Quality of Gadgets

In 1989 I bought a HP-28C calculator (which at that time was already a few years old).  After a few month it got killed by a leaking battery - but Duracell immediately replaced the calculator with the newer HP-28S model:



I haven't used it for a while because the size of batteries that it uses are somewhat rare. But I finally managed to find some, and guess what - it still works flawlessly. Mechanically it's as sound as when it was new - and that's even though I remember when I bought it, I thought the hinge mechanism would break one day.

What's even more amazing is that it still to this day almost unsurpassed as a scientific calculator(in fact I reckon it only got beaten once - by the following HP-48SX model - even though the keyboard on that one wasn't nearly as good as the HP-28C/S).

It wasn't cheap back when I bought it (around US$ 235 + danish sales tax - seem to remember somewhere around DKK 2000), but in terms of value for money it has got to be an all time number one.  Try to imagine today - 1989 to 2010 - 21 years.  Imagine the mobile phone you buy today still functioning in 2030 and still have any relevance whatsoever.

For a trip down memory lane - check this: HP Museum.