HP-48GX key stiffness

[GreyUser]

It was made in 2002, IIRC the 48G series was discontinued in 2003. So, it’s a late model made in Indonesia. Some of the units made in Indonesia suffer from an annoying trait of having noisy or clicking keys, that is they make more audible noise on the keypress than is typical for the design. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the unit functionally, they just make a different kind of click sound when the key dome collapses and makes contact, registering the keypress. No one seems to really know the cause of the differences, it may be a keyboard part variation or a process variation or perhaps a combination of both.

They only way to know if your’s is “normal” is to compare it to another, similar unit, most desirably made in Singapore. A 48S or SX would be the gold standard for comparison as they were only made in Singapore.

In general, the HP calculators of the era require more force to actuate the keys than the vast majority of the other calculators in the market as the others use use soft, rubber dome keys without the positive tactile feedback of the HP design. Once you get used to the HP keyboard and RPN, you’ll either never go back or you’ll end up selling the GX because you just can’t or don’t want to adapt. You’ll either love it or hate it.