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