The Venerable HP 12C Reborn
Posted in Inspiration, Thoughts - June 26, 2009 - tim
The HP 11C & 12C calculators (I’m talking back when these were physical hand-held devices, not an app on your phone or desktop) are held up by many as the best designed calculators ever, and I have to agree. High geek factor, but their physical layout and design was somehow incredibly different. I have to say that apart from some obscure Sony devices I’ve owned (that you usually only see in Japan), my old 11C (which I still have, it still works, and it’s still pristine) was as close to an Apple-like product refinement as I’ve found, outside of Apple.
Great to see that HP has now released a version of the 12C and 15C as iPhone apps (see the app here), and they’re getting rave reviews. But unless you’ve actually felt the real device, with it’s strangely canted 3-mode keys and great landscape layout, you haven’t really enjoyed the device. My 11C was meant to be handled and there are few strange devices I own (I have a horrible habit of keeping all of my computing devices going back many years) that feel as nice in the hand.
Back in business school at Berkeley everyone had a 12C, but I opted for the 11C because you could actually program it – which I was geeky enough to do. I have to confess that I went as far as replacing the “badge” on my 11C with a 12C badge I found so that I could use my 11C in some classes where the 11C was banned (because it was programmable). I went to immense lengths to design and program in complex programs to solve tough financial problems – then in class just ran the program, plugged in the variables, and voila. Not completely kosher, but I have to say in having to actually design, implement and test programs on the 11C I probably learned more about the subject problem than my peers.
Cheers to a beautifully designed device, that brings back lots of memories.
