hp 35s keyboard issue

[jdgc (spain)]

Has anyone experienced this?

I got my second 35s today. The first one came through samsoncables,
and the second one through El Corte Inglés (big Spanish chain à la Sears),
just for a backup and for nice printed manuals (here they package Portuguese and Spanish together, which is quite nice; I got only
PDF manuals and QuickStart in hardcopy for the first unit).

None of their keyboards qualifies, IMHO. Although firm and positive-feeling, some keys (esp. near 0 and decimal point,
and the imaginary unit key and left cursor) feel a bit loose when
your release them. Somewhat annoying, esp. when you
hear that "hollow" noise of a key that has some looseness
when released (the 35s frame amplifies this sound greatly).

The strange thing is with the second unit: all keys feel solid, but
the four cursors rock a bit and they feel like sitting on a softer
spring than regular keys. Annoying. Everything works fine, but it's
a bit bothering (adding to my distaste for them: why not regular cursors in the 48sx style?). It's weird that this happens precisely
to those four keys.

Not all keys feeling equally solid, cursor keys a bit crazy and the missing keystrokes... I get the impression that the touted "overengineering" of this keyboard is no more than hype.

[For the curious, Spanish packaging is a nice carton box to acommodate both manuals and the calc and sleeve; the first unit
came in the infamous plastic package everybody hates, and PDF
manual with anniversary DVD. The serial numbers do not differ too much, CNA 75000880 and CNA 75001534, but I'm not
sure if they are meaningful in any sense]

Has anyone seen (felt) this special "softness" affecting
precisely the four cursor keys?

Kind regards,

David

[Marcus von Cube, Germany]

Mine (from samsoncables) came in the plastic blister which I had to cut to get to the innards. I have the printed manual which came in the same box.

The keys are perfect, my serial number is CNA 72801796. This seems to be one of the earlier machines.

I suspect that Kinpo has secretly changed the manufacturing process to cut down cost and quality.

Marcus

Edited: 28 Mar 2008, 4:31 a.m.

[jdgc (spain)]

Quote:

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Mine (from samsoncables) came in the plastic blister which I had to cut to get to the innards. I have the printed manual which came in the same box.

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They seem to have switched to the "no paper manuals" policy at
some point/batch. You can still request one by calling to HP
Support.

Quote:

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I suspect that Kinpo has secretly changed the manufacturing process to cut down cost and quality.

---

Too bad... By the way, after keying and debugging a couple of
programs, I must add that this 'soft-keyed' cursors are excruciating. They require a determined press to register, which reminds of a 50g with elastic, poor-quality, bouncing springs. The worst of both worlds. My other 35s may feel a bit "hollow",
but its cursor keys don't stand in the way, nagging me
every time I have to SST or BST as these other brand new
%&$@ ones keep doing. Grrrrrr....

Considering a return of the unit through local HP support.
I don't know how it compares to other countries (has this been documented before in the forum? I can't recall).

Thanks for your feedback,

David

[Ivan Latorre]

Quote:

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I got my second 35s today. The first one came through samsoncables, and the second one through El Corte Inglés (big Spanish chain à la Sears), just for a backup and for nice printed manuals (here they package Portuguese and Spanish together, which is quite nice; I got only PDF manuals and QuickStart in hardcopy for the first unit).

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Yes, the HP 35s for the Spanish and Portuguese markets comes boxed and not in a blister pack! These are the differences between that edition and the American one (left column-> Spain and Portugal, right column->USA and others):

Box - Blister pack

Two user's guides not shrink wrapped (one in Spanish and the other one in Portuguese) - One user's guide in English shrink wrapped

No CD - Commemorative CD with the history of HP calculators