My husband’s mother gave one of these with a booklet, its crazy at how instructions use to be so much more informative back then and its been quite useful.
I have the 12c from the 90's with the spiral manual, which is now like gold. I bought the new Plat 12c unit as an extra unit for my briefcase carry, and it has no manual but you can download a PDF manual for it.
The spiral manual is filled with tons of real world examples to demonstrate the capabilities of the calculator. Absolutely wonderful. They really don't make them like this anymore.
I have had my HP-12C for over 35 years and It works great for me. I realize that the newer models may be faster, but my Gold HP-12C has never let me down. In conclusion " IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT " !
I got mine for an MBA finance class 23 years ago and use it regularly. It's perfect for quick calculations without another window clogging up my computer screen. When I'm on the go, a 12C mobile app on my phone does the trick too.
When I was an engineering undergrad in the mid 1980s the HP 41C and its variants were the kings and I cherished mine, using it until it got stolen in the early 2000s. There was also a business school on campus and all those people had the "other" calculator, the 12C. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, had one.
During undergrad as a biology student I had both a 22S and a 32S and they were tremendous. The 32S was useful in physics classes while the 22S was slightly better suited to Chemistry and Biology. I have always loved the layout of the 12C and I finally bought one to keep here at my desk while I work instead of pulling up my phone and struggling with the native calculator app.
I still have my HP12C from 1987. It still works well although I don't have much need to use it now. Memories of doing Internal Rate of Return, Ne Present Value and Discount Rate calcs come flooding back!
The only RPN calculator you can be confident carrying around with you without worrying about it being stolen (as all the others are just really damn expensive)
I found a 12c on the road. Must of fallen out of someone’s bag. I work at an accounting firm. When I picked it up it must of been runner over several times. I found the battery cover. Latter I installed new batteries and it turned on. I did several calculations and it still works perfectly. It’s from 1982.
I much prefer the original design HP branding, a nod to the legend, I've just ordered a 12C platinum (platinum/black model) getting too many migraines working with large numbers in my head trading and the 12C has some very handy functions for trading and fits in my pocket! cant wait for it to arrive!
Like you, I'm not a fan of gold things, but the 12c was my first HP calculator with RPN. I got it in the late 1990s, which is exactly like the original from the '80s. I love the RPN, the simplicity, and I don't care that it's a bit slow. It's an awesome piece of kit and history.
Something you did not mention about the Platinum series is that internally it has two more significant digits of precision. You can show that by doing a calculation that has >12 decimals (e.g. 1/3), subtract 0.33333 from it and show the "prefix" it will show 7 significant digits. This can matter of your calculations involve high precision requirements. Although, most financial calculations, are down to the cent and rarely above millions in private property calculations.
Nice video and a Make that I couldn't afford back in the 70's - so just got myself a 12C just now for nostalgia reasons. The hand movements for the calculation are quite quick so here they are broken down (if you want to test out your own 12C to make sure it works okay). 50000 CHS [g]CFo 12000 [g]CFj 5 [g]Nj [f]IRR Should give the answer 6.40 Hope this helps. ... Where [g] is press the blue 'g' - but release before pressing next key.
Thumbs up to your video! Which keyboard tactile feel is the best? The latest HP 12C Platinum sucks as I had several misses on it and gave up. The original 12Cs seem to have the best tactile feel and much quieter as well. Anything from 2005 and beyond seems clicky and mushy. The 25th and 30th Ann ones that I have seem to be Ok but still not as good as the original that I have from earlier. There are so many different versions and probably same versions made out of different countries that the 12C comes like an assorted box of chocolates and hard to tell what is good at what! Mind boggling!. By the way, the stack shift behaviour that you referred to is probably because when you hit the CHS key it is like hitting the enter key and it pushes the -5 to the Y register .. and then when you enter 2 + .. the answer comes out as -3. Everytime we hit Enter the number on the display gets put to register Y .. so I am suggesting that when you hit CHS the same could be happening. Cheers.
Because all of mine have had different amounts of use it is difficult to say which has the best feel. A lot of people seem to prefer the original gold 12C keyboards, but I find the modern ones are great too.
@@CalculatorCulture Thanks for the reply. More recently, I found the modern 12C with double cell battery version made in Phillipines to have a very good reliable key action. This is much better than the latest single battery made in China version of the 12C which in my opinion has an inferior key action including key-in misses. Cheers.
I prefer (by far) the classic 12C (the golden one). Nothing compares to the pleasure of obtaining results on a classic calculator dedicated to finances, in an elegant, sober design that leaves others perplexed. In addition, the only RPN mode, means that few people can understand its operation.
I have both IOS apps (12c, 15c) and physical calculators (12c, 35s) originals from hp. Software versions are fast, but I have to buy the iPhone 12 Pro Max (for size) to enjoy using the apps. Hovever, the feel of real calculator keyboard clicks is so much more assuring. My only complaint is the blue-colored shift key functions are a bit hard to see in low light in the physical units. Nevertheless, it’s nice to have the soft apps as backups.
Totally agree with the blue coloured shift key functions being hard to see .. in fact what were they thinking!! The tactile feel cannot be beat and it is all about the brain feeling better as well! Hate calculators on a hard screen, feels like hitting a brick wall! haha..!
The stack behavior of the 12C plus appeared to be the same as the original yielding -3.00 NOT the same as the platinum silver behavior as you mention in the video. Or am I misunderstanding something? Also.. the new 12C is made in China vs. the original being made in the US. Do you notice a difference in feel (button press) and/or quality?
I recall Scrobot Asaurus's big speed comparisons of different programmable calculators running the same simple algorithm always have the original HP Voyagers coming in as the slowest of the lot, really amazingly poky. But for many purposes, it doesn't matter that much and they're just so physically well-designed.
Yeah, the Nut core processor in the original Voyagers only ran at 400Mhz. They did have very long battery life though! There is a comprehensive benchmark list for programmable calculators here. www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/articles.cgi?read=700
Hi! It's missing the HP12C Prestige! Anyway, it is just a disguised 2nd. series Platinum, with a hard-to-read (f)-shifted function set (the brass-collored background of the keyboard faceplate was not well chosen, though...)
Good review, i noticed 2 versions of platinum 12c, one has hewlett packard at the bottom, other one same as blackkeyboard but hewlett packard is missing. so which is very latest one.
Not a bad start at least I knew a fastor 12C in gold existed but I think need to go more in depth , ebay is awash with dodgy junk. I found elsewhere that you can get a 12C with the same model number as the limited edition 12C. HSTNJ-KN05. And the one to avoid is the one with bad percentage sign and " slightly duller and less-legible shades of orange and blue paint for the f and g functions" it has badly shaped o's tall and narrow versus nice and round the HSTNJ-IN04 is a bad one found someone with one failed within a year. Plus of course dual CR2032 batteries that keep all your settings very useful indeed.
An ex-girlfriend used to have a 12C Prestige (full gold, like the prestige silver style), but someone at her university liked it very much and silently took it away... And I still have my Prestige silver, first version with no ( and ), but they keyboard is failling pretty bad, unfortunately.
How does the keyboard on both modern 12C and 12C Platinum calculators feel (keys' action clicks) and compare to the old 12C and 48G, both of which have a very solid, robust and satisfactory "click" feel when operating the keys. Is the keyboard on the modern ones on par with the old ones? Or is it weaker, of less quality? Thank you!
Is the upper silver band (which contains the calculator screen) on the 12C Platinum made of metal (aluminum / stainless steel) or plastic? On the old 12C ones it is metal (it looks brushed brass), but I'm not sure on the modern 12C Platinum... ¿?
@@CalculatorCulture Well, I confirm it is metal. Although it looks glossy plastic to the eye, but it is cold to the touch (sensitive skin) and it is conductive (tested with a multimeter). So yes, it is metal, covered with sort of transparent coating protection (protective lacquer, etc.)
My HP 12C from the 1980's will not work, with new batteries, it just quit one day. Any ideas how I can Jump Start it? I love using it in real estate, shopping, bill paying, calculating complicated math problems, etc. HELP! I miss using it! Thank you for this presentation.
@@raphael4655 falando sério, meio que existe dois tipos de calculadora HP 12c, é a que tem apenas 99 memórias e a que tem 399 memórias. Tanto a Platinum quanto a Prestige são 399 memórias e apenas a Gold é 99 memórias e pra mim não servi. Obs. Tem o App do Elvis Calculadora financeira touch fin, que é o mais próximo de uma calculadora real. Espero ter ajudado
i carry the platinum black with me everywhere i go.. some people that know i have it ask why i dont just use the calculator on my phone, when the phone cant do what this can.. ive used rpn for so long now, its actually difficult to use an ordinary calculator like the phone or you would find in an office.. plus these things are tanks, nokia phone level tough lol
There are apps for phones that do RPN. I use HiPER Calc on Android which is scientific rather than business. There are also several HP12C apps available including an official one from HP, but I've not tried these.
maybe you guys are right, i have seen the HP 12c emulators but didnt know HP made one itself... i should get one just to have, but i do like my clicky buttons, i dunno i kinda feel like a dinosaur when i say this, but i dont really like touch screen phone buttons, if you want a laugh, watch me trying to type something on a phone.. takes forever.. that aside i will look into it, thanks!
If you have an iPhone, PCalc is a great app that has RPN and can be configured to be a really great RPN calculator. But at the end of the day nothing beats physical buttons.
It’s hard to say which Is better. The biggest difference is the 12cp supports algebraic entry and rpn whereas the 12c only supports rpn (reverse polish notation).
I need it for class also (Investment Analysis). I have used only used Texas Instruments TI-84's. I really like how much history this calculator has. Some people saying they have had theirs for 30+ years. Crazy !!! I'm buying the 12cp for sure. @@CalculatorCulture
4:30 Can anyone please tell me what the little figure to the left of the battery means? It has three circles and includes the text "871B", which I can not find on any battery chart.
But it has been 25years lol ya fourth back in the days when people knew what a stack was, register’s, and pointer’s lol when CS101 was an assembly course mostly, learning about logic gates, electron flow, binary or base 2 arithmetic and hex and it’s role. Basically the foundation before going to C and C++, the higher one’s were Pascal (my personal favorite, In it’s own way) now they copy paste everything and use libraries they know nothing about, and now it’s come to pretty much all companies needing good C programmers to come in and clean up the mess Python has made with it’s snail’s pace algorithms and math used in the most obnoxious way. Oh wait what were we talking about again? lulz 🤓
My husband’s mother gave one of these with a booklet, its crazy at how instructions use to be so much more informative back then and its been quite useful.
I have the 12c from the 90's with the spiral manual, which is now like gold. I bought the new Plat 12c unit as an extra unit for my briefcase carry, and it has no manual but you can download a PDF manual for it.
The spiral manual is filled with tons of real world examples to demonstrate the capabilities of the calculator. Absolutely wonderful. They really don't make them like this anymore.
I have had my HP-12C for over 35 years and It works great for me. I realize that the newer models may be faster, but my Gold HP-12C has never let me down. In conclusion " IF IT AIN'T BROKE DON'T FIX IT " !
I got mine for an MBA finance class 23 years ago and use it regularly. It's perfect for quick calculations without another window clogging up my computer screen. When I'm on the go, a 12C mobile app on my phone does the trick too.
My dad gave me his that he bought in 1987. Still going strong today. I use it weekly. Great calculator.
When I was an engineering undergrad in the mid 1980s the HP 41C and its variants were the kings and I cherished mine, using it until it got stolen in the early 2000s. There was also a business school on campus and all those people had the "other" calculator, the 12C. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, had one.
During undergrad as a biology student I had both a 22S and a 32S and they were tremendous. The 32S was useful in physics classes while the 22S was slightly better suited to Chemistry and Biology. I have always loved the layout of the 12C and I finally bought one to keep here at my desk while I work instead of pulling up my phone and struggling with the native calculator app.
I purchase my 1st HP! in 1981. During the years of my Mortgage and Real Estate profession I purchased 6 units. I love it.
I bought the original 12-C in 1984 and almost 40 years later, I'm STILL using it.
Yeah I’m confident saying they are one of the most reliable calculators ever made.
Inherited my father's from May 1984 and I LOVE IT!
I still have my HP12C from 1987. It still works well although I don't have much need to use it now. Memories of doing Internal Rate of Return, Ne Present Value and Discount Rate calcs come flooding back!
My dad gave me his from 1987 when I went of to college to study finance. I still use it on a daily basis.
The only RPN calculator you can be confident carrying around with you without worrying about it being stolen (as all the others are just really damn expensive)
Buying a 12C to use in algebraic mode is a bit like buying a sledgehammer to hang a picture on a wall
I found a 12c on the road. Must of fallen out of someone’s bag. I work at an accounting firm. When I picked it up it must of been runner over several times. I found the battery cover. Latter I installed new batteries and it turned on. I did several calculations and it still works perfectly. It’s from 1982.
Yeah they are as close as a calculator gets to indestructable.
I much prefer the original design HP branding, a nod to the legend, I've just ordered a 12C platinum (platinum/black model) getting too many migraines working with large numbers in my head trading and the 12C has some very handy functions for trading and fits in my pocket! cant wait for it to arrive!
Like you, I'm not a fan of gold things, but the 12c was my first HP calculator with RPN. I got it in the late 1990s, which is exactly like the original from the '80s. I love the RPN, the simplicity, and I don't care that it's a bit slow. It's an awesome piece of kit and history.
Something you did not mention about the Platinum series is that internally it has two more significant digits of precision. You can show that by doing a calculation that has >12 decimals (e.g. 1/3), subtract 0.33333 from it and show the "prefix" it will show 7 significant digits.
This can matter of your calculations involve high precision requirements. Although, most financial calculations, are down to the cent and rarely above millions in private property calculations.
Nice video and a Make that I couldn't afford back in the 70's - so just got myself a 12C just now for nostalgia reasons. The hand movements for the calculation are quite quick so here they are broken down (if you want to test out your own 12C to make sure it works okay).
50000
CHS
[g]CFo
12000
[g]CFj
5
[g]Nj
[f]IRR
Should give the answer 6.40
Hope this helps.
... Where [g] is press the blue 'g' - but release before pressing next key.
interesting, android official hp 12cp returns -760 here ...
Thumbs up to your video! Which keyboard tactile feel is the best? The latest HP 12C Platinum sucks as I had several misses on it and gave up. The original 12Cs seem to have the best tactile feel and much quieter as well. Anything from 2005 and beyond seems clicky and mushy. The 25th and 30th Ann ones that I have seem to be Ok but still not as good as the original that I have from earlier. There are so many different versions and probably same versions made out of different countries that the 12C comes like an assorted box of chocolates and hard to tell what is good at what! Mind boggling!. By the way, the stack shift behaviour that you referred to is probably because when you hit the CHS key it is like hitting the enter key and it pushes the -5 to the Y register .. and then when you enter 2 + .. the answer comes out as -3. Everytime we hit Enter the number on the display gets put to register Y .. so I am suggesting that when you hit CHS the same could be happening. Cheers.
Because all of mine have had different amounts of use it is difficult to say which has the best feel. A lot of people seem to prefer the original gold 12C keyboards, but I find the modern ones are great too.
@@CalculatorCulture Thanks for the reply. More recently, I found the modern 12C with double cell battery version made in Phillipines to have a very good reliable key action. This is much better than the latest single battery made in China version of the 12C which in my opinion has an inferior key action including key-in misses. Cheers.
I prefer (by far) the classic 12C (the golden one). Nothing compares to the pleasure of obtaining results on a classic calculator dedicated to finances, in an elegant, sober design that leaves others perplexed. In addition, the only RPN mode, means that few people can understand its operation.
I have both IOS apps (12c, 15c) and physical calculators (12c, 35s) originals from hp. Software versions are fast, but I have to buy the iPhone 12 Pro Max (for size) to enjoy using the apps. Hovever, the feel of real calculator keyboard clicks is so much more assuring. My only complaint is the blue-colored shift key functions are a bit hard to see in low light in the physical units. Nevertheless, it’s nice to have the soft apps as backups.
Totally agree with the blue coloured shift key functions being hard to see .. in fact what were they thinking!! The tactile feel cannot be beat and it is all about the brain feeling better as well! Hate calculators on a hard screen, feels like hitting a brick wall! haha..!
The stack behavior of the 12C plus appeared to be the same as the original yielding -3.00 NOT the same as the platinum silver behavior as you mention in the video. Or am I misunderstanding something? Also.. the new 12C is made in China vs. the original being made in the US. Do you notice a difference in feel (button press) and/or quality?
Yeah I think I may have made a mistake. The button press on the newer ones is a bit more clicky.
I recall Scrobot Asaurus's big speed comparisons of different programmable calculators running the same simple algorithm always have the original HP Voyagers coming in as the slowest of the lot, really amazingly poky. But for many purposes, it doesn't matter that much and they're just so physically well-designed.
Yeah, the Nut core processor in the original Voyagers only ran at 400Mhz. They did have very long battery life though! There is a comprehensive benchmark list for programmable calculators here. www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/articles.cgi?read=700
Thank you for the great summary
12C is a Companion for 20+ years. I like Sales calculation and Depreciation which is very quick.
Hi! It's missing the HP12C Prestige! Anyway, it is just a disguised 2nd. series Platinum, with a hard-to-read (f)-shifted function set (the brass-collored background of the keyboard faceplate was not well chosen, though...)
Yes they are very hard to come by.
Thank you for posting this review. Very helpful. A+++++
Good review, i noticed 2 versions of platinum 12c, one has hewlett packard at the bottom, other one same as blackkeyboard but hewlett packard is missing. so which is very latest one.
Not a bad start at least I knew a fastor 12C in gold existed but I think need to go more in depth , ebay is awash with dodgy junk. I found elsewhere that you can get a 12C with the same model number as the limited edition 12C. HSTNJ-KN05. And the one to avoid is the one with bad percentage sign and " slightly duller and less-legible shades of orange and blue paint for the f and g functions" it has badly shaped o's tall and narrow versus nice and round the HSTNJ-IN04 is a bad one found someone with one failed within a year. Plus of course dual CR2032 batteries that keep all your settings very useful indeed.
An ex-girlfriend used to have a 12C Prestige (full gold, like the prestige silver style), but someone at her university liked it very much and silently took it away...
And I still have my Prestige silver, first version with no ( and ), but they keyboard is failling pretty bad, unfortunately.
Thanks for making this video!!!
I'd be curious to see if there are any differences in their ability to solve some of the really tricky tvm problems.
How does the keyboard on both modern 12C and 12C Platinum calculators feel (keys' action clicks) and compare to the old 12C and 48G, both of which have a very solid, robust and satisfactory "click" feel when operating the keys.
Is the keyboard on the modern ones on par with the old ones? Or is it weaker, of less quality?
Thank you!
The modern 12Cs have very good tactile/click key action, i'm not sure how well they age over time though.
Is the upper silver band (which contains the calculator screen) on the 12C Platinum made of metal (aluminum / stainless steel) or plastic?
On the old 12C ones it is metal (it looks brushed brass), but I'm not sure on the modern 12C Platinum... ¿?
The modern 12C Platinum uses brushed aluminum.
@@CalculatorCulture
Well, I confirm it is metal. Although it looks glossy plastic to the eye, but it is cold to the touch (sensitive skin) and it is conductive (tested with a multimeter). So yes, it is metal, covered with sort of transparent coating protection (protective lacquer, etc.)
My HP 12C from the 1980's will not work, with new batteries, it just quit one day. Any ideas how I can Jump Start it? I love using it in real estate, shopping, bill paying, calculating complicated math problems, etc. HELP! I miss using it! Thank you for this presentation.
Hi Trudy, you might try this factory-reset.com/wiki/HP-12C
Tenho uma prestige, mas acho a platinum mais bonita, apesar de ambas mudarem apenas o exterior.
Parabéns pelo conteúdo.
Traduz aí, qual a melhor?
@@raphael4655 Tenho uma prestige, mas acho a platinum mais bonita, apesar de ambas mudarem apenas o exterior.
@@Handersonvidal naooo, quero dizer sobre o vídeo, no video qual ele fala q é a melhor?
@@raphael4655 falando sério, meio que existe dois tipos de calculadora HP 12c, é a que tem apenas 99 memórias e a que tem 399 memórias. Tanto a Platinum quanto a Prestige são 399 memórias e apenas a Gold é 99 memórias e pra mim não servi.
Obs. Tem o App do Elvis Calculadora financeira touch fin, que é o mais próximo de uma calculadora real. Espero ter ajudado
@@Handersonvidal fora isso não tem outra diferença?
Do you sell this calculator? I am not getting it in India.
You may be able to order it from Amazon US and pay extra shipping.
Hooo now I undrrstand the reference !
i carry the platinum black with me everywhere i go.. some people that know i have it ask why i dont just use the calculator on my phone, when the phone cant do what this can.. ive used rpn for so long now, its actually difficult to use an ordinary calculator like the phone or you would find in an office.. plus these things are tanks, nokia phone level tough lol
There are apps for phones that do RPN. I use HiPER Calc on Android which is scientific rather than business. There are also several HP12C apps available including an official one from HP, but I've not tried these.
there are official apps from HP for like 15 bucks for both the 12c and 12c platinum. they are pretty good.
maybe you guys are right, i have seen the HP 12c emulators but didnt know HP made one itself... i should get one just to have, but i do like my clicky buttons, i dunno i kinda feel like a dinosaur when i say this, but i dont really like touch screen phone buttons, if you want a laugh, watch me trying to type something on a phone.. takes forever.. that aside i will look into it, thanks!
If you have an iPhone, PCalc is a great app that has RPN and can be configured to be a really great RPN calculator. But at the end of the day nothing beats physical buttons.
No financial stuff though
Is the 12c better or the 12cp? Need it for a class. The 12cp is cheaper
It’s hard to say which Is better. The biggest difference is the 12cp supports algebraic entry and rpn whereas the 12c only supports rpn (reverse polish notation).
I need it for class also (Investment Analysis). I have used only used Texas Instruments TI-84's. I really like how much history this calculator has. Some people saying they have had theirs for 30+ years. Crazy !!! I'm buying the 12cp for sure. @@CalculatorCulture
Got an original from my grandpa. Gotta get new batteries today
Can anyone tell me why sometime using the PMT number in a new calculation will throw the number off by a few cents.. thanks in advance.
Interesting... can you post an example?
4:30 Can anyone please tell me what the little figure to the left of the battery means? It has three circles and includes the text "871B", which I can not find on any battery chart.
For PLATINUM: 5 ENTER CHS 2 + 😄
What s that?
Is a TEST. Some PLATINUMs (hp. 12c calculators) has a bug with the answer incorrect. The correct answer is 7 obviously.
You will like programming in 4th
Do you mean FORTH like on the 71B?
@@CalculatorCulture or on the HP 4C I believe
But it has been 25years lol ya fourth back in the days when people knew what a stack was, register’s, and pointer’s lol when CS101 was an assembly course mostly, learning about logic gates, electron flow, binary or base 2 arithmetic and hex and it’s role. Basically the foundation before going to C and C++, the higher one’s were Pascal (my personal favorite, In it’s own way) now they copy paste everything and use libraries they know nothing about, and now it’s come to pretty much all companies needing good C programmers to come in and clean up the mess Python has made with it’s snail’s pace algorithms and math used in the most obnoxious way. Oh wait what were we talking about again? lulz 🤓
Saya mau jual ni
ada kontak?