
Make no mistake, you’ll want to bring this with you. The TI-30X ISS is primarily solar-powered, but we know that sometimes there just isn’t enough light in the classroom.įor this very reason, Texas Instruments have included a battery as a backup – this means that there’s no way the calculator can die at a vital moment, for example in the middle of an exam. Additionally, you can quickly switch between scientific and engineering notation. Once an equation has been solved, you can go back and edit it, factoring in other numbers to see how it changes the answer. Larger problems can be navigated a line at a time using the arrow keys and the last entered calculations are saved for easy access.

This calculator has a two-line display with a maximum of ten characters per line. We know that a calculator isn’t exactly a fashionable item, but at the very least it’ll help you stand out. If the standard black color scheme doesn’t do it for you, there are further eight colors to choose from.

It retails for a little over 10 USD and stands shoulder to shoulder with some of the more expensive calculators on the market. The Texas Instruments TI-30X IIS is not one of these: it comes with the capability to solve just about anything and several tweaks which make it a joy to use.įirstly, let’s address the elephant in the room: it’s probably going to be expensive, right? Wrong. Some scientific calculators focus only on the most advanced equations and neglect to address the simpler ones. Can handle all high school level problems.It has a wide range of different functions that can take care of even the most difficult high school problems and conversions, so if you buy it when you first enroll, you’ll be covered until you graduate at the very earliest. This makes it the perfect size to fit into a pocket or bag, and ensures that no matter how many textbooks you have to bring with you, you’ll always have room for it.Īll things considered, this is probably one of the best calculators you can find for under 10 USD. It’s just 6” tall, 4” wide and an inch thick, and weighs just 4.8 ounces. This shouldn’t have any real downsides, but it does make the calculator seem lower quality than it actually is. The buttons are made of hard plastic instead of rubber, which again, is mostly due to the product’s low cost. You can also choose to get a black or pink version, so there’s a little room for personalization here too. This, regrettably, is to be expected for something which costs so little but to prolong its life it comes with a slide-on hard case. It’s approved for use in PSAT/NMSQT, SAT and ACT entrance exams, and also AP tests.Ĭasio claims that this product has a long lifespan, but unfortunately, there’s no warranty for this product. Casio claims that it has over 140 different mathematical functions, and the good news is that you can even take it into the exam room with you. This is just a small taste of what this product can do. It can calculate both square and cube roots of numbers, perform trigonometric functions, simplify fractions, calculate logarithms, and display numbers in scientific notation.

This calculator can handle any high school level maths problems. One area that hasn’t been compromised on, though, is the functionality. Longer calculations can be shown, but you’ll have to scroll down to see anything after the first ten digits. However, with such an inexpensive product, there are some downsides.įor instance, its display only shows a single line.

You also don’t have to worry about spending money on additional batteries since it’s powered by solar energy (hence the name). It costs around 6 USD, so it’s definitely affordable. Luckily, there are high-quality calculators out there which won’t break the bank, like the Casio FX-260 SOLAR. If you just started looking for a scientific calculator, there’s a good chance you were shocked by how expensive some of them can be.
