Not a DM15L Review

 

This is not a review, I don’t write reviews because I don’t know how. This is an opinion written late one night from the sofa. I just felt I had to write my opinion of this calculator because it is such an icon. It is amazing that SwissMicros had the genius to revive it in all its glory.

I bought a DM15L, not because I need it for work, but because I’m nostalgic and love calculators. My collection and what I paid for each calculator is testament how many times I’ve slept here, on this particular sofa, alone, in the dark, with no music playing to break the tension of my diminishing investment capital for my retirement.

If you love the HP15C and want to relive the 80’s and the way math's was done, buy one on eBay. Don’t buy a DM15L because you want a HP15C! The DM15L is not a replacement for it. It is a copy. It does the same thing blindingly fast. But it is not as refined as the original. Yes, it is built like a tank, much more so than the original. It stays a very well made copy.

Nobody makes HP calculators like HP. No company has the history or passion that the HP employees had. HP had the budget, designers’ business physiologists to design the HP range, from HP41 range to HP Prime. Yes, the Prime, it is a good calculator and the buttons are classic HP. RPN is not an afterthought on the HP Prime. It stands next to CAS. Just press the little house button and you are in RPN.

I don’t want to buy an overpriced collector’s item and frame it because I’m to scared to use it at its end of its life. Any calculator that is 30 years old is expected to die at any moment. It is incredible to think that the Voyager series had an initial planned product life cycle of two years! That was in their business plan. The product lifespan was in the name. Just think about it, you want to buy a HP12C or HP15C that was expected to last 2 years and its 30+ years old now? I’m not a risk taker, I rather bet on something that has some degree of warranty. I also like the idea of software updates. Hardware is static, but software is easily updated, and bugs removed. That is what the DM15L can do, the HP15C cannot, no matter how soft the keys are.

I did buy a USA made 1988 HP12C and use it every day. It’s fantastic. The keys are like butter. Pushing them down is like fiddling with cotton balls compared to the hard and emotionless DM15L. I do tend to miss keystrokes on the DM15L a lot, but that happens with the HP12C, HP Prime, HP35S, HP10bII+. Hardly ever on the HP50C and HP48S (Which I sold).

A big advantage of the DM15L is that the software can be upgraded in order to correct bugs. Can you say that of a HP15C Limited Edition or even the new Collectors Edition? If you buy the HP15C, prepare to live and adapt with its bugs. My god, bugs, The HP35s has hidden obscure ones. Most of them are like ghosts in the attic. Experienced users play the attic and know their way through the cobwebs. I don't, I don't even think about them because the math's I use is in the cellar.

No matter what you do in life, anyone that has pride in their work gets immense satisfaction from trusting their tools. Fluke instruments just gives you that feeling of trust, the measurement is most likely the same as with any Chinese model, but there is an inherent trust in Fluke and Swissmicros.

In a nutshell, the HP15C is gives a much more refined feel, but its slow compared to the DM15L