Free42

I believe the HP 42s was the best scientific calculator ever made. And this APP is a fantastic representation of it. If you appreciate the benefits of RPN logic and a calculator that has all the capabilities appropriate for a hand held device, you will enjoy this APP. I have been using the APP for more than a year. The transition from the calculator to the APP was seamless. While there are some minor differences necessitated by the the smartphone platform, they are essentially inconsequential. And the APP has a few major advantages over the calculator such as not loosing programs when the batteries run down. And the developer has been great. Miscellaneous enhancements and updates required by iOS revisions are very timely and bug free. I write very few reviews and only when the product is either very good or very bad. If you are looking for a RPN calculator, do yourself a favor and get this APP.

I love this app so much that I don’t have to carry my HP-32S with me to work( had it for so many years) but I wish it would make a loud click as mentioned also by another reviewer. You get a feel of the click as you press the key on the real one but it would help a lot to make the click sound louder confirming that your entry was entered. It makes you always verify that you have entered it correctly making the process a little slower. That function was my only complaint since I downloaded this app about 5 years ago.

My wife and I are both educated as engineers. She got me hooked on RPN after I stubbornly stuck to TI and AOS through undergrad. Then in grad school I started using her HP and before I knew it I was reprogrammed for RPN. We started buying "his and her" calculators as the physical models wore out. When she was complaining about using her iPhone calculator to balance the check book, I selected this app because we had both owned a 42S along the way and loved them. With this outstanding app, well supported with updates, our favorite calculator never wears out. Five stars and a donation. It's well worth it!

This app was just updated 5 days ago but doesn’t utilize the additional screen space on an iphone X. I can’t speak to the 8. This is the only drawback I see, but it is a big one. RPN48 lacks some of the functions and features, but I think it sets the standard for an RPN calculator on a smart phone. I would recommend using all the available screen and make the buttons and legends a little bigger, even if it’s not quite to scale with the actual calculator.

Having other HP-12C and HP-15C simulators, I haven't used Free 42 in a long time. Not sure how I stumbled across it, but I did: Free 42 now has a HP-15C look-alike "skin." The good news: That there is an HP-15C "skin." By the by, the new "skin" has 39 buttons while the native HP-42S has 37. The new buttons are Roll Up and Single Step. The bad news: The HP-42S is not as easy to learn as the HP-12C or Hp-15C. That's because most of the HP-42s' functions are not labeled on the face of the calculator, but must be typed manually by using the "alpha" keys. Because the HP-42S is an intimidating calculator, at least compared to the HP-12C and HP-15C calculators, and having simulators for the HP-12C and HP-15C calculators, I confess that I haven't used Free 42 all that much. But the new HP-15C look-alike skin makes Free 42 look inviting. So, I'm going to give this new version a test drive and see where it goes.