Excellent RPN calc. - Much nicer than 33S

Well, I bit the bullet and bought a 12C from Samson Cables. This particular version was the Platinum Anniversary Edition. My rationale for purchasing it was that I have worn out several calculators in my day job, and I was not going to move to a TI or AOS calculator if I could at all help it.

Appearance
I find the form factor quite usable, and actually preferable. I like the shirtpocket capability and I think it adds some class to my desk. I am not thrilled with the adhesive backed serial number though, which conveys a cheapness.

I dislike the appearance of the yellow and blue function keys as they look cheap to me. (think Monopoly token). My aging eyes also have a great deal of trouble with the yellow?/red?/orange? on black function labels as well.

The display is crisp, and easy to see. If I brush my finger along the display panel however, the LCD shows a black colour change as a result of the deformation. I am a little concerned about fragility or the screen. I think the older display covers were thicker acrylic than this one. Also, the calculator does not sit flat on my desk. Why is this such a hard thing to do?

Feel
The calc. feels well constructed, although time will be a better judge of this. The calc is tight, and the keys have a nice tactile click that feels a lot like the HP of old albeit a bit "plasticky". The ON key however, requires a little harder push to turn on. I am concerned that this points to a poorer quality keyboard even though it is nice and tight now.

The on-off button is not sunk as previous calcs, but I don't see this as an issue. A major annoyance however, is the fact that the on-off button works like an on-off button in that pressing it a second time turns the calc. off. While this may be intellectually intuitive, after many years of a sunken on-off button necessitating a second (function) key press, I find that this is a major pain to get used to. It would not be as big a deal if the on-off button were way outside the keyboard. It has a square shape that is only marginally smaller than a regular key and can be easily confused when keying quickly. It can be mis-hit when going quickly for the f shift key or the R/S key.

OS Features
Kudos to HP for nicely integrating the RPN and ALG operating systems into one calc with a large enter button. I don't use ALG if I can help it, so I won't go into that discussion.

I am less thrilled about the backspace feature which is located under the "-" key. I would prefer a shifted CLx function. Why have a CL REG feature AND a CL Sigma feature? Seems duplicitous to me. I also don't like the CL program function. I see this as too potentially destructive and does not point to long term program writing/usage/storage to me.

I like the undo feature, but I don't see a whole lot of use for it. In addition, the undo feature is under a shifted operand. Maybe my opinion will change once I use it for a while but I think I would use the Lst X feature a whole lot more.

Lastly, I am grateful that there are not too many menus to navigate through to get a function. My 42 was awkward, but the my 48 was atrocious. The 12 has no hidden menus - all the keys are labelled according to their respective function!

Speed
I am told the speed is 6X faster than the regular 12C. I don't know about that, but I can tell you it is quick. This makes it a lot of fun to play with. I just don't have anything to compare other than coded programs on the 42/48. It is not as fast as the 48, but it does seem quicker than the 42. Not a scientific analysis or comparison though.

Overall

I like having the financial keys labelled. (I am finding that I spend less time doing engineering and more time doing management functions). This is a nice feature for quick and dirty calculations rather than wait for Excel to start up. I would really like this calc. with a few more scientific functions however. (maybe some trig functions? a Pi key? and less shifted operands. Take the CLR Prgm and Prefix buttons and move them and maybe have the RPN/ALG set by a flag as opposed to using two shifted keys for them. You could then use the RPN/ALG keys (f CHS and f EEX) for other functions. For example Shift Enter could then be the RPN/AOS flag.

I have not done a whole lot of programming on it yet, as I am having to (re) learn programming without text again. I don't think this will be a problem, but I have gotten a little older and lazier since I first started with calculators. I will say that after using some of the more powerful programmable calculators such as the 42 and 48, I am finding the 12 to be a little dated in that respect as it uses line #'s as opposed to labels for program headers.

Conclusions

Am I happy I purchased it? You bet. It is a reminder of what HP used to do, and how they could adapt traditional form factors into a classy, speedy machine for today's market place. Now if they would only graft that cheesy 33 into a 12 body for a REAL scientific/business type RPN calculator with a big RPN button. Now THAT is a calculator I would buy.