This Prinztronic M was my first electronic calculator. I remember walking to Dixons every lunchtime (school in those days!) to look at the calculators. The scene would have been analogous to the crowds drooling over digital cameras at Dixons today. I bet digital cameras are going to be as collectable as these things in ten years time.


I received the Prinztronic for Christmas. I was the first pupil at my school to use an electronic calculator and I remember the contempt one of the physics teachers had for it (or was it for me because I used it?).

As you can see from the photograph it was obviously modeled on the Sinclair format. It was manufactured in Hong Kong and used four AAA batteries. The power switch operated in a similar manner to the Sinclair and was equally prone to failure. On this one I remember some of the buttons having the annoying feature of occasionally registering double numbers. I have seen this happen with the click-type buttons on other early machines.

In my travels hunting for calculators I have seen many other makes - the ubiquitous TI-30, Commodores and even Sinclairs - but I have only found one other, the Scientific model which is the other calculator in this section.

I remember my brother had the basic model, which was blue, but I have no idea where this is now and would very much like to acquire one.

Although it is obviously cheaply produced (but it still cost something like £30 in 1976) there is something about the Prinztronic that makes it splendid to hold.