48/50 vs Prime, what am I missing?

[cortopar]

Either old accounts didn’t transfer to the new forum, I’ve completely forgotten how I was registered before, my account has expired from dormancy, or some other situation requires that I create a new account for my first post on the “new” forum.

After skimming through the HP Prime section of the forum recently, I decided that the firmware was surely mature enough to be worth buying one and experimenting. From all the 48/50 vs Prime comparisons I had read, I was expecting a much worse situation than that which I found. I expect there’s a perspective I’m missing, and so that is what drives my question / comments.

I spent a lot of time on a 48SX in the early-mid 90s, but since then have mostly been interested in the pre-RPL keystroke programmable units. I own a 50g, but have done little more than play with it for a few hours in total.

That lengthy preface to say - the Prime seems like a pretty amazing and welcome “next step” from the RPL machines in my limited experience. The RPN support in Home for normal calculations seems mostly the same as the 17bII, 28, 48, 50, etc. The programming is very simple to use if you have any structured programming experience at all. The CAS functions are easy to call from Home, and it only takes a few examples to understand the need to provide nArgs as the parameter for CAS functions you want to interact with the stack.

The CAS mode itself is pretty revolutionary for someone who hasn’t spent hours in front of Mathmatica, et al in school or at their day job. It’s certainly head and shoulders above what I’ve seen on the 50.

The Connectivity Kit, iOS/Android emulators, and ability to easily share data between them and a physical Prime is simple to use and welcome.

While I anxiously wait for my DM42, could you all help me understand the fatal flaw(s) you see in the Prime? I admit that my needs are far more modest than most on this forum, but from the perspective of a normal user/experimenter/enjoyer of HP PPCs, the Prime is a whole lot of value for ~$120.

Thanks,
Bob