Casio FX 85 ES Calculator

Review Summary: A cheat calculator

Review:

I would not recommend this for a serious student of Maths. Casio go as close to the examination board regulations as possible, so you do not have to be able to do fraction arithmetic, manipulate surds or express angles in terms of multiples of pi: the calculator will do it all for you. The calculator is guaranteed for two years and I have never known a Casio calculator last much longer than this, unlike my TI81, which is still going strong after 12 years.

Review Summary: Powerful calculator at a disposable price

Review:

The last time I bought a scientific calculator was about twenty five years ago. It had an eight digit display and cost about £15.
Things have moved on! For the price of a glossy magazine, you get this really pretty amazing machine.
The most obvious improvement over previous calculators is the display. The fx-85ES has a multi-line dot-matrix display and an entry method that lets you input calculations in exactly the same way you would write them down. It's fun to see just how ridiculously complex you can make the calculation, with various levels of nesting, fractions within fractions within square roots or cube roots or whatever. The calculator handles it all without missing a beat.
You can choose, from the setup menu, whether to use what Casio calls 'Mathematical mode' or 'Linear mode' for input and output. Math mode lets you input fractions that look like fractions. And you get the results in fractions if it's practical to display them. In this mode you might also get results as irrational numbers if the calculator can give a more accurate (i.e. not rounded) result that way.
In Math mode there are two ways to convert your answer to a regular decimal number. And back.
I'm not familiar with what's needed for students doing GCSEs or A levels, but no doubt this is a very targeted calculator for that kind of user. Certainly, the statistics function seems very complete, with table entries you can edit and perform different functions on. Any table you create stays in memory.
There are several non-volatile memories (the calculator uses a single button battery in addition to the solar cell for this) and you can assign values to them by letter.
You can use these values in the 'table' function too that displays a range of values as a function of X. All this stuff is far in advance of what a bog-standard calculator could do twenty years ago.
The calculator itself is quite large and flat, with a slide on/off hard cover to keep it safe in your bag. It feels tough and well made. The keyboard is excellent.
The display is good, but not perfect (it can look a bit dim). You'll need perfect light for that. But you can adjust the contrast in the setup menu.
I was slightly disappointed to see that the STO function (store to memory) is accessed via a shift key, which makes using the memory a bit convoluted. Generally though, the key layout and the way the calculator works is very intuitive and well laid out. This is just as well because the instruction leaflet has such tiny text that it's almost too hard to read it. This is a shame because the advanced functions deserve proper explanation. You could almost do a GCSE in how to use this calculator.
But at this price you can hardly criticise it. Whether you just want it as an advanced all-round calculator to have in the house, like me, or you're a student doing GCSEs, this Casio can't really be faulted.

Review Summary: a cheap calculator great for A-level mathematics

Review:

battery will last ages (i'm imagining) as there is a solar panel so no fear of it dying in an exam.

Great features include how it will display answers as fractions automatically..great for precise answers, but it is easy to see the answer in decimal format also at the flick of a button.

when in radian mode it gives answers in terms of pie shouls the answer be an exact muliple of pie; this isn't on all calculators but is very useful

also it will always show square roots when the answer is one, but once again you can flick to decimal at the touch of a button should you wish to.

it automatically cancels down things to their nicest form....very useful

the keys are clearly labelled so it is obvious what key does what

easy to type in fractions within fractions

great calculator...more than i'd expect for the money

even more surprising is the table function where one can get readings for graphs for a range of values

i'd recommend to all, particularly since it is allowed by exam boards and makes certain topics a lot easier