as the 49g+ (external power through USB is the main advantage for the 50g in terms of functionality). The 49g+/50g are incredibly versatile, with a large variety of programming options available that have access to healthy amounts of memory and storage, all while operating at a much faster speed than those previous units.

The Prime (by most accounts, I don't own one) is a well-built system that is an even better performer with a significantly larger library of built-in functionality. If you aren't already heavily-invested in a particular operating paradigm (eg. RPN/RPL), then you really should give it a look.