Aaaah...wistful thinking . . .

[Faithful HP User]

Since wishful thinking won't get us anywhere...

I bought my 15C in 1984. It served me well through college, medical school, residency, etc. The original batteries died in 2001! It still works great.

I love my 15C. The bevel-edged keys with the blue, "g-shifted" labels, the solid feel, the obvious detail in the quality of the construction.

From all the comments I've seen about the new calculators, I think we've witnessed a bygone era...

I wonder why HP did away with the "f" and "g" shifted keys and introduced these "left" and "right" pointing arrows. I think it makes the face look needlessly cluttered.

I have a 48G at work. It's very nice but doesn't have that great "HP look" anymore. These new 33s/49g+, etc. look like TI/Casio/Sharp, etc.

[rsenzer]

It is interesting that the battleship grey tones in the various olive and lavender color schemes that HP adopted recently for the HP-20S, HP-32SII, and the HP-48G's are similar to the color tones used in some of the old HP computer terminals of the late 70's and early 80's.

I believe that the marketing [or non-marketing] message reflected durability. That is, HP didn't waste money on aesthetics. These were solely meant to be technical devices of the highest caliber, like their scientific and instrumentation products.

This color scheme still reflects a lack of aesthetics, but it now seems synonymous with lack of quality.

Of course, this has nothing to do with "f" and "g". I'm sure this has been discussed before, but if you have difficulty distinguishing colors, the arrows might make more sense than the "f" and "g" [and "h"].