"Spehro Pefhany" wrote in message
Those earlier ones *were* battery hungry. The 15C lasts a very
long time, except when a piece of heavy equipment holds some buttons
depressed for a month or two. :-)

The later ones, like the HP48 series, are much worse on batteries than
the earlier C ones. Probably 50 times worse in terms of current. They
go through a set of 3 AAA cells in no time. The others use much lower
capacity button cells and seem to last forever. I think HP must have
switched from their own ASICs to cheaper off-the-shelf technology.



My first calculator I bought for college was a TI-55, the old style, brown
door stop looking model. I bought batteries by the case! That sucker,
(literally), could eat a battery in one day of heavy use. That is when I
bought the HP. Best investment I ever made, as far as calculators go. I
remember buying the HP and tosing the TI-55 in the trash can during a class.
Two or three guys dug it out and were fighting over it!
Greg