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RPN is fast once you get some practice, and if you don't like it, agebraic entry is the default. I have lived in TI land for a long time. First, I looked at Stanford Physics lectures. Bottom line is this is a great tool for a fair price.
The Texas Instruments price policy probably stops even Amazon from discounting the TI graphing calculators as much. Their loss. Even without paying for delivery, I had it in five days. Oh, and I could not pass up on the price that Amazon was offering.
Needed graphing calculator for MIT's Single & Multi variable calc courses. With the display and all the batteries at the top, its a bit top heavy. But recently, I discovered iTunes U and all the courses one can download for free or a small donation. It seems to be as fast as any graphic calculator on the market.The only negative I can think of is common to some other graphic calculators.
The screen is as good as any. Found that I spent too little time with Calculus in college. The HP50g is great for this, and the Equation Editor, with a little practice, allows me to type in the examples the way they are written and play with variables.
It can do almost anything, including the ability to play games on it (I have played SF2 on it, wow), it can resolve equations of almost all kind, but the manual is terrible and I haven't found a way to make programs on it
If it can't perform an operation which is fairly rare it will simply repeat the proposed operation back again below the original one on the display screen as the answer. The latter Help system is even advertised as being sufficiently detailed so that the manual doesn't need to be carried around to efficiently work with this Slim Casio.CONS:1) Some functions that you would readily expect to be available with a single key press require instead at least two key presses, but usually with only a single shift key press first.2) The learning curve is quite steep, although very well worth the considerable effort, but this will heavily deter some good students from learning the RPN skills that can be effectively used for your entire lifetime once they are successfully mastered. I have owned top of the line graphing and scientific calculators from TI, HP, Casio, Sharp, etc. This machine, the HP50g, continues that HP tradition and is definitely put together very well. It is a good HP system with multiple references (up to 3) between different , but similar commands (for example with the soft-key designations: SEE1, SEE2, SEE3, etc)., but the Help system on the newer Casio FX-9860 Slim calculator is even better in my opinion, i.e., it includes ALL the commands in the calculator (but with no CAS present on the Casio unit) with complete operational syntax details for every command. These include the ability to even perform a digital FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) as well as many many other advanced functions of a similar nature. It can be switched in the Mode setup from a Real to a Complex number operating stance and even back again as desired or it will even prompt you to make a mode change if you are in Real mode and the answer is in fact a Complex number.
This is a very fine feature that I do not know of on any other calculator system.9) As on all such HP RPN models, a very fine self-test system is available to make sure your machine is fully functional all the time and a clock (now without seconds) complete with the date, is also continuously available.10) Finally, this machine also has a fine, onboard Help system for some, but not all of the CAS commands, if these commands are at all confusing (and there are many many commands available on this machine). The resultant plots are high quality and with the many added features available for enhancement are very intuitive for the learning process.4) It has a nice and quite modern, curved body design that sits very nicely both on a desk or a table as well as in your hand.5) It has a very large amount of onboard main memory, plus additional Flash memory for tackling quite memory intensive problems.6) Although it is called a calculator, it is really a small and very fast (75 MHz) handheld computer system which can tackle problems from the most simple to almost the most complex.7) The famous RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) and an Algebraic Operating System (AOS) as well as a so-called textbook mode are all available to be chosen depending on the wishes of the user and on the problem to be tackled.8) The complete set of the predicted units of the solution of a complicated equation (or set of equations) can be determined independently of and simultaneously with its numerical answer(s).
The pros and cons as I see it are:PROS:1) The Hp50g has all the standard and CAS (Computer Algebra System) features that we have come to expect on such a machine, plus many nice very detailed and very mathematically advanced topic as well as course specific APPS that are already preloaded or can be added in electronically and quite simply from the HP or HPcalc or other websites. 3) This machine itself is quite fast with a nice graphical interface and resultant plotting system.
Back when I was a student, TI's were very cheaply made and often broke quite easily and similar HP products lasted almost forever. This machine is so versatile however that it will even evaluate symbolic matrices or even matrices with imaginary numbers (an Electrical engineering nightmare otherwise).
3) The HP50g requires multiple batteries plus a backup coin cell battery in order to save everything briefly when changing the main batteries.4) It really needs a large ENTER key (and also it should be located in the center-left location) just like on the HP machines of the distant past (and as recently included on the HP35s for example).5) HP should also add a backlight system for viewing the screen in the dark as implemented very nicely in the new clam-shell design on the Casio FX-9860g Slim version. It is also a very good improvement over its predecessor, the HP49g+ with more memory and with a much improved keyboard and improved keyboard "feel" and a much better feature set overall, including the full library of solutions from Physics and Engineering that was available from the HP48 series of machines, etc.
The USB interface works with a computer and is also quite fast and easy to set up.2) It works quite naturally with complex number solutions of equations.
In addition they moved the enter key to the bottom right corner and it used to be in the middle left.there was a reason for that HP. The 48G had the batteries placed in the lower portion giving a nice balance to it in one hand. The 50 has 4 batteries under the display, so it makes it very top heavy and out of balance. I upgraded from the HP48G and while the functionality, speed and everything else has improved I feel as though the ergonomics were left out of the picture. All in all a great calculator but I wished they'd considered more carefully the reasons why the 48 series had the layout it did. In college on exams I would write with the right and calc with the left. This is going to sound strange but I typically used the 48G w/ one hand and my left thumb doing everything. I do the same at work.
For example, hitting the right arrow, swaps the x-y registers (in RPN mode) - YET the key is not marked as such (a very important RPN function). It does everything. There are some things about this calculator that feel like it's a hack on top of the 48g operating system. At the end I still preferred a ti-92 for all my math classes.
Very dandy calculator. Hitting the down-key opens a viewer to look at the element in the lowest register - again UNMARKED.It's a good calculator, it's just very quirky; and if you truly need that complexity, you will love this calculator. Keys are not marked with functions. Very quick (much faster than a 48).
But for number crunching I preferred an old&trusty HP-48 (but that's because I'm so used to the layout that when I pick up 50g I press the wrong keys). Unfortunately, most people will probably be overwhelmed by it. Keys have a very nice feel (maybe not the EXACT one that HP fanatics have in mind, but good feel none-the-less). Integrals, etc.
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