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(More customer reviews)There has long been a real need for a high-quality scientific calculator for serious scientific and engineering professional, so I was glad to see HP back in the market with the HP-33S, a replacement for their popular HP-32SII (of which I own three!). With some caveats (see below), I've found this to be a very good scientific calculator, and probably the best one being manufactured today. I guess HP finally noticed that people are willing to pay over $300 for a used HP-32SII, and took the hint.
First, some general comments. I judged the overall quality of the calculator to be quite good. The keys have a good solid feel, like traditional HP calculators. It has about 80 times the memory of the HP-32SII, and I found it to run about 2.5 times faster. The manual is excellent -- clear and very well written, and similar to the HP-32SII manual.
The HP-33S has a few new features that weren't on the HP-32SII:
- Both RPN and algebraic entry modes. (The default is RPN.) I use RPN exclusively myself.
- Several new functions: cube, cube root, integer divide, remainder, greatest integer, and signum.
- A menu with 40 built-in physical constants (speed of light, electron charge, etc.). This is a great feature; I was constantly having to look up physical constants and store them in registers; now the constants are built in.
- A feature to shift the exponent of a number in engineering mode by factors of 1000.
- Four-way cursor keys (as you would find on a PDA or graphing calculator).
- Two-line display (to show both the X and Y registers).
The HP-33S does have a couple of drawbacks:
- Most importantly, as others have noted, the decimal point (and comma) are WAY too small. The decimal point can be difficult to see, especially when it comes after a digit 2.
- The rather bizarre V-shaped keyboard is a bit strange, but not really a problem. It just tends to give the keyboard a bit of a cluttered look. I'd rather see a traditional HP rectangular layout with blue and gold function keys on a dark background.
If you are a science or engineering professional or serious student, I would recommend this calculator as the best one being made today. Hopefully HP will come out with an HP-33SII that corrects the design problems -- then they'll have a five-star calculator.
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Pocket-sized and full-featured, the HP 33s Scientific Calculator is designed for engineers, surveyors, college students, scientists, and medical professionals. Its two-line display is easy to read, and at only 4.2 ounces, the unit slips easily into your pocket for travel.
Boasting both Reverse Polish Notation (RPN) and intuitive algebraic data entry modes, as well as 32 KB memory with 27 memory storage and recall functions, the 33s is ideal for solving a variety of science and engineering problems.
Functions include trigonometric, percentage, conversion, coordinate, time, angle, probability, factorial, gamma, fractions, and a variety of statistical operations. The calculator can solve equations, integrate, work with complex numbers, and is programmable. The 386-page manual thoroughly reviews the calculator's many features. When purchased new, the unit is backed by HP's one-year limited warranty.
What's in the Box Calculator, two 3-volt lithium coin batteries (CR2032), instruction manual
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