Graphing Calculator

At last! A great graphing calculator with clear operating instructions.
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I have been working with this machine for a bit over a week. I have come to the conclusion that this calculator will do everything with greater ease than my more expensive HP and TI machines will do. What amazes me is how easy it has been to learn how it works. The operating instructions are clear, understandable and accurate. My Casio is now producing solutions for me that I have tried very hard and failed to get from the TI and HP machines. Additionally, once the technique is mastered, the efficiency of being able to manipulate, edit, and drag things on the touch-screen makes working with it a real pleasure. The screen scrolls upward to contain many lines of input and results which can be either copied or dragged where you might want to use them again. Indeed, the numeric pad at the foot of the screen is essentially unnecessary– I quickly learned to prefer using the on-screen keyboards almost exclusively.

The stylus is an absolute necessity, and I will be ordering some extras from Casio soon due to my propensity for misplacing such things. It has a perfectly fine slot on the calculator’s side for storing it, but I know myiself well enough to seek some spares.

The only thing I can complain about is something that most users will not consider to be a fault. My tired old eyes, that are far from being as sharp as they once were, would have appreciated a display that would have permitted the graphics thereon to be a bit larger. The display is sharp and distinct, but I would have been happier with it a bit larger.

It is not only a very capable and sophisticated calculator, but it is also fun to use. Of course, being able to easily manipulate and to fool around with all the ‘what ifs’ and ‘why nots’ that come to mind can waste a lot of time; but then they might possibly yield something exciting and useful.

ClassPad 330: accessible, advanced math problem-solving tool
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I’ve used the ClassPad 330 while taking college math classes and now as a math teacher, and I’d recommend it almost without reservation to both students and teachers who are learning and teaching math. Whether it’s an algebraic equation or a limit, derivative, or integral, it can solve almost any standard problem you’d see in high school math or the first year or two of a college math major sequence. (Not talking about word problems or proofs of course.) It can solve these problems symbolically or numerically and in ‘math textbook form’ for both input and output. The lack of standard input keys is no issue because the stylus-based touch-screen contains hundreds of math operations in logically-organized menu sections. This calculator also has powerful statistics, series/sequences, programming, standard-graphing, and 3d-graphing tools. It has a useful ‘split-screen’ feature where you can, for example, view your definite integral solution on the top half and the graph of that integrals area on the bottom half. Speaking of the screen, the display is clear and easy for my eyes to focus on even after spending hours solving problems in low-light conditions. While the ClassPad 330 may not be ‘legal’ on every math test you take, it’s proven indispensable to me in studying and preparing for tests (and now creating and double-checking tests of my own). As a separate product, you can buy an emulator version (ClassPad Manager) that is very useful for teachers, as well as create activities and demonstrations for students with just the ClassPad 330 itself. One caveat though–this is for students of math and science (as well as teachers, engineers, and scientists in the working world) who want to delve deeper and perform, mathematically speaking, at their peak. If you’re taking a college algebra class for a liberal arts major, have no interest in math (which is completely fine of course, English was my first major and I love the liberal arts), and will never take another math class again, this calculator may not be for you.

The best calculator, no doubt
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Excellent product, better benefits at a low price. Recommended to all engineering students and professionals.

This is a superb calculator !
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I purchased this Casio ClassPad 330 through Amazon and Computer Brain Inc. I ordered the calculator on November 15 and I received it on November 18 via an express carrier. I am delighted by the responsiveness of Computer Brain and their working relationship with Amazon. It’s an ideal partnership that gives buyers like me a great feeling of security, and attention at a great price.

I bought the Casio 330 AFTER I already purchased the Hewlett-Packard 50G AND the Texas Instruments nSpire with TI-84 keyboard. The HP is a quality product built to the standards of their long line of calculators. The TI nSpire represents great value for the price along with a widespread user community. I kept the HP because of its external SD storage capability although it will take me a long time to master the keyboard and internal functions. I’d rather not spend the time required with the HP to master its capability. I was a former jet aircraft pilot and I like to joke that the HP is more complex than my old aircraft cockpits. Regrettably, I returned the TI nSpire/84 because the display was so dim that my eyes hurt after ten minutes of straining. When calculators like the TI have adjustments for contrast, it’s really an erroneous understanding because when you increase font contrast, you also increase the contrast of the background screen which means the font does NOT improve relative to its screen background.

The Casio 330 has tremendous contrast range which actually works. I even left the contrast setting at the default level because it is super, even for my old, tired eyes. The screen has stylus touch ability that HP and TI both lack. This makes the Casio operate a lot like a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). It’s intuitive, responsive, and fun to work with. There are applications, functions, and modes of operation common to other high-end devices along with the ability to connect to a desktop. If you feel that Casio is limited to low-end, low-cost devices, think twice and give this calculator a chance. If you purchase it from Computer Brain through Amazon, you’ll discover like I did that it’s the perfect solution to other troublesome calculators. One last thing-the Casio comes with a hard-shell protective case, startup manuals, cable connectors, batteries, and the best news of all – IT’S NOT PACKED IN A BUBBLE-PACK which is often impossible to open. Casio comes in a nice, “retro” box.