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From: hsu@eng.umd.edu (Dave "bd" Hsu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: HP-48SX: first impressions
Message-ID: <1990Mar14.182912.981@eng.umd.edu>
Date: 14 Mar 90 18:29:12 GMT
References: <6750@columbia.edu> <1157@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl> <10069@cbmvax.commodore.com>
Sender: news@eng.umd.edu (The News System)
Organization: Smurfbusters!
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In article <10069@cbmvax.commodore.com> sterling@cbmvax (Rick Sterling) writes:
>In article <1157@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl> ge@kunivv1.sci.kun.nl (Ge' Weijers) writes:
>> ji@close.cs.columbia.edu (John Ioannidis) writes:
>> >* It feels too flimsy. I can flex the case by about four degrees
>> >without fear of cracking it.
>> Flexible things are usually the hardest to damage.
>  I find the case design/quality seems a half-a-notch below usual HP 
>  standards ( or at least my expectations of HP quality ) but I wouldn't
>  characterize it as being ``flimsy''.

After a minor foul up in transcribing my credit card number,
EduCalc finally got my 48SX out to me.  I asked for second-day air,
but it arrived overnight anyway!

Flimsy is not a word to describe the case.  It feels quite sturdy
for a device of its size and shape.  However, this may be the first
HP I've seen whose keys protrude beyond the face of the device, and
can be actuated by pressing the calculator against a flat surface.
HP obviously noticed this long ago, and the ON key is noticeably
shallower than the others.  Kudos to the Mech E's who managed to pack
so much into so little.

Some of the procedures the manual recommends regarding plug-in cards
are sure to give users the willies, namely the part about reconnecting
merged memory with the calculator on.  Is this really safe, when the
caution four pages earlier warns that all of user memory could be
erased?

So far, this is a terrific device, but the EquationWriter does get
bogged down displaying only modestly complicated equations.  All
these unlabeled right-shifts...

-dave

--
Dave Hsu	 Systems Research Center, Building 115    (301) 454 8867
hsu@eng.umd.edu  The Maryversity of Uniland, College Park, MD 20742-3311

"I'm fishing.  No I'm not, I'm newting!"  - A. A. Milne