HP 50G or HP Prime for daughter to learn?

[Jedidiah Smith]

New forums look great! It's been way too long since I was on here, and I had to re-register of course.

My daughter is getting into algebra and I think it's finally time to do what my dad did for me years ago: get her an HP calculator to start using and to grow with.
I'm asking for your advice because my wife and I are pretty much teaching her math, as it wasn't going so well with the public school math curriculum. Things are improving, she is showing interest, and I want to keep it that way!

I'm a bit torn between getting her a new 50G (or even an old school HP48G/+/X that I would at least know the basics to show her), or biting the bullet and getting a Prime for each of us to learn from scratch.

As some of you know, at one time I had a collection of the 48SX, 48G, 48GX, 48II, 49, 49+, and 50G. My favorite of all was the 48G/GX, but I guess I'm kind of a sucker for "old school quality feel" like that.
I haven't used a Prime yet. Things took a big turn for us about the time the Prime was coming out. Doing much better now, and I'm slowly returning to these things. Feels good to be back.

Thanks for any feedback on this!
Sincerely,
Jed

[ww63]

I don't know, whether in your country the Schools recomend a specific calculator (maybe this would be no hp), like in germany. In this case you should follow this Suggestion, because the teachers will likely not be able to explain all calculators.

I think from the user Interface the prime is easier to understand than the 50g for most students. Especially the touch screen and the color graphics are intuitive to use. On the other hand the Firmware of the prime has still some minor bugs afaik but will still be improved.

If you / your daughter prefer(s) RPL then i recommend the 50G because the prime did not really Support RPL well.

regards

Wolfgang

[Jedidiah Smith]

(01-21-2015 08:00 AM)ww63 Wrote:  ...I think from the user Interface the prime is easier to understand than the 50g for most students. Especially the touch screen and the color graphics are intuitive to use...
regards

Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang, thank you for the quick reply! That is exactly the kind of opinion I was looking for. I have to keep reminding myself that her generation was brought up on iPhone and touchscreen, etc.

With your suggestion, I just ordered an HP Prime this morning, so we should have it in a couple days. If we both really like it, then I will get another one so that I can learn it along with her. I hope it does "enough" RPN to keep me happy.
Thank you and if anyone else wants to add some comments I'll watch the thread,
Jed

[spinkham]

Yeah, the Prime is built for this use case.

Might get me burned at the stake, but if you already have an iPad I think the TI-Nspire for iPad app is worth a look also. ;-) HP will someday have an equivalent of this, but don't really at the moment: http://education.ti.com/en/us/activity

There are other resources you can find though, and this is a good place to start:

http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-818.html

[Carlos CM (Mexico)]

50G50G50G50G50G50G

[Jedidiah Smith]

Thanks for the link to the updated Prime info and the iPad idea as well. Kat has an iPhone, but Kim and I use Android phones and she has a Samsung Galaxy Tab as well. I have the HP 48 app installed on our phones.

[rant]
For the life of me, I cannot understand why HP doesn't "get it" that everyone carries a phone, all the time. I mean EVERYONE from age 8 to 98! If they made a Genuine HP, quality emulator of the 48/50G series and/or the new Prime on IOS, Android and Windows Phone, many people would buy it. Even if they sold it for $10 - $15, no one would think twice. It would *not* cannabilize their calculator sales, because it's a different market. Students are not allowed to have cell phones on tests, and calculator enthusiasts want a "real" physical calc when we can have it. But, we also want the app too - for those times when we can't take anything but our phone in our pocket.

Let's say a mere 1 million people bought it. That's an EASY $10 - 15 Million $ for HP to hand over to their calc division. "Hello World"...
[/rant]

@Carlos - thanks for the 50G suggestion. I was having a big internal conflict about what to get her because I loved the 48G series so much. But, maybe she will click with the Prime better because of her age group? We'll see. You would be happy to know that I just ordered a 50G for myself at least.
It's good to be back.

[rprosperi]

(01-22-2015 06:55 PM)Jedidiah Smith Wrote:  Thanks for the link to the updated Prime info and the iPad idea as well. Kat has an iPhone, but Kim and I use Android phones and she has a Samsung Galaxy Tab as well. I have the HP 48 app installed on our phones.

[rant]
For the life of me, I cannot understand why HP doesn't "get it" that everyone carries a phone, all the time. I mean EVERYONE from age 8 to 98! If they made a Genuine HP, quality emulator of the 48/50G series and/or the new Prime on IOS, Android and Windows Phone, many people would buy it. Even if they sold it for $10 - $15, no one would think twice. It would *not* cannabilize their calculator sales, because it's a different market. Students are not allowed to have cell phones on tests, and calculator enthusiasts want a "real" physical calc when we can have it. But, we also want the app too - for those times when we can't take anything but our phone in our pocket.

Let's say a mere 1 million people bought it. That's an EASY $10 - 15 Million $ for HP to hand over to their calc division. "Hello World"...
[/rant]

@Carlos - thanks for the 50G suggestion. I was having a big internal conflict about what to get her because I loved the 48G series so much. But, maybe she will click with the Prime better because of her age group? We'll see. You would be happy to know that I just ordered a 50G for myself at least.
It's good to be back.

For her, new to calculators, a Prime.

For you, rabid 48 user, an HP-50g.

I would say correct choices for both users. With luck, you can both teach each other new things about your own machine. But I think she'll teach you more...

Welcome back.

[Han]

I second the idea about getting one of each so that you both get to experience twice the fun!

[Jedidiah Smith]

Prime arrived yesterday, and was presented to my daughter after work. Judging by her shrieks of delight, if HP is gunning for the student population, they hit the nail on the head. Good job, HP! If you get them young, they just might stay for life. (I'm not an Apple fan, but you get the idea that it worked for them.)

My first impressions are in this order:
1. Impressed with calculation speed. The Prime is FAST.
2. Pleased. Touch screen AND color are both necessary to be competitive in today's market.
3. Somewhat sinking feeling - that I will have to relearn how to use a calculator all over again to use this Prime. So much has changed. But, you either evolve or die, and HP has chosen to evolve.

Overall: Good work to Tim and crew at HP! With enough time, programming and fixing the little niggles I've read about in the ROM, this is going to be a winner. Let's hope HP finally throws some of its marketing and muscle behind this device.

[Han]

Just make sure you update the firmware!