Why is the HP 15C so expensive?

[stevenb]

I bought a HP-11C app for my iPhone, and I'm impressed with it. It seems a good alternative for anyone who carries a smart phone around anyway. There are good HP-12 and HP-15 apps as well. Also, the price is cheaper. For example, my HP-11C app was $9.99.

 

[Antiphon]

The i41CX app for the iPhone is as close to a perfect replica of the 41CV as you can get and it's far less than $100. I own a real 15C but I no longer use it- the iPhone 41CX is just too good and too convenient.

 

[NemoReally]

I eBayed an 11C recently (good but lacks a number of 15C features (eg, complex numbers)) - it now sits in my jacket pocket as its about a cm to tall for my shirt pocket. I haven't used RPN for decades but it was pretty quick to pick up again and get used to ... "normal" calculators now seem irritating.

There are a couple of HP 11/15 emulators out there for Android (and probably Windows & iOS) that will allow somebody to get a feel for the calculators and their capabilities. The big advantage of the actual calculator, IMO, is the dedicated hardware keyboard ... I can use touchscreens but I find them to be slower and more error prone than a proper keyboard, and the HP 11C/15C keyboards are gems.

 

[AB4O]

On several of the apps they have useful features like memory views of the registers, programming lines, etc. But I agree with nemo, nothing like the feel of those hp keys. I feel one advantage of the little clones from the pictures anyway is those keys look sealed. That should really help the life of the keyboard. I am probably going to get one of the 15c units soon.