Ah. My HP 48GX. I still love this calculator. It's smiling at me as I write this epinion. I got my HP 48GX about 7 years ago. At the time, I was a poor student frustrated with my TI-82. It didn't do stuff I needed it to do! I outgrew it way too fast (or at least my classes did). I was determined that this would not happen to me with my next calculator. Upgrading calculators regularly is just too expensive. I did a little research, and found out the HP 48GX fit the bill. It was pricey, but it would last me forever. I found a decent price for it at the time (a little over $100).

Using the HP 48GX

Uh, what did I just fork out over 100 bucks for? I put in the 3 AAA batteries, and I realized I couldn't even get it to add 2+2! If you are not familiar with the HP's stack environment, you won't know how to add 2+2 on it, either, much less perform all sorts of complicated calculations. So, worrying a little bit about the $100 that I just may have thrown away, I opened the quick start guide. Hmm, I started playing around with it, and the stack environment didn't seem so bad after all. Actually, it was kind of cool to think how useful it could be! At any rate, it did take a week or 2 before I stopped getting error messages because I was using the syntax of a regular calculator. Once I got used to the HP, it was actually hard to use a regular calculator again. I'd become so accustomed to the HP.

HP 48GX as the ultimate geek status symbol

At the time that I bought it, I didn't realize it was a status symbol. I just thought it was awfully cool to have a calculator that had as much RAM (128K) as the old Apple IIe that I used to write programs in Basic on! I also loved the solid feel of the buttons (the TI-85, the TI competitor of the day, felt so soft next to it), the engravable nameplate (yup, my name is engraved on it!), and the nice big manual that explained how to get it to do all the neat things you never thought a calculator could do!

However, I soon found out that having an HP puts you into an elite group of calculator users! Yes, the HP 48GX was a status symbol. It's pretty cool to think you just bought a really great calculator, and then find out that you may as well have bought a Porsche or Lamborghini for all the status you now have! Yes, other, lesser students would ask to borrow your calculator for a sec, and then give it back dejectedly as they realized that they couldn't use it. Fellow HP owners looked at you with respect as you pulled out your HP in chemistry, calculus, or physics.

The HP 48GX can get you a date!

This is not an advertised feature of the HP 48 GX, and perhaps this aspect of the calculator works better for girls, but the HP 48GX was responsible for getting me a date. One day in one of my chemistry classes, a guy next to me noticed my calculator. I don't know if he had paid much attention to me before or not, but his eyes definitely lit up when he saw me and my HP. Anyway, he asked me out, and we dated for a while and even now we remain good friends (although we have since moved on - I am married now, and yes, my husband also had an HP). At the time, I didn't realize the importance of the HP as the catalyst for our relationship, but he later confessed that he had to ask me out when he saw me pull out my HP!

So, how helpful was my HP 48GX to me in college?

Occasionally there was a professor who would let you do all your work on your calculator (i.e. you did not need to show your work). Either it was an advanced class (and they knew you already knew how to solve the problems), or else I figured that they thought if we were smart enough to use our calculators, who cared as long as we had the right answer. More common was the professor who would allow you to use a calculator, but you still had to show all the steps in your work. I tend to be the type of person who knows how to solve the problem, but is likely to make a stupid mathematical error in the process, so having my HP helped out so much! I was able to solve the problem by hand, and then enter it into my HP to see if I left out a negative sign somewhere. I remember distinctly losing track of numbers in linear algebra, but with my HP I could enter in the matrices and check out my work.

Forget V=IR? Well, maybe you remember that one, but what if you forget Coulomb's Law? No problem - just look it up in the equation library. Yes, my friends, the HP 48GX has a huge, built-in equation library. It has more than 300 equations, and this is really, really helpful if your mind goes blank or if you stayed up so late studying you can no longer even spell the word "red."

Of course, it graphs. Again, you most likely will not be born with the knowledge of how to get it to do so, but with a little help from the manual, you'll be graphing all sorts of strange objects, and of course you'll be able to calculate the volume for your calculus class.

What about for pros?

Although the HP is already equipped with all sorts of features, there are many software cards that fit in your expandable HP 48GX. Whether you are a surveyor, engineer, physicist, statistician, etc, there is either a separate card you can buy or software you can download for your HP. Wait...how can you download it into your calculator, you may wonder? Well, although I don't surf with my HP, there is a nifty little serial port that will allow it, with the appropriate cables, to talk to your PC. You want your HP to do something unique? No problem, just program it to do whatever you need. Additionally, if you do lots of crunching with your HP, you can use one or both ports to expand your RAM - up to 1MB memory cards are available.

Just plain cool

So, you notice a fellow HP owner playing a cool game on his/her HP. Do you have to go home and download it? No, you can just snag it from your friend. There is no need for cables; just set up the I/O function, put your HPs back-to-back, and let them talk via the IR port. Now you can spend your study hours playing games, too.

Not for everyone

Elitist remarks aside, and as much as I love my HP, I realize it is not the calculator for everyone. Some people either can't get used to the environment, or they just don't like it. It is definitely more calculator than most people will ever need, so it may be overkill to spend the money on an HP 48GX. For those who need a graphic/scientific calculator, the TI-85 was a great calculator as well (even though I criticized its buttons, it was a very capable calculator with a more traditional calculator feel). I don't think that it's available anymore, but the TI-89 probably is the updated replacement. If you are considering the HP 48GX, just make sure you're up to - yes, heaven forbid, reading the manual! I bet you'll need to!