Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#121

Post by kenanfyi » Wed, Feb 04, 2026, 8:50 AM UTC

- I use my HP Prime at work almost daily and I love that it has a touch screen where I can quickly copy paste past calculations. This in my opinion is better than using a stack calculator and RPN. There are also some small programs I wrote for like calculating parallel pairs for a given resistor value, based on E-Series since calculating resistors for stuff is quite a standard thing for your day as an hardware design engineer.

- I also have a Casio fx-991ES Plus which I bought during my student years and love to use it, because it is way faster for quick stuff than my Prime and I changed its battery in the past 10 years just once. This is not the case for Prime where I have to charge it every week or two. But doesn't bother me. Prime is an amazing calculator.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#122

Post by pseudohadamard » Wed, Feb 04, 2026, 10:29 AM UTC

readingnews wrote: post #2

I have an old HP 15C RPN scientific calculator. - I know where the buttons are without looking. - It has functions my Android calculator does not have (directly or that I know of). - It has a strange satisfying tactile feedback. - It never interrupts me. Ever. - It never distracts me. Ever. I reach for it frequently.

I have some generic Sharp calculator with an apparently-immortal battery and a nice multiline display. It has all sorts of fancy functions that I never use. Apart from that, everything the OP said.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#123

Post by tamiral » Wed, Feb 04, 2026, 3:21 PM UTC

i still use my TI calculator for the engineering days. It's such a useful piece of hardware. I dont do any big calculations anymore but still gives you that feeling of slowing down without notifications.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#124

Post by rodrigodlu » Wed, Feb 04, 2026, 4:30 PM UTC

Yes. Casio FX-991 es plus.

I did use for integrals, derivatives, etc, in a distant past.

Now I'm using to do simple calculations, including checking Claude code/opus math and logic.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#125

Post by fullstick » Wed, Feb 04, 2026, 4:40 PM UTC

Yes. My TI-30X has been in my backpack since I started college 17 years ago. It still works flawlessly every time I pull it out

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#126

Post by zippyman55 » Wed, Feb 04, 2026, 9:39 PM UTC

readingnews wrote: post #2

I have an old HP 15C RPN scientific calculator. - I know where the buttons are without looking. - It has functions my Android calculator does not have (directly or that I know of). - It has a strange satisfying tactile feedback. - It never interrupts me. Ever. - It never distracts me. Ever. I reach for it frequently.

I still have mine too! My non-techncial wife learned to use it, and I smile everytime she used RPN.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#127

Post by zippyman55 » Wed, Feb 04, 2026, 9:41 PM UTC

AlphaGeekZulu wrote: post #28

- I have a HP 16C, mainly for doing number conversions (DEC-HEX-BIN) and binary arithmetic. - I have a HP 15C to take with me all the time (due to its small form factor). - I have a HP 48 GX as main calculator, it is most feature complete and has a clock and alarms. I use it a lot for time calculations. - I have a HP 48 SX, but did not use it much any more after acquiring the 48 GX. - I have a HP 10bII+, which was a…

I carry a side rule. About two years ago, someone at work remarked that I probably don't have a slide rule. A quick trip to the car and back and he was very impressed.

My Bomar MX100 calculator and my HP 12C. Love them!

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#128

Post by tmaly » Wed, Feb 04, 2026, 9:51 PM UTC

I still use a basic calculator once in a while when I want to get away from a screen and just work on paper.

I haven't turned on my old TI-85 in a while.

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#129

Post by 2ICofafireteam » Fri, Feb 06, 2026, 2:00 PM UTC

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #118

2ICofafireteam wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, but for the cleanliness and safety of my phone.

>the cleanliness and safety of phones As a habit, I do not touch others' phones. CoVid helped solidify this decision, but meeting a sex worker that also cleaned houses was the real eye-opener — she would casually go from cleaning a toilet to washing dishes to fluffing johns... then hop right back on her phone. In my previous career (as electrician) many crawlspace disasters were photographed on my own personal device…

At work that phone would be called a secondary contamination source....and in an aquarium perhaps a refugium?

Re: Ask HN: Do you still use physical calculators?

#130

Post by ProllyInfamous » Sat, Feb 07, 2026, 1:06 PM UTC

2ICofafireteam wrote: post #129

ProllyInfamous wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the cleanliness and safety of phones As a habit, I do not touch others' phones. CoVid helped solidify this decision, but meeting a sex worker that also cleaned houses was the real eye-opener — she would casually go from cleaning a toilet to washing dishes to fluffing johns... then hop right back on her phone. In my previous career (as electrician) many crawlspace disasters were photographed on my own personal device…

At work that phone would be called a secondary contamination source....and in an aquarium perhaps a refugium?

I worked in a laptop repair facility decades ago... at the time I didn't realize how contaminated they were =X

As a habit when people want to show me something on their phone (or translation apps/whatever) I put hands into pockets.

—retired from blunt passing