Finally, a new HP RPN calculator!

It appears that a retailer has spilled the beans on a soon-to-be-introduced HP 35s calculator. HP had said to expect a new model to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the introduction of the HP-35, the world’s first handheld scientific calculator. Apparently the 35s and a new 10s will be introduced tomorrow in Monaco.

Compared to other recent HP calculators, the 35s returns to a double-wide ENTER key in the row immediately above the digits, keys in straight rows, and shift keys in highly contrasting colors. The functionality appears to be improved over the 33s, particularly in that the limit on the number of storage registers has been lifted.

Given that there have been hoax calculator introductions by HP calculator fans before, I was skeptical at first, but there is a CE declaration of conformity on the HP site, so this one is real.

[h/t ssf, Gerson, and Hugh on the MoHPC forum]

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8 Responses to Finally, a new HP RPN calculator!

  1. Jo Vandale says:

    The original pdf file of the new 35s is gone … can somebody mail it to mee?

  2. Hans B PUFAL says:

    Any comment Eric? All references to the new HP-35s on the HP site have disappeared and my local dealer has no info. Was this a hoax? I find no discussion at the usual places on the web.

    — Hans

  3. Eric says:

    It appears to have been genuine, but to have been leaked prematurely by a distributor. I expect that it will be officially announced and available before the end of August, since HP will want to sell it for education.

  4. Pingback: HP About to Start Making Real Calculators Again? : hype index

  5. When I first saw the 35s datasheet PDF, my mouth literally popped open. I sure hope I can get my hands on one of these in the not too distant future!

    I’m currently using a 33s for my RPN needs (and a 48SX, 48GX, and 50g for my RPL needs, but that’s another story), but oh my Lord is the 33s ugly. I want to hide it under the table when I use it. The 35s, on the other hand, looks like something I’d be proud to have in my hands.

  6. HP induced Nerdvana says:

    I cant stand my 33s which I purchased to replace my 48G which is extremely slow for rapid calculations. The key placement on the 33s is extremely awkward and you need a microscope to see the decimal place.
    When I purchased the 33, I was glad that HP had returned to their senses and started offering RPN calcs again. Over the past several years I had been regularly sending HP letters begging them to bring back the old style calculators such as the 15 etc.
    I just discovered the availablity of the 35s today and immediately placed an order for 2 of them. On to use and one as a backup. I am pretty rough on my calculators at contruction sites etc. I am anxiously awaiting it in the mail….. I have reached Nerdvana

  7. Bill says:

    I have been using the HP-35s for a couple of days and some things to report. Lots of memory registers (up to 800 via indirect addressing); programming GTO to program lines (and automatic adjusting when lines numbers change through editing), the classic ENTER key in the right place(!), good key feel, a good display, etc.

    Concerns: you must do everything spatial in vectors, and there appears to be no easy way to get co-ordinates out of a vector for separate processing (you’ll have to use dot products with the primary unit vectors), because the rectangular to polar conversion is gone. This is similar to the HP-50g (and 48, 49) approach, but pulling vectors apart isn’t there. If you want to convert a polar representation to a rectangular representation, it’s just a change of display, but a vector in rectangular form is a complex number. This is gonna scare the willies out of some of these basic students in surveying!

  8. The 35s is a fine machine, especially when compared to the 33s.
    A few things are missing, however.

    First, why not allow every register to be an indirect register?
    Where are the RCL T, RCL Y and RCL Z instructions (with corresponding
    store and recall arithmetic) and the corresponding exchange instructions
    of the stack registers with X?

    I think that the 2×2 and 3×3 equation solvers are lame. Get rid of them if
    space in ROM is needed to add a few features.

    Also, I am looking for a way to leave program garbage in a register so we
    can get non-normalized numbers as in the 67 days and unlock the hidden secret
    instructions. (What? You think there aren’t any?)

    Right now I am trying to time the instructions to see which are
    fast and which are slow, and by how much. This will allow faster
    programs to be written.

    And what about branching? Some branching to a label is S.L.O.W…. But the
    user manual is not clear about it.

    And the user manual needs to be proofread by a native speaker of Ingrish.

    Vectors? Those of us who work in relativity theory need four dimensions.
    And quaternions would be realy neato… if we have them, we don’t need
    vectors, as a quat is a sum of a vector and a real number… and complex
    numbers are embedded in quats.

    Somehow, as good as the 33s is, I don’t expect it to penetrate the
    educational market. If HP could just get back the technical elite,
    that would be a good step forward. Then the educators might be interested.

    And the 33s piece of junk is available at Fry’s, but the fine 35s is not.
    That seems to indicate a major marketing failure. Too bad, the HP engineers
    did a fine job. It is up to US to promote the ideas of the 35s.

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