Discussing the Scientific Graphing Calculator, Including the Casio ClassPad 330
Casio fx-9860G Slim Graphing Calculator – A Review
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010 at
10:52 am
An outstanding feature of the Casio FX9860G Graphing Calculator is that it's slim - 7/8" at the thickest point. It's display is large and high contrast. The icon menu us simple to use and the display has a backlight. A connectivity cable is supplied. The 1.5 MB flash memory together with a natural display option permits input and viewing of equations precisely as they are shown in the textbook. There's an on-board function manual along with syntax help disposing of the need to carry the instructional manual. Scroll below for more information.
Very high quality graphing, clamshell design Casio calculator without a CAS
Review Date: June 12, 2009
Reviewer: Ann E. Revelle, Los Alamos, New Mexico
I have owned top of the line graphing and scientific calculators from TI, HP, Casio, Sharp, etc. This machine, the Casio FX-9860g Slim version, continues the Casio quality tradition and is definitely put together very well. It is also a very good improvement over its predecessor, the Casio FX-9860g, with a very fine pocketable clamshell portable design with a much improved keyboard layout except for the location of the Navigation keypad itself, etc. At $69.99 right now from one of the quality suppliers in NJ on the Amazon website, it is indeed a very great deal!
The pros and cons as I see it are:
PROS:
1) It has all the standard features that we have come to expect on such a machine, plus the inclusion of an electronic OS upgrade capability from the Casio educational website. This is done using a USB interface with a PC computer and is also quite fast and easy to set up. The current OS production version is 1.10, but it can be upgraded to the OS version 2.0 (which is almost entirely compatible with the current system hardware) at Casio's educational website.
2) The machine itself is quite fast with a nice graphical interface and resultant plotting system. The resultant plots are high quality and with the many added features available for enhancement are very intuitive for the learning process.
3) It has a nice and quite modern, folding clamshell body design that sits very nicely both on a desk or a table as well as in your hand. It even has two feet for great stability that are constructed on the bottom at the back of the very well made unit.
4) It has a very large amount of onboard main memory, plus additional Flash memory for tackling quite memory intensive problems.
5) Although it is called a calculator, it is really a small and very fast handheld computer system which can tackle problems from the most simple to almost the most complex.
6) It has a very useful user interface system with multiple icons. The calculator functions are all controlled using an Algebraic Operating System (AOS).
7) It has a very high quality backlight system that makes the display screen much easier to read at very low, prevailing light levels.
8) It also has a very fine stored Help system with both syntax and an onboard Manual of Explanations for every command in the FX-9860 System Catalog. Both the Help function and the System Catalog function are available at the touch of a key (or a shifted key for the System Catalog).
CONS:
1) Some functions that you would readily expect to be available with a single key press on the main keyboard (such as the common hyperbolic functions for example) require instead multiple key presses (hyperbolics are embedded in the OPTN menu softkeys which is much more inconvenient), but usually with only a single shift key press first.
2) This machine is limited to graphing functions in two-dimensions (2-D) and NOT in 3-D as can be performed on the Casio Classpad330 (or the HP50g or the TI-89 Titanium or on the TI-89 or on the TI Voyage 200).
3) There is no CAS (Computer Algebra System) at all which these days is a very BIG limitation. Casio CAS systems are now only available on the Classpad 330 pen-based system or on the older FX-2.0Plus which is much harder to find at all or even at a good price these days, since it was first introduced about 2000.
4) The FX-9860g Slim does not require a backup coin cell battery, but is powered only by two AAA batteries for over 150 hrs with no backlight and for 50 hrs with the backlight on continuously. This is a significant battery life improvement over the comparable HP and TI models.
5) The navigation keypad is located on the bottom left of the front face of the keyboard. This is just fine for left-handers, but for primarily right handed individuals, it should be located on the right hand bottom side in my opinion for much easier and far more natural key stroke motions.
Speedy MOFO...
Review Date: April 9, 2009
Reviewer: Edom, santa rosa, ca
This calculator graphs things about 5 times faster than any other calculator (comparing to hp 48gx, ti 92+). It's a pretty straight forward calculator. Another cool feature is mini-excel application, so you can massage big sets of numbers to your liking. I was at a bar having a graph argument, and thank god I had this folding calculator with backlight in my pocket ready to settle this argument, but even though I was right I was kicked out of the bar. Your results may vary :) It's not as smart as hp48/49/50 or a ti89/92/voyage, but it gets its points in portability and the oh-so-important night usability, as well as raw computational quickness (this thing never shows an hour glass), it literally graphs a sinewave in 1/4 of a second across the screen.
Great calculator with Slick Slim-line Packaging
Review Date: December 29, 2007
Reviewer: A. R. Perrin, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
I bought the Casio fx-9860G Slim Graphing Calculator because of the combination of enhanced and easy to use functionality, with a superb display. After previously using other powerful calculators with tiny font sizes and confusing/massive instructions at times, this is a major step up. It has everything needed for most mathematics - calculus, equation solvers, stats, spreadsheets, graphing, programming, recursion etc. and once connected to the Casio Web page using the included Casio software link, other apps can be added - the geometry app is fun and useful. For the cost, this clobbers the higher priced competition - I donated a calculator that cost twice as much to my employer's charity Christmas raffles. I had given up on calculators in favor of laptop/PC based math codes, but now it is fun again to use a calculator for courses and to just sit back at work sometimes & crank the numbers while going through tech. publications.
Good Calculator with backlight
Review Date: January 10, 2009
Reviewer: Chessman, Savannah, GA USA
This calculator has a large easy to read display, fast cpu, and is the only graphing calculator with a backlight! However, It does not have a CAS which is why I only give it 4 stars. I also have a TI-89 but the Casio fx-9860G Slim is my favorite and the one I enjoy using. Hopefully, Casio will come out with a version that has a CAS.
Very high quality graphing, clamshell design Casio calculator without a CAS
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