More HP19bII

I have received a new HP19bII and was remembering what a wonderful general-purpose calculator it was! If you are not a student or academic, and you are a businessman or engineer, not having to do many on-site extremely complicated equation system solving or matrix work, the HP19bII has everything for you. Really!

Only in the last iteration did the HP17bII get a currency exchange menu. Well, it has been there in the HP19bII from the start! Also, there has been no general purpose calculator that had units of measure translation - you needed to go to RPL graphical calculators. Again, the HP19bII had it!

Time calculations and a true clock, with easy-to-set alarms and messages? check; A complete alphabetic keyboard (albeit in an awkward format)? check. The most complete set of financial and comparison calculations, in a menu format and seeing the three previous results? check. Statistical 2-variable, list based functions (as opposed to a set of registers getting accumulated data like it had been in the previous, non alphanumeric calculator)? check. And it handles also NPV and TIR in intelligent ways, using list of flows and times these flows happen.

The only grips I have with this calculator are two: the huge amount of real estate it takes on your desk, most of it not utilized during most of the time; and the very poor design of the side door for the batteries, although the latest model had a door on the back, which negated this - but these are few and far apart, and have a different price altogether). Being a little more picky, the contrast of the screen is not so good - more so compared with the latest HP calculators.