HP50g availability

[Divasson]

I have heard how hard it is to get HP50g nowadays, and that in some respects people prefer the HP50g model over the Prime. I have myself mixed feelings about this choice.

Due to HP50g being a standard for engineering schools in both Spain and France, there is a flow of used calculators that we try to get (and run the autotest and keyboard test):

Black HP50g

Blue HP50g

The cases (mostly the faux leather) are not perfect, but the calculator often is.

(with the Black Friday there's a 12% less - apologies for the shameless plug)

Blue's sellers are often girls, while black sellers are both boys and girls. There are no English manuals, but you can get those on the 'net.

[nickapos]

I think I have purchased an hp49g+ in the past from Spain. The keyboard is a bit messed up but other than that it works fine.
I have other calculators so it’s not used heavily.

[Gilles]

Hi all
- I much prefer the HP50g to the Prime.
- With a much lower screen resolution, the HP50g manages to be more readable than a Prime for equations!
- The black version is better in my opinion, the keyboard is more readable
- It's a shame that the HP50g dev was abandoned. It would have allowed to manage modern SD cards and some other improvements.
- I don't see much point in an RPL version on another platform. With its SD card the HP50 is perfect.
- It's the best calculator HP has ever made (in RPL mode of course!), even if we can quibble endlessly about the position of the ENTER key
- My dream is that newRPL is completed with graphical commands, input management, forms, sound, EQW etc. but it seems that Claudio Lapelli has stopped development. But even with its limitations the newRPL is great even if the user interface requires some time to adapt

[HPing]

The 50g is not always available at thecalculator store, so grab them while you can!

I think there is value from purchasing from an enthusiast as Divasson knows how to identify typical issues on pre-sale inspection.

I'm happy to see that the 50g still is popular in European engineering programs. I assumed Casio had the market cornered.

I have black and a blue 50g models (not purchased from Divasson):

- These are fun devices. There are a lot of teaching guides online.

- I've grown to like the blue colour scheme a lot.

- I find the buttons on both the blue and the black models easy to read.

- The form factor is incredibly comfortable to hold in one hand whilst typing with the other hand. The 50g looks better in person than in photos; pretty good. HP must have hired a third-party industrial engineer like IDEO. I still prefer HPs older design language but the 50g is much nicer than I expected.

- I had no problems getting accustomed to the "enter" button at the lower right hand corner. Still getting used to the upward offset of the basic math operators.

- The keyboard on my blue 50g feels great but that calculator is "essentially new". Maybe there are other factors (e.g. hours of use, revised key designs, revised plastics, different response of the white plastics, revised dampener pad, etc.). The keyboard on my black 50g arrived broken and worn out so is not an ideal comparison (that junk 50g was purchased from TAS, NOT Divasson).

[Luigi Vampa]

For the last 4 years, as a STEM university professor in Spain, I have always recommended the HP50g as the calculator of choice for my students. I am one of the culprits >D

[carey]

(12-10-2024 07:52 PM)Luigi Vampa Wrote:  For the last 4 years, as a STEM university professor in Spain, I have always recommended the HP50g as the calculator of choice for my students. I am one of the culprits >D

What instructional materials, besides online manuals, do you provide or recommend to your students to learn how to use the HP50g ?
Thanks!