HP-41 calculator
Shares rank 18 of 21 calculators by recommenders
An ergonomic RPN calculator that people call a long-time favorite, with a durable build that lasted for years. No recurring complaints appear in the quotes.
An ergonomic RPN calculator that people call a long-time favorite, with a durable build that lasted for years. No recurring complaints appear in the quotes.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Durable build that lasted
“was a good calculator for a long time”
Comment from 20 Nov 2025 in “How Slide Rules Work” “had amazing feel that lasted forever”
Comment from 10 May 2026 in “Casio S100X Japanese Lacquer Edition (JP Page Only)” Loved and still used daily
“I somehow love it so much, that it resides on my desktop and is used a lot”
Comment from 31 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: Do you still physical calculators?” “the HP 41C remains, to this day, my favorite calculator of ALL TIME”
Comment from 20 Jan 2026 in “Nanolang: A tiny experimental language designed to be targeted by coding LLMs” “The HP-41 calculator is a nice touch!”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “I've built a virtual museum with nearly every operating system you can think of”
Other calculators people recommend
The four most recommended other calculators, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas Instruments TI-84 Evo | 41 | 53 | 44% | 4 | 10 yrs7 owners | — |
| TI-89 calculator | 31 | 8 | 79% | 8 | 28 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| HP 15C | 24 | 6 | 80% | 5 | 41 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| TI-83 Plus | 21 | 8 | 72% | 6 | 30 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| HP-41 calculatorThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
All 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“The HP-41 calculator is a nice touch!”
“had amazing feel that lasted forever”
“I somehow love it so much, that it resides on my desktop and is used a lot”
“the HP 41C remains, to this day, my favorite calculator of ALL TIME”
“the 41 with its various modules worked fine and was more general purpose”
“was a good calculator for a long time”
“very few people could get faster with a slide rule than an ergonomic RPN calculator”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.