HP 50g Graphing Calculator (F2229AA#ABA)

I just received mine in the mail today. I do not think that it is officially even released in the US; at least, it is not on HP’s English language website yet.

This is the first HP calculator I have ever owned and my impressions so far have generally been very positive. It seems just like the 49g+, but with a fully plastic case and keyboard, a serial port, and a four cell battery compartment.

Compared to the TI-89, the HP-50 seems more powerful. The CAS seems a little stronger, it has a lot more built-in mathematical, scientific, and engineering applications, and the hardware is far superior. The calculator runs on a ARM processor similar to the speeds on low-end pocket PCs, unlike the TI-89′s slow custom processor, but the CAS runs on an emulated processor, so it is not as fast as it could be. The HP also has an infrared port and a SD expansion card, so it has no realistic memory limits.

Its liabilities are that the screen seems a little smaller than the TI-89′s, the calculator is not nearly as user-friendly as the TI-89′s, the calculator only comes with a basic manual of about 100-200 pages while the full 900 page manual is only available on CD, and there does not seem to be as much third party support as for the TI-89.

But if you want the most powerful portable mathematical system available in a handheld calculator, this is definitely a must-buy. (more…)