About the HP 50g
The HP 50g is the latest calculator in Hewlett-Packard’s graphing calculator lineup. It was released in 2006 and is the primary competitor to the more popular TI-89 Titanium.
If you are not required by a school to use a specific calculator, your choice will most likely narrow down to one of these two. I decided to buy the HP 50g as opposed to the TI-89 Titanium, but they are both very similar and which one you chose is mostly going to come down to personal preference.
I found that the HP 50g is a more able calculator overall, however I found it difficult and confusing to use at the start. The HP 50g also has both an RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) mode and an algebraic mode. For newer users I suggest you take the time and effort to learn how to effectively use RPN mode. It is much easier to do longer calculations without having multiple layers of nested parentheses (these were always a big source of error for me), and RPN will usually use less keystrokes than algebraic mode.
I was a long time user of the TI-83+ (8 years) so I was very used to it by the time I bought my HP 50g. Like I said before, I found it very difficult to get used to at the start. The official manuals were not very detailed and had numerous errors. I also get the feeling that the calculator was designed mainly to be used in RPN mode which is confusing to new users. Because of this I had to search around on the internet and learn by trial to get a good grasp on this calculator. Even some of the most basic functions like graphing took me a while to figure out. It is worthwhile to note that there are usually multiple ways to do the same thing on this calculator.
Below are some general links to official websites, helpful third party websites, and other links I find useful. To access the tutorials on my page, use the drop down menu item titled “HP 50g” at the top of the page.
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