Salvaging the HP-33s and 35s

[Ron Ross]

The bugs that are in the Hp 35s and 33s are not major for the typical user. While Hp SHOULD be expected to fix these problems, the accuracy of the calculator in the real world exceeds the accuracy of the measurements by magnitudes. To often, people forget about that. So, for me, it isn't the accuracy of the Hp 35s or 33s that make me reach for something else.

I actually prefer my Hp 33s to my Hp 35s due to the direct Rect - polar conversion and the HEX, Dec, BIN conversion (although I seldom use the base conversions) that are far easier to use on the 33s.

My main gripe with the Hp 35s is that it is only marginally smaller than the Hp 48G. So, if I have to choose between a big bulky scientific and a graphing Hp 48G with a lot more reliable programming paradigm, I think I'll carry the Hp 48G.

As for cost, you might consider the HP 48G+. It cannot use expansion cards so you will not compete with survey firms that need to replace a 48GX and keep the prices artificially high. It has enough memory for the high end user for the type of calculator it is. No, you wont be able to load a high end CAS, but you can load up a lot and it is a great number crunching platform.