I bought a DM42n calculator a while ago and it’s been a fun desk toy that I admittedly have little practical need for. I’ve since updated it to use the C47 system which is the most delightfully nerdy, ludicrously powerful calculator mankind’s ever schemed up. My kingdom for a printed manual, but still!

I didn’t need a new calculator. I have an HP 50g on my desk I hardly use. I work on a full-sized computer capable of unimaginably fast and intricate math. And yet, from the moment I saw a SwissMicros DM42, I had to have one. Then they recently released the updated DM42n version, which clinched it. I ordered.

It arrived today.

When I opened the small, heavy parcel, an owl greeted me. I don’t know why. It’s a fine-looking owl, though.

Beneath the owl, there’s a meticulous little cardboard box. Ah, we’re so close now!

Nope! Inside that box is another wrapper, with directions on how to open it.

An Easter egg: behind the inner wrapper, there’s a nice picture of the Matterhorn.

The inner wrapper is also persnickety in all the right ways. I followed the diagram to carefully pull apart the sine wave-shaped flaps without tearing them.

Now we’re down to the textured leather-like case.

And inside that is the beautiful little tool I’ve been drooling over for many months. That stainless steel obelisk is surprisingly heavy for its size. This isn’t a plasticky TI.

For completeness, the back. It feels “soft” in a way I wouldn’t expect a steel case to, it’s assembled with beefy screws, and it has large rubber feet.

It’s a beautiful device, luxuriously wrapped like a piece of jewelry, but with the heart and mind of one of HP’s best-ever RPN calculators, except improved. This is a happy day.