> When you look at the quality of what HP used to produce versus now

I was always impressed that the keys used two color injection molding for the primary labels. There was almost literally no way to wear the label off the keys, since the label was built into the plastic.

Yeah they decided it wasn't worth their time, probably because the market shrunk. They could have made money on the education market because their RPN is a wonderful thing but it would require to explain things to kids and teachers .. so now it's all built by another company.

I sniped a 48SX on a Craigslist equivalent for 20$, the guy even sold the full manual and 3 math/asm books, I couldn't resist.

I'm learning electronics, I plan to mod it if I can, maybe an ESP8266 "coprocessor", a rechargeable lithium bat. and a usb port.

I have a couple of 12Cs -- one made the year I was born, and the other made 2011 -- and an 11C. I use my 12C for absolutely everything, and couldn't live without it. The one made the same year I was born (1983) is a sturdier, but the 2011-made one is also excellent.

I also had a 48GX but sold it -- I didn't use it, and I preferred the more compact Voyager series, even if the stack isn't displayed on screen. I agree that the build quality has dropped over time, but I'd still choose an RPN HP over anything else.