Worthy successor of the HP 41C secretly revealed!

[Joerg Woerner]

Hello calculator aficionados,

While doing some research on the TI-Nsprire CX prototypes (they are actually loaners from Texas Instruments), I asked the folks in Texas if they could surrender me a Casio Prizm.

I guess it doesn’t imply industrial espionage, but these guys actually know, what is going on! And best of all, my NDA with Texas Instruments is limited (I’m not a lawyer but I have some common sense) to TI products only!

Well, Hewlett Packard fans, in the meantime I received an incredible Hewlett Packard calculator. No, it is NOT another graphing calculator, to me it is the best and most exciting development in the past 30 years! I really appreciate that marketing people at Hewlett Packard’s calculator division focus on their roots again, I liked already in 2007 the idea to reintroduce kind of a retro HP 35S and notice all the hopes for a HP 43S or similar on this forum.

What I just disassembled is to me the successor of the HP 41C, the machine that killed “our” TI-88 (yes, I’m more into Texas Instruments’ calculators).

What I like about the “HP 41 CQ”:

Landscape orientation! Since the HP-10C series and the TI-66 the standard for a perfect scientific calculator.

Color! It is color – but not a backlit display, good for the battery lifetime. The viewing angle is an astonishing 180 degrees. LCD, not OLED!

Alphanumeric mode! Once again a calculator with a segment-based alphanumeric display. Works multi-lingual, I tested so far English and German.

Built quality! Ten screws, rigid frame, metal face plate. This is how you do calculators! Even in China…

Innovation! This is to calculators what Swatch was for wristband watches. They manufacture it upside down. It was never that interesting to dismantle a calculator.

Features! Obviously former HP CEO Mark Hurd was involved. “Just add a feature that nobody expects from a calculator”. This one is unique – find it out on my brief review!

Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to show you the incredible “HP 41CQ”!! (No numeric name tag on the calculator)

Have a wonderful day.

Regards,
Joerg

[Gerson W. Barbosa]

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Alphanumeric mode! Once again a calculator with a segment-based alphanumeric display.

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Doesn't a 14 or even 16-segment display severely limit the capabilities of such a wonderful calculator? I hope it does include an optional module, something like HP-4_1 GOTU (Graphic-Oriented Terminal Unit).

Regards,

Gerson.

[C.Ret]

Right !

That will be helpful !
A true 3D display, with or without dedicated glasses, fully graphic oriented calculator. Not a calculator able of pseudo 3D representation in flat 2D screen anymore.

This will help a lot in the spatial representations from chemistry, biochemistry, geometry, design, mechanical conception and engineering and signal processing.

[Gene Wright]

Hey Joerg.

This is March 31st. Wrong day.

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Quote:

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Hey Joerg.

This is March 31st. Wrong day.

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Not in Australia :-)

[Walter B]

Hallo Jörg,

was treibst du im Pazifik? Ich hab' immer gedacht du lebst in Kanada ... :-?

(What are you doing down under?)

Walter

[Didier Lachieze]

May I share a picture of this secrete HP 41c successor?

Edited: 31 Mar 2011, 12:07 p.m.

[Namir]

Hi Joerg,

Your timing about that old HP machine could have not been worse. I just heard over the net that HP bought TI and all NDA signed with TI ALSO apply to HP products present and past. In the words of Ricky Ricardo (of the old I love Lucy TV shows) ... Hey Lucy! You have some esssplaining to do!!!

:-)

Namir

Edited: 31 Mar 2011, 3:27 p.m.

[Joerg Woerner]

Gene,

I know - the link doesn't work. Give me an hour or so.

Regards,
Joerg

[Joerg Woerner]

Hallo Walter,

Ich lebe an der Ostkueste vom Amerika. Upstate New York.

Viele Gruesse aus Rochester,

Joerg

[Joerg Woerner]

Didier,

No - it is not green!!!

Joerg

[Joerg Woerner]

Sorry folks, I forgot the link to the story.

Here we are:

Datamath Calculator Museum

Please click on the "TOP SECRET" logo on the orange banner!

Have a great day!

Best regards,
Joerg

[Michael de Estrada]

I have one, but never realized that the big hard grey piece on the back is a magnet! Sure enough, it sticks to my refrigerator door, along with all the other magnetic stickies.

[Walter B]

Hallo Jörg,

tja, dann warst du doch einen Tag zu früh d;-)

Viele Grüße

Walter

[Joerg Woerner]

Ich denke halt global - deshalb habe ich den Link erst abends freigeschaltet - als im Pazifik schon der 1. April begonnen hatte ;-))

Gruss,
Joerg

[Palmer O. Hanson, Jr.]

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What I just disassembled is to me the successor of the HP 41C, the machine that killed “our” TI-88 (yes, I’m more into Texas Instruments’ calculators).

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The HP-41C was released in 1979. Pre-release versions of the TI-88 became available in mid-1982. So, it doesn't seem likely that it was the HP-41C which killed the TI-88. My recollection is that the TI-88 was developed as a competitor for the HP-41C. We were told that the TI-88 was abandoned when TI made the big push with the 99/4 in late 1982 and early 1983. Later, I heard that it was the keyboard of the TI-88 which was the problem.

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

I've heard of ESD problems, too.