Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Sharp has created the first serious mathematical tool for under $30. Note this is a greatly expanded version of the EL-506VB with a $5 price break thrown in for good measure.
Here are the things it CAN'T do:
1) Graphing
2) Programming (you can program formulas, but no conditional branching)
3) Symbolic Computer Algebra
4) Chi Squared distribution (it will do normal probabilities)
5) Huge matrices (you're limited to four 4x4 matrices)
6) THAT'S ABOUT IT!
Guess what? All those things are best done on a computer anyway. You can get a free copy of MuPad (for noncommercial use), and have far better functionality than any calculator at any price, plus get your output in a form easily shared over the internet. What Sharp has done with this calculator, is give us the ultimate tool to keep NEXT to your computer, or take with you for "outside the box" mathematical doodling.
440 functions (it says 469 on the box -- I'm not counting!) and all easily accessible without menus within menus within menus, ala those cludgy graphing calculators. Oh, there are a few modes and such, but believe me, everything is within a few logical keystrokes. You can spend 30 minutes with the manual, and then THROW IT AWAY.
They did so many little things right. For example, when you do need a menu, you can scroll through all the options with the cursor keys, OR, if you already know your way around, you can just hit one digit that corresponds to your function. And insert mode is the default mode, as God intended it to be. THANK YOU SHARP! The principle is simple: the default should be to preserve information, not destroy it. The user should have to do something deliberately, to overwrite data.
And they took this design out of the world of "toy" and into the realm of "tool" by keeping the calculation history intact through the on/off cycle. If the calculator shuts off in the middle of some earth shaking computation, you just flip it back on again and keep going where you left off.
The keys actually have a little tactile feedback on this calculator. Not like an hp-48, of course, or even a TI-89, but better than most under $30 calculators. And this is just the koolest LOOKING little thing to ever dazzle your eyeballs.
Here's a partial list of function types:
- Arithmetic
- Numeric differentiation/integration
- Four types of random numbers
- 8 memories plus last Answer memory
- 4 formula memories
- Fraction calculations
- Binary, Pental, Octal, Decimal and Hexadecimal base conversions
- Decimal to sexagesimal (time) conversions
- 52 physical constants
- 42 metric conversion
- Engineering notation
- Solve for x (Newton's method)
- Single variable statistics, with normal probabilities
- Linear, quadratic, exponential, logarithmic, power and inverse regressions
- Simultaneous linear equations
- Quadratic and cubic equation solvers
- Complex number calculations
- Matrices (four 4x4)
- Lists (up to four with 16 elements and various operations)
No doubt about it, this is a ground breaking, price shattering tool. I do have one little nit, though. I wish numbers would appear in the top line with the rest of the formula as you enter them. Putting them on the bottom line does two things: 1) It erases the results of the previous calculation (you might want to copy parts of it into the current formula while "doodling"). 2) It removes the numbers from all editing functions, except for last digit DEL. Eg. You can't use the arrow keys to go back and insert a missed digit without some unnecessary tomfoolery.
Oh, and it would be nice to have more memory, so you could input slightly larger matrices (10x10 would be nice), and keep a longer calculation history (maybe keep results as well as formulas?). But all in all, hats off to Sharp. Right now, this is the ONLY serious calculator under $30.
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Sharp EL-506WBBK Scientific CalculatorSharp Electronic Scientific Calculator with new glass design, 440 functions, large display and direct algebraic logic (D.A.L) -input equations exactly as written
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