Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 167
 Buying an HP 35s June 29, 2009
James Silverton (Washington, DC)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
The purchase went thro very smoothly and delivery was much faster than I had expected.
HP 35s Calculator June 28, 2009
pesacadman (NE PA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Big HP RPN fan and a great compliment to the HP 33s, which I plan on using both when I sit for the Professional Engineer exam!
If you are just picking one, go with the HP 35s, better button feel, classic look, and better programming capabilities.
 35s Scinetific Calculator June 17, 2009
Sheila Bryant (Florida)
This is a good product, but it is very difficult to use for people who need to use it for the first time. I purchased this calcultor to be used for Mathematics Applied to Electronics. The manual - although lengthy, was difficult to follow. Additionally, even some math tutors complained about being able to figure out how to use the calculator. There is just not enough detail for a beginner. However, should you be comfortable with higer level maths and have used a calculator for some time - like an engineering professor, you probably won't have a problem. My professor had to train me on some of the functions. I like the display - nice clear, large numbers, but be careful not to confuse the period with a comma. At certain angels they are difficult to distinguish. The cost was very reasonable. Also if you want a calculator, but do not need the graphing capabilities this is the one you should use. I tried to the TI 36XII and it was even more difficult to manuever. However, as I use the calcultor more, I am gaining an understanding of how to use it.
 Very good quality HP scientific calculator June 12, 2009
Ann E. Revelle (Los Alamos, New Mexico)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
UPDATE from my August 07, 2007 initial review:
I have owned top of the line graphing and scientific calculators from TI, HP, Casio, Sharp, etc. 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, the HP35s, continues that HP tradition of the HP35 and is definitely put together very well. It is also an extremely good improvement over its predecessor, the HP33s with more memory and with a much improved keyboard layout and improved keyboard "feel" and a much better feature set overall, etc. The pros and cons as I see it are:
PROS:
1) It has many of the standard features that we have come to expect on such a machine with the exception of statistical regressions beyond those that are strictly in the "linear" approximation (See CON below). Matrix manipulations and a few others are totally missing however, so be careful and look at the available list of functions before buying this unit just to be safe and not sorry later on.
2) The machine itself has about 30kB of RAM with ~8000+ available memory storage registers and overall operates quite fast.
3) 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. It emulates the old 1970's HP35 quite well, just as it was designed to do with a very fine keyboard feel.
4) Either the famous RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) and an algebraic Equation Operating System (EOS) are available to be chosen depending on the wishes of the user and on the problem to be tackled.
5) 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.
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.
3) The HP35s requires two coin cell batteries which are usually much harder to find than traditional AA or AAA batteries, but as a result the unit is almost pocketable and is very light.
4) HP should have already added into the ROM the other standard common regression types (power law, exponential and logarithmic curve-fits) instead of having to waste valuable programming memory space for them after they have been programmed in by hand by the user. These as well as many more types are now readily available on both simpler HP algebraic-only machines (HP Smartcalc 300s) as well as on competing similar models by both Casio (FX-115ES) and by Sharp (EL-516B or EL-506WBBK).
5) There is no computer user interface available at all or even an external power adapter port.
6) It will not take the square root, etc. of negative numbers (it simply gives an error message), but many other currently available scientific calculators will readily accomplish this task. It will work with complex numbers, but this lack of full capability is very limiting in my opinion.
7) HP should also add a back-light 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 for example.
Excellent, but could be great... June 10, 2009
K. Morris (Byron, GA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A near perfect calculator with many great features. I don't really have any complaints, however, it is not the fantastic quality of my older HP's. It seems that they cut the corners just a little for cost purposes. There is just something that doesn't quite meet the high standard of their past calculators. Functionally I couldn't ask for more. I love both RPN and AlG entry depending on what I am doing. I recommend you purchase this if you are looking for an excellent HP. It was only $34 on Buy.com on sale. Look around for the best price. I paid $45 on Amazon and found it on sale the next day on Buy.com?!?!?
Showing reviews 21-25 of 167
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