Why are the HP Prime and HP-35s so unpopular?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

This is mainly a matter of personal taste I think rather than objective criteria.

(01-22-2021 01:24 PM)Peet Wrote:  The prime, on the other hand, even seems to be superior to the 50g in every aspect.

I second that. The only thing I don't like about the Prime is the color scheme of the keyboard. For the sake of a complete collection I bought an HP-50g some years ago. Put batteries inside, played with it for half an afternoon, removed the batteries and never touched it again. This calculator has exactly zero appeal to me and not only becauso of RPL...

(01-22-2021 01:24 PM)Peet Wrote:  What makes the 42s/50g so good and the 35s/Prime so bad?

I never disliked the 35s at all. It came on the market when writing large programs for programmable calculators already was a thing of the distant past (for professional use at least), so the lack of mass storage or the "dreadful bugs" do not really affect the casual user. Apart from it's battery drain (I have three or four or fife (don't really know) and all of them drain a set of batteries within two or three months even if they are never turned on) there is nothing really wrong with it in my view, at least not at the price it was sold for.
On the other hand I don't really like the 42s (as I never liked the 41C either). Accessing functions through "XEQ Alpha <some three letter function code that I don't really want to remember>" is not how I like to use a calculator, nor are the menus.

But again, it is purely a matter of what one is used to and what one's personal preferences are.

Regards
Max