Smaller and less expensive than the preceding model HP-75, the 71B has a single-line 22-character liquid crystal display, 64K system ROM and 17.5K user memory.

Programming features included a real-time clock, programmable timers and subroutine calls with parameter passing and recursion.

Other third-party options included a bar code wand and application ROMs to plug into one of the four memory ports.

A HP-71 configuration with bar code wand and a custom application was widely used for data collection in the British Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS).

The HP-71B could optionally be made compatible with the large volume of programs written for the HP-41 series of calculators via a plug-in ROM that emulated the HP-41 at about 5x the original speed.