Strengths:Small and slim size, easy start-up manual, 2-line display, quality buttons and carry case, old-looking design w/ a modern twist, well priced, 55 (!!!) additional application manuals on HP's web site.
Weaknesses:Button-size batteries may be expensive to find when needed, 382-page manual on CD, 55 (!!!) additional application manuals on HP's web site.
Posted May 10, 2008 - The newest HP calculator is a REAL HP calculator. After the not so successful experiments with the HP49G and other similar ones, HP decided to build a product that put them again on top of the list. The HP35s has the looks, the power, the specs and the right price to become a new legend in the long series of famous calculators made by HP.
I have used the HP33s and I find this to be better in everything. It feels right on hand, it makes you think that it's not made of cheap materials, the buttons are classic HP style with a slight slop on the front and the overall quality is that of the good old days. My 49G already has a broken button and my HP50G does have more power but this little thing steals the show.
You can do complex numbers, fractions, statistics, vectors, solve equations, perform linear regrations and program it with labels (!) as its bigger brothers. In addition you can have it operating in RPN mode (my favorite) or ALGEBRAIC mode that seems to be more enhanced than the RPN one. As always you have a list of 41 constants, menus, variables, built-in functions and 30 KB of memory to store everything you wish. The interesting thing is that programming can take place in both modes, RPN and ALG.
For advanced functions you will have to use the huge manual on the CD. I would prefer a printed one but then the price would have to be way above the $50 mark. Mine came with a DVD about the HP calculators where the HP calculator team gives an overview of their past and present products.
Overall I like it and recommend it to anyone in high school or university level. It's here to stay and it's made for that reason.
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HP 35s Scientific Calculator
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