Victor V12 Financial Calculator

Excellent port of the HP12C to a less expensive calculator. Pros: -- Works just like the HP12C Financial Calculator and is faster. -- Uses AAA batteries rather than CR2032's. Costs less and stays up longer. -- Since cost is minimal, I don't worry about taking it out of my home. Cons: -- Keyboard is a bit mushier, display is not quite as easy to read. -- Original no-name batteries are subject to leaking chemicals. Throw away upon arrival and put in a good set of Duracell or Energizer AAA's, save yourself some grief.

I am an HP and RPN geek and I must say that this is a welcome knock-off of the HP-12C Platinum. You are certainly not getting the HP build quality, but the trade offs are worth it for anyone who has not experienced an HP-12C and was to get in at the ground level. This calculator will give a much better user experience than any app on any platform. The keys have a nice click (but are still mushy) and you know you are entering data as you touch each key, unlike the apps out there. Accuracy matches the HP-12C but at several times the speed. I have yet to see the "calculating" screen for more than one second with the most complex of calculations that I can hypothesize. The included batteries were dead on arrival but the calculator was flawless along with the button case, and the manual was sufficient to get me started. I guess I am just excited to see the programmable calculator live on!

Lives up to all its claims so far and is a good replacement for the HP calculator I've been using. Only thing I don't like is the difficulty in distinguishing ones from sevens: I have to keep rolling the display under my light to make sure the upper bar on the digit is there or not. The digits on the calculator I received are NOT as shown on the Amazon page. That shows the sevens having a short down stroke at the left end of the top bar. That would've solved my problem with 1's and 7's. I would NOT tell anyone to buy this calculator! Too many reading errors.

What's not to love? 1/3 the price of the name brand option, bigger screen... Just for the record, I also have a 12c Platinum. I like the buttons on the 12c more than the rubber membrane on the V12, but the bigger screen on the V12 makes up for that. Also, if you haven't drunk the RPN kool aid (which I suggest you do... it is a really great way of interacting with a financial calculator) you can press the "R" button followed by the "EEX" button, and the calculator will switch into standard algebraic operation. To switch back to RPN, press "R" followed by the "CHS" button.

I like calculators and have a small collection. I purchased a HP 12C Platinum about the same time I purchased this calculator, and this calculator doesn't live up to some of the claims I read here. The HP 12C Platinum performed calculations more quickly for me than the Victor V12. Perhaps they were comparing against an early production run of the HP calculator. The calculator is almost, but not quite an exact work-alike to the HP 12C. What's missing on the Victor are three keys, the the two parenthesis keys '(' and ')' and also a last answer key. For a person who wants to run the calculator in algebraic mode, the absence of the parentheses keys would be a big loss. I also noticed that a key combination you can use to reset the HP 12C calculator doesn't work with the Victor V12. The Victor V12 doesn't perform as well under cold conditions that the HP 12C. I was using the calculators in a room at about 50 degrees and the HP performed just like it does at room temperature while the display on the Victor V12 was slow to change making the calculator more difficult to use. Keep in mind that the HP 12C is a classic calculator that became popular but doesn't have all the features of the more modern financial calculators. It is easy to do the most important calculations such as calculating loan payments, internal rate of return and net present value, simple bond calculations, some depreciation calculations, the ability to write programs, and linear regression. But the financial calculators designed more recently generally have more features and are more intuitive to use. Many seem to be designed for students taking introductory finance courses. As to overall value, I think a person can do better than the Victor V12. For about the same price on Amazon, you can purchase the HP 30B or the Sharp EL-738C financial calculators. The HP 30B has the reverse polish notation option for those who like that and also is programmable. I like the Sharp EL-738C even though it isn't programmable and doesn't have RPN available. I think the person best suited for the Victor 12C would be a person who likes the old HP 12C. A person who needs to learn how to use the HP12C for an exam and can borrow one on exam day could save a bit of money by purchasing this calculator to learn how to use the HP 12C effectively.

I was curious to see if this was anything like an HP 12C- It certainly is. For the price, it couldn't be better. (single digit dollars) Batteries included were dated "best before 2008". Guess this guy has been sitting on a shelf for a while....