HEWLETT PACKARD HP 12c Platinum

Description

Brand: HEWLETT PACKARD
Model: HP 12c Platinum
Type: Programmable scientific/financial RPN/algebraic calculator
Pictures:
hp 12c platinum hp 12c platinum (with parenthesis)
HP 12c Platinum (revision 2)
Batteries: CR2032 x 1 (first version)
CR2032 x 2 (second version)
Lifetime: Introduced: 2003 (first version)
Introduced: 2005 (first version, now with paranthesis)
Introduced: 2015 (second version)
Terminated: Second edition still in production (last checked 2026-05-19)
Notes: Shown here are the original hp 12c platinum (with a light keyboard), the corrected original now with parenthesis and the second version, the dark faced HP 12c Platinum which is still for sale in 2026.

The first version was introduced as a faster more capable version of the HP 12C that was available in 2003. This is no longer true in 2026 since the current HP 12C is about 25 times faster than the original hp 12c platinum!

Reader dm319 (link validated 2026-05-19) explained to me why the original hp 12c platinum didn’t last long:
My only suggestion is to note that the original HP-12 Platinum's downfall was it took a really long time for some TVM solves. So yes, may well have been 'on paper' a faster processor but not in practice. They pulled the model from the shelves and re wrote it using code from other financial machines. And adding the parentheses as you said!
The HP 12c Platinum has 400 program steps, had more speed and (one has to question why) even features both the classic RPN mode RPN as well as NON-RPN mode ALG where the ENTER key turns into an = key.

In the first version HP forgot to add parenthesis making ALG mode particularly difficult to use. A revision of the first model with the light keyboard, introduced in 2005, does include parenthesis. Accessible using the g key variants of the STO and RCL keys.

The second version has parenthesis as well.

Later revisions of the second version from 2015 onward have a flash port hidden in the battery compartment. A special cable is available here on The Calculator Store (link validated 2026-05-19). The same cable can be used for the HP 15C Collector’s Edition.

For more information on this beauty please refer to the better sources, like The Museum of HP Calculators (link validated 2026-05-19).

The Hewlett-Packard Company Archives site also has some information on this calculator, see The HP 12C: A Best Seller (link validated 2026-05-19).

An excellent overview by Eric Smith of al the hardware changes over time in this Voyager series could be found here on his website (link no longer validated). I have cached a version here (his server possibly caught fire again).

Also worth mentioning, are two excellent articles on the HP 12c series by the same dm319 mentioned above. Esppecially his article Rogue Zero: An HP-12c Story (link validated 2026-05-19) on the whole HP 12c series and the peculiar differences between models due to particular decisions made by HP. People in finance should be glad the original golden HP 12C with its original programming (though emulated now) is still for sale. Maybe HP’s inconsistent capitalisation on this model’s name is a kind of sign?
Series: This calculator is one of HEWLETT PACKARD’s landscape series of calculators, named the HP Voyager series. Extremely (and I mean extremely) robust calculators and some of them were quite successful too.

What I find really amazing about this calculator series is the design, which is actually quite timeless and very elegant. If one calculator series deserves a design award it’s this series. Only HEWLETT PACKARD can create heavy duty casing with such elegance.

The calculators in this series are:


©2026 Ernst Mulder