Are calculators still a thing?

[SubLGT]

I have half a dozen calculators in the house that I use. My old scientific HP11C and financial HP12C still work great. I have two $6 Sharp EL-243S calculators for doing simple calculations. I have two Sharp EL-344R metric calculators. Also use a Canon desktop printing calculator. Long live the calculator!

 

[DBMaster]

Like most other small consumer tools, the cellphone has taken over. Most any Apple or Droid phone has a basic (and often scientific) calc available.

I still have my old HP 15C from my engineering days at school. I love the "reverse Polish" data entry, but it's just not a thing these days.

I've had my 15C since 1983. It was a high school graduation gift from my grandmother. It was $110 at the time - very expensive for a calculator in 1983. It was well worth it. I used it through college graduation and then at every job I had until retiring last year. It could be worth $150 today as a collectible.

BTW, there is an Android app called "RPN Calculator" that has nearly the same keyboard layout as the 15C. I am so used to RPN that it's difficult to use a standard calculator.

 

[racer12306]

I use PCalc on my phone for most of my mathing. Great calculator, converter, etc, etc, app. There's a free version and a paid version, worth the $10 it costs, if for no other reason that supporting a developer that actually updates their stuff. I especially like the tape feature.

At work I use a Casio fx-115MS, multi line and lets you type the full equation in before you hit enter for simple math. And a Sharp EL for accounting math, with paper tape.

My kids use TI-84 series in their 8th grade math and I do still have my TI-83+ from high school

 

[4WD]

Yes, I have to take courses that only allow calculators …
Grew up with HP RPN - have bought old - but still in the box from eBay

 

[tcp71]

Older boy is second year engineering. He has to have one of each of these. The non graphing one is for exams.

 

[ecotourist]

When I was a 4th year engineering student almost all of us still used slide rules. I have a very nice Hemmi Versalog with a leather case, both in perfect condition. [Seems they're worth quite a bit today.] One guy had a pocket calculator. He paid $300 for it when my first engineering job a few months later paid $9900/year. And that was good money in those days.

I have 4 TI calculators and 1 Canon. The oldest one doesn't work very well anymore (dirty connections I suppose) but I keep it because of its history. As an engineering grad student I had just bought a TI calculator which I promptly lost, but found this one while walking home a day or two later. It was close enough to identical that the manual for the one I had lost fully applied. I've often wondered if the guy who found mine lost this one.

My favourite is a TI-36 Solar which I use regularly. I especially like its ability to calculate future values and rates of return. And it lets you remove single fat finger digits. Perfect.

 

[John105]

I still have my HP 15C made in USA. I don’t use it daily but I guess like anything else it’s a thing to me. Some like to play a real guitar, some like Guitar hero it’s easier and more fun.

I have a 12C replica from dunno 20+ years ago and I set it to rpn. Hp calculators should not have an = sign. Just as BMWs should not have detents on turn signal stalks. Because I say so

 

[Rand]

I remember in math class..
"You have to be able to do this in your head you wont always have a calculator in your pocket"


Note: I got straight A's in math.. Not having used it in recent times... cant remember much now.

 

[Gyro Gearloose]

The $150 (an entire week of summer job pay) SR50A that went to engineering school with me 50 years ago. Still works perfectly except have to power it with external batteries. I retired it when TI came out with LCD calculators that would run for years on two button batteries.

 

[Urshurak776]

Yes, I have one on my phone.

 

[Popsy]

I'm still using a HP 17BII at work and missing it when I don't have it and need to use something else (Excel or phone). I have a few other HP like 48S/49G, and the HP printer that goes with them. A few TI and Casio somewhere too.

Now I feel like a dinosaur...times have changed.

 

[jhellwig]

I have several of these at home and work. Handy having a recall of the last several entries and multiple storage spots. I still do multi variable algebra at work.

 

[gfh77665]

Funny story, we use a specifc constant for certain calculations in my analytical laboratory job. When I hired on 20 years ago, I brought my then old calculator (mid 1990's?) to work. It was basic but did a fine job for my need. After a year or two the constant was no longer needed due to an upgrade in instrumentation, so I tossed the old calculator in my locker.

A short time ago I cleaned out the locker and found it on the bottom. I surely thought it was dead, but I powered it on and it lit up. I hit the memory recall and somehow that old constant accurately displayed after 18 or so years.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I was an an RPN fan from the get go. The last HP I bought was this HP35s I found at the UBC book store when I was getting one of my kids enrolled. Still use it a lot. No longer made.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Here is something from Wiki on the HP35s. Apparently, they stopped making them in 2021.

 

[Shel_B]

No batteries needed ...

 

[ka9mnx]

Back in the very early 70's my grandmother-in law gave me a Rockwell 9TR calculator for my birthday. I believe it was the first consumer calculator and it was advertised on TV all over the place. I was astonished! At the time it cost $75. I still have it and use it. Very nice calculator.

 

[factorytuned2012]

on my phone yes and use it regularly.

 

[Lubener]

What ever gets the job done.

 

[Oldwolf]

I have five old Hewlett-Packard calculators in my collection that I cycle through and enjoy using on a daily basis.