My Thoughts on the HP49

This page used to be filled with rants about the quality of the 49G. I have removed most of this simply because many of my problems applied to pre-production models only and were not indicative of the production calculator. The point of this page was not to scare away potential customers but to tell people of my problems, nearly all of which were related to my screen cover removal or the fact that it was a pre-production calculator. I have now condensed this down to a page with the same theme as the original but with less potentially misleading information.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to say the 49G is a bad calculator. My only real complaint is that, IMHO, HP had a design flaw in their calculator (the screen cover), and after remedying the problem (removing the screen cover), the calculator is very prone to breaking. Since it seems that many people remove the screen cover, I would like to report on my problems related to the modification. I'll also mention a few other faults in my calculator related to it being a pre-production model.

I have been very happy with the 49G in general. The software is excellent, and with the exception of the outdated CPU the hardware is quite good as well.

HP's service and support are the best in the business. For what other commercial product do the programmers post technical data to the newsgroup, help people with their problems, and keep us up to date on forthcoming bugfixes and additional features?

On my 49G, two keys were installed upside down: the 1 key and the 8 key. The numbers were printed on fine, but the rubber keys themselves are upside down because they are rounded on the top instead of the bottom, like the rest of the keys.

This mainly affected pre-production 49G's (such as my own, serial ID92400211), but HP has not ruled out the possibility of this happening on production calculators. If you have a calculator with an upside-down key, hang on to it, as it may be worth a lot someday.

I scanned my calculator to show the upside-down keys, but it didn't show up well, so below is a scan of an upside-down key that was sent to me by HP.

My pre-production 49G also had dimples in the plastic in the back. In my opinion, this was related to the mold being too new to make perfect plastic, as all production 49G's which I have seen (at least a dozen) have been fine.

Soon after getting the replacement calculator I removed the screen cover. It did wonders for the sharpness of the screen! Plus, I no longer had to worry about scratches or dust caught under the screen cover! After I removed the screen cover, however, I saw a crack in the blue plastic under the center of the top of the screen cover. Unfortunately, I think I caused this while removing the cover.

I should never have done this, as this voided the warranty, but I felt it was worth it because it made the screen so much easier to read. However, HP has told me that removing the screen cover greatly decreases the structural integrity of the calculator.

Now to explain what happened.

When not in use, I always keep the 49G in its hard case, which I then insert into the soft case from my 48G.  I figured this would provide plenty of shock protection.

In November, I dropped my 49G for the first time.  It was in both cases (soft and hard) at the time, and fell about 3 feet onto a hard surface.  It sustained a large crack, exactly in the middle of the blue plastic on the top of the calculator directly above the screen.  Because it landed top-first, the black I/O cover got a partially bashed in (but the serial cable still plugs in just fine, so it's no big deal).  The calculator still worked fine, and the crack isn't especially noticeable, so I never said anything about it. Below is a picture of the crack (sorry for the funny colors; my scanner is about 9 years old).

In December, I dropped my 49G for the second time.  Again, it was in both cases, and this time it fell about 4 feet onto a hard surface.  It landed bottom-first.  I turned it on and discovered that the bottom 8 or so rows of the screen no longer work.  Upon further inspection, I found a small crack in the lower-right corner of the screen.  Sometimes I can get a little bit to display on the bottom rows, but never consistently.

Below is a close-up picture of the screen, and if you look closely you can see the hairline crack in the lower-right corner of the screen. The crack seems to be below the surface of the glass, since I can't feel it.

I can still use the calculator, however, because I cleared flag -117 (for CHOOSE boxes instead of softkey menus), and I have memorized the positions of most other common softkeys, but I can't believe I did it.

Even though it was my fault I dropped the calculator, and it was my fault that I removed the screen cover, I am still not entirely certain that the 49G is as well-built as the 48GX. After all, my 48GX resides only in its soft case, although I did insert a piece of hard plastic cut from a CD jewel case into the pocket to protect the screen.  I have dropped my 48GX literally dozens of times over the years (but nearly always while in the soft case) onto both hard and soft floors, from up to 5 feet above the ground.  No, it was never on purpose. ;)

Yet my 48GX still works perfectly, and one would never know that it had been dropped so many times if I hadn't already said.  The 48GX really does do a good job at holding up against abuse. And from what I have read (such as the stories about HP's going through snowblowers, flying off a motorcycle going 100+ mph, and falling from the sky into a snowbank), earlier HP calculators were no less durable than the 48GX.

Finally, here is a picture of the whole calculator (again with funny color). Notice how I put black electrical tape around the screen to make it look good with the screen cover off. Here I have increased the contrast so you can more easily see where the non-working lines are.

After thinking about what happened, I feel that my 49G would have been much less likely to break had I not removed the screen cover, so as a precaution, never remove your screen cover unless you plan to keep your 49G stationary. If you're a student like I am and carry your calculator around a lot, leave the screen cover on. But if you're a professional and keep your calculator on your desk at all times, you might consider removing the cover.

An Idea for HP

Based on a post to comp.sys.hp48 about using a dremel tool to remove the clear part of the screen cover and then place the (now doughnut-shaped) screen cover back in the calculator, I have an idea for HP for a new screen cover.

This "screen cover" would not really cover the screen, as it would be open in the middle. It would have ridges around the screen (perhaps made of rubber, to prevent breaking the screen on impact) to prevent a gap from showing between the screen cover and the screen. I hope the drawing below properly illustrates what I want.

If you have any comments or questions about this page, please don't hesitate to email me.