Calculators you regret buying?

[ijabbott]

This is a counterpoint to the Calculators you regret not buying? thread.

This thread is for calculators that you regretted buying for some reason, probably because it did not live up to expectations. Preferably, it is for calculators that were available new and bought for actual work or study purposes rather than for collection or playing around.

I regretted buying a Casio fx-3800p. At the time, I was already using a fx-450 quite heavily for its "computer programmer" features, so the vinyl covering of the spine connecting the two halves of the keyboard (proper keys on the left side, membrane keyboard on the right side) was getting the worse for wear. I went to the big chain newsagents (WH Smith) in town to pick out a new calculator and picked out the fx-3800p for about 30 UKP. It seemed to check all the boxes: hexadecimal, octal, and binary calculations, and as a bonus it was programmable too. The regret part came when I discovered that despite supporting common number bases for computer programming, it did not support any bitwise logic operations. Also, the programming capabilities were much more limited than the Casio FX-502P that I had bought from new several years earlier, and I regretted the fact that this feature had regressed rather than advanced in the newer model.

[floppy]

HP15C: no possibility for program saving outside of the machine. I resold immediatly.

[DA74254]

HP 49G+, first edition..
My unit is severely affected by the "key-miss" syndrome and that had me really starting questioning HP's quality control. (That it went completely belly-up later is another story, though..)

Luckily, I regained a bit of faith to HP QC when buying the 50G at it's last year before discontinued.

[Steve Simpkin]

That's an odd concept. Why would I ever regret buying a calculator

The only one I can recall regretting was a used HP-38G I bought for my daughter for use in High School. While the keys felt ok, the build quality of the one I bought was terrible. The battery compartment was so tight, I could barely insert the batteries. The way the battery contacts pressed against the PCB pads was very unreliable so it often did not turn on unless you twisted the case. Altogether it made a very poor impression for an HP made in 1995 (S/N 3529S12829).

[jthole]

My Made in Malaysia HP-12C (but it was only €10). Painted keys, and the dark blue is hardly readable. My earlier Made in USA 12C has a much better keyboard.
Both are rarely in use; I prefer the HP-17Bii, because of it's incredible solver.

[toml_12953]

There is no calculator that I regret buying. Every single one, whether good or bad was a valuable learning experience for me. I bought my first four-banger in 1973 but returned it as soon as I saw the HP-45 in the college bookstore. I don't regret buying it, though, since it clarified what I really wanted in a calculator.

[polbit]

I can say with certainty that I have never regretted buying a calculator. Some are more interesting than others but all fun in their way. Of course I only buy programmable calculators…

[Bill Duncan]

Probably the HP-28C which I bought used. It's the only one in my collection that no longer works. The clamshell design was a poor design iMO.

[polbit]

(12-10-2023 07:20 PM)Bill Duncan Wrote:  Probably the HP-28C which I bought used. It's the only one in my collection that no longer works. The clamshell design was a poor design iMO.

As 28C started my love of RPN/RPL, I have to defend its' honor The layout was really great for program entry, it was actually hard to get used to the 48. Of course 28C had such limited memory that it was more of a demo of what was possible, until 28S came out.

I do have few of both, and they all work perfectly, with only one having the battery door issue.

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello,

my most memorable regret ever was an HP-48SX. I had read so much praise about the 48 series on this forum and when I finally found one for decent money on eBay I couldn’t wait for it to arrive in the mail.
But what a delusion! Mine is one of those where you have to press down the bezel below the display to make the ON key work, then there is the most horrible contrast-less grey-in-grey LCD display ever built into any electronic device, an equation editor so clumsy and slow that one is quicker with paper and pencil and last but least, the abomination of RPL as a programming language. After trying it out for about two hours (one hour would already have been an inexcusable waste of lifetime…) I removed the batteries and never put them back in. This horrible experience dates back almost 20 years but I am still traumatized ;-)

Regards
Max

[polbit]

(12-10-2023 08:14 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Hello,

my most memorable regret ever was an HP-48SX. I had read so much praise about the 48 series on this forum and when I finally found one for decent money on eBay I couldn’t wait for it to arrive in the mail.
But what a delusion! Mine is one of those where you have to press down the bezel below the display to make the ON key work, then there is the most horrible contrast-less grey-in-grey LCD display ever built into any electronic device, an equation editor so clumsy and slow that one is quicker with paper and pencil and last but least, the abomination of RPL as a programming language. After trying it out for about two hours (one hour would already have been an inexcusable waste of lifetime…) I removed the batteries and never put them back in. This horrible experience dates back almost 20 years but I am still traumatized ;-)

Regards
Max

And yet still the best calculator HP ever made, and best small device programming language and environment ever devised by man

[Johnh]

I used to regret having an early-model Sinclair Scientific. It was cool in the playground at age 15, but didn't really have enough to make it useful, even for high school maths. Too slow and not accurate enough compared even to a slide rule!

But what a marvel of squeezing into a pint pot! I do appreciate it now and it taught me to think RPN, which I've retained for 50 years even without an HP until recent times.

[vaklaff]

(12-10-2023 08:14 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  I removed the batteries and never put them back in. This horrible experience dates back almost 20 years but I am still traumatized ;-)

Is there a way I can help you out?
V.

[Raymond Del Tondo]

30b "Business Professional" - Unergonomic case, extremely shiny front side (though not very professional)

28C: Next to useless due to the lack of memory.
(The 28S was the better choice back then, and led to the 48SX:-)

If I may somewhat stretch the term "calculator":

OmniGo 100/120: Awful, next to unreadable display.
Even the 120 with so-called "holographic" display was next to useless
Both models drained batteries like there was no tomorrow.
In fact there was no tomorrow with a set of batteries.
You could watch the indicator gauge going from full to empty.

All HP WinCE handhelds, which means all those with keyboards.
I had them all, from the 300 to the 728, and a 820.
Technically interesting, especially the 720 onwards.
The 300 series (incl. the 360) had next to unreadable displays,
and tended to get broken hinges.
The 620LX was much too heavy for its hinges.

The 680/690 had a PCMCIA card slot, which contained complicated mechanics
to lift the CompactFlash card holder out of the case level.

The 820 had a very weak housing construction,
which tended to break.

All had in common, that they were next to non-upgradeable.
There was an upgrade card for the 320, and IIRC for the 680,
so you got stuck with the WinCE version that was installed.

They also had in common, that I never found a real use for the CE units.
Too bulky, too slow.


From the non-HPs: Casio PB1000: Some conceptual weaknesses:
- Batteries were stored in the upper half _above_ the Display
- hinges were not very strong.
- Weak display

[lcd047]

TI-Nspire CX II CAS - using the trackpad was an absolutely terrible experience. Maybe it feels more natural to people upgrading from other TIs, but to me coming from HPs it was a minor form of torture.

[Gerald H]

38G - Awful in all departments, only saving graces are functions evaluate correctly (if you can wait),the cover & Sequence App.

Prime - Illegible keyboard, handicapped Sequence App, differentiated environments. Gave up so more detailed critique not possible.

(However, HP excelled in uselessness with the dreadful palmtops

300lx, 320lx, 360lx (I'm a slow learner, stopped buying any more in that series, couldn't really believe they were so useless, thought I'd misunderstood - but no, they are truly junk) & Omnigo 100.)

[Dave Britten]

I think "regret" might be too strong a word here, but I was never especially enamored with the Prime. I wouldn't go so far as to say I wish I hadn't bought it, but I probably wouldn't miss it.

I might go as far as to use the word "regret" with the SwissMicros DM41X. It's a wonderful idea, but the keyboard isn't great, there's no two-key rollover like the original, and it's been 3 years since any firmware updates, with lingering bugs and missing features. I am accordingly holding off on any DM32 purchases as of yet.

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(12-11-2023 11:56 AM)Gerald H Wrote:  38G - Awful in all departments, ...

I think it is mainly the difference between expectation and reality which makes you either regret a purchase or turn it into a pleasant experience. About the HP-38G I had read nothing good at all here: "Awful", "horrible", "slow" and "useless" must be the attributes most often assigned to this machine. When I got mine, really cheap from eBay, I was rather pleased: A very robust calculator perfectly suited for what it is inteded for: A teaching/learning aid for schoolchildren. Very useable for this purpose and inexpensive compared with other HP products of that era - affordable for everyone. An HP-48G would have cost three times as much in 1995. Easily programmable in BASIC, which is something I appreciate, and even with a pleasant colour scheme.

But then, since I am still trying to put together a complete collection of all calculators from HP, there can really be no "regret" when finding another one, especially if it comes cheap :-) Delusion yes, regret no! Last week I was able to purchase my (first and certainly only) HP Prime for 35 Euros from eBay, which is about the maximum amount this calculator is worth to me. Yet another half-delusion I must say, especially the almost unreadable alpha labels on the keyboard. In the same week I found a Ti nspire CX II (the latest model I think) for about the same price. If I could keep only one of the two I really wouldn't know which one.

Regards
Max

[carey]

(12-11-2023 02:34 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  About the HP-38G...I was rather pleased: A very robust calculator perfectly suited for what it is intended for: A teaching/learning aid for schoolchildren. Very useable for this purpose and not expensive compared with other HP products of that era - affordable for everyone. An HP-48G would have cost three times as much in 1995. Easily programmable in BASIC, which is something I appreciate, and even with a pleasant colour scheme.

I agree with all these comments and will also mention the advanced matrix functions the HP-38G inherited by virtue of sharing some Saturn microcode with the HP-48G/GX. Nowhere else can one find the Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) as a built-in function in a non-CAS algebraic calculator than in the HP-38G and its non-CAS descendants: HP39G, 39G+, 39GS, 39Gii. CAS descendants include the HP40G, 40GS and Prime. Also, unlike the RPL series that also included many models, but with significant changes in key arrangement and functions, the five models from HP38G through HP39GS saw little UI change, so the HP38G must have done something right, from the start.

My only calculator regret, due to its limited memory, was the HP28C. Unfortunately, my memory makes it hard to forget. :) Oh, and I almost forgot :) my other regret was the TI-66 which was so slow that it made the decade later HP-38G look like a supercomputer.

[ttw]

HP Prime. Trying to update software using a USB cable fried my desktop. I have decided to avoid the Prime.