HP 30-B size Question

[Jeff]

I have always wanted to find a financial calculator that is physically smaller.

Amazon gives the 30-b these dimensions: 9.4 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
HP says: 5.84 x 3.03 x .63 inches.

I wonder which are correct.

Also, it's about time for them to retool their ugly, tired lineup of home and office devices!

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/can.do;HHOJSID=VfSRPmnQrDntnfpjJWL7QMrCqqPVLNWSpLtQg25G3PJLqcXPjhWY!677933928?landing=calculator&category=Office&catLevel=1&storeName=storefronts&jumpid=in_R329_prodexp/hhoslp/psg_ipg/calculator/Home_&_office_calculators

[Mike Morrow]

Certainly the larger dimensions are not those of the HP 30b.

The HP 30b is one of the most satisfying products from HP Calcs in a long time, IMHO. It is the fastest HP calc ever, and although financial in flavor, it has a reasonable and useful set of scientific functions too. Its firmware does not run through a level of emulation like the HP 50g, HP 12C+, and HP 15C LE.

For speed testing, I use the common 2500-iteration Savage Benchmark. For comparison, benchmark completion times are:

HP 50g      65 seconds

HP-15C    5840 seconds

HP 15C LE   48 seconds

HP 30b       6 seconds

The result accuracy and precision for the 50g and the 30b are identical, and several orders of magnitude better than that of the 15C and 15C LE.

The 30b is about eight times faster than the 15C LE, even though both use the same AT91SAM7L128 SoC and clock speed. That illustrates the waste in time and battery energy that occurs because an emulation layer has been inserted between the original firmware and the SoC, rather than compiling new code for the SoC.

The HP 30b is a great machine, even if you don't transform it to a WP 34S.

Edited: 31 Jan 2012, 10:22 p.m.