Pete S.
I'm an adult scientist who grew up with basic calculators, then scientific calculators, and finally graphing calculators throughout my education and who prefers physical calculators instead of apps on a phone or computer, especially when dealing with fractions, exponents, or roots.
Graphing calculators are powerful, but bulky and require battery changes at inconvenient times (tip: use lithium or low-self-discharge NiMH rechargeable batteries instead of alkaline batteries in graphing calculators since they don't leak!).
I was in the market for a scientific calculator that offered the typical range of scientific functions (e.g. trigonometric functions, exponents and roots, logs, etc.), was solar powered with a battery backup, offered a "natural" (that is, dot-matrix) display for entering input and viewing results in standard form (rather than simply showing decimal results), and a moveable cursor to highlight and make changes to input.
I was pleasantly surprised to find this model, which offered all those features for less than $12. In addition, it offered some additional helpful features like being able to calculate the Greatest Common Divisor or Least Common Multiple for pairs of numbers, coordinate conversions, permutations and combinations, and many more.
The buttons provide good tactile feedback, and are suitable for use by both children and grown adults. Calculations are performed swiftly with no detectable lag in most cases (some operations take a noticeable split second to carry out, but most are effectively instant), and the ability to have results displayed in exact form (for example, sin(45 degrees) = 1/sqrt(2) rather than 0.70710678199) with the ability to also switch the display to show them in as floating point decimals and back again is very convenient. Entering input is straightforward and intuitive. The screen contrast is adjustable in the menu.
Although the calculator does not have a "solve for x"-type equation solver to solve algebraic equations, nor does it have the ability to graph results (which is perfectly fine, nor were those things I would expect in such a device), it's packed with features and functionality that make it extremely powerful and handy.
My only quibble is that I wish the ON, OFF, and AC button all shared a single key instead of the ON button being separate. Out of habit, I find myself pressing the AC button in an attempt to turn the calculator on and it's annoying that pushing that button doesn't work to turn it on; one needs to press the separate ON button. It'd be virtually perfect if AC button also doubled as the ON button, and SHIFT+ON/AC turned the calculator off.
Still, for less than $12 this calculator is an outstanding value and performs functions that scientists of even a few decades ago would be envious of and willing to pay considerably larger sums for. I like it and recommend it.
| Product Dimensions | 6.25 x 3.1 x 0.6 inches |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 6.1 ounces |
| Department | Unisex-Adult |
| Manufacturer | Casio |
| ASIN | B086Z71GQ3 |
| Country of Origin | Philippines |
| Item model number | FX-300ESPLS2 |
| Batteries | 1 LR44 batteries required. (included) |
| Date First Available | April 10, 2020 |
Rosalina Navarro