11 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
What worked great in college works just as great in the real world
Date of Review: Nov 19, 2002
The Bottom Line: If you're looking for a basic financial calculator that is easy to use and affordable, look no further than the HP 10B.
I purchased this calculator 4 years ago or so while I was a business/finance student in college. The reason I bought this particular model was that one of my finance books had tutorials for the 10B in each chapter and step by step operation of the calculator using the various functions we learned. It was wonderful then and it's wonderful now as I make my through the world of real estate finance.
What I like:
- It's very easy to use. While I did like using RPN (reverse Polish notation) on other HP models, it could become tedious and forgetting just 1 time in your calculation to use the RPN system could be a catastrophe. The 10B can perform everyday financial calculations no problem with very little learning curve involved. I'm sure there are some obscure financial calculations that it cannot perform, but if you are doing calculations like that you're sure not going to spend $25 on a mid-grade calculator...stick to financial models on computers for that!
- The calculator is very durable, even though it is not heavy or bulky.
- I found the calculator to be very reasonably priced for what it can do, especially considering the name behind it.
What I don't like:
- The battery life is not something to brag about. With constant everyday use, I find that I have to replace the batteries every 4-6 months, which is a pain in the butt and the wallet. I wish the calculator had a solar panel, but no dice.
- I'd like a more visual calculator; one that showed you the functions and all like some of the higher end HP's, but that's not really something I don't like about this calculator...more of a "someday I might get..." statement.
Other than the battery life, this calculator is a winner. It's very basic and will perform all the financial functions that 90% of the people in finance will require. Heck, it got me through all my finance and accounting classes and landed me in the real world as a finance mogul! OK, well maybe that's a stretch, but it does help me on a daily basis here in the real world. :)
