Graphical/Graphing Calculator why such bad specs?

[jamesjingyi]

So its not A Mac or iOS device but I thought that this would be the best place to ask a question such as this...

Why are the specs on my new Casio graphical calculator so bad? I mean it has 61KB of RAM and a whopping 1.5MB ROM... Now I'm no expert but if you can get phones from with 512MB of RAM and 4GB ROM for less than this calc cost me (£50), then why is it so expensive/why are the specs so bad?

You might say that you don't need a lot, but then why are they so expensive? They're just components...

 

[mKTank]

So its not A Mac or iOS device but I thought that this would be the best place to ask a question such as this...

Why are the specs on my new Casio graphical calculator so bad? I mean it has 61KB of RAM and a whopping 1.5MB ROM... Now I'm no expert but if you can get phones from with 512MB of RAM and 4GB ROM for less than this calc cost me (£50), then why is it so expensive/why are the specs so bad?

You might say that you don't need a lot, but then why are they so expensive? They're just components...

They're calculators. They don't need any more hardware than that (they could probably do with less even). They're expensive simply because they know students have no choice so they can set prices to whatever they want.

Just please don't compare them to phones.

 

[jamesjingyi]

They're calculators. They don't need any more hardware than that (they could probably do with less even). They're expensive simply because they know students have no choice so they can set prices to whatever they want.

Just please don't compare them to phones.

Yeah I was only comparing the specs to phones in terms of hardware cost. I think that this calc will be my last one though, I am a devout Wolfram Alpha user and I think that my iPhone does the job pretty well, I just can't take it into exams.

 

[siurpeeman]

Yeah I was only comparing the specs to phones in terms of hardware cost. I think that this calc will be my last one though, I am a devout Wolfram Alpha user and I think that my iPhone does the job pretty well, I just can't take it into exams.

add to the fact that students typically buy one, maybe two, graphing calculators in their entire academic careers, companies need to charge as much as they can.

 

[appledes7]

This is exactly what is wrong with how people look at phones. They look for specs more than anything without realizing what is more important.

The specs of a calculator don't matter because it offers exactly what students need. Calculators are fast enough and get the job done. Would adding a Snapdragon 800 to a graphing calculator for 11th grade math students really do anything of any importance? No.

People have the same mindset with phones. They want specs. More than that, they want to look at a list of numbers get higher and higher without really understanding what they mean. Look at the GS4. High specs, but still laggy. Moto X, lower specs, much smoother. Sure, you can blame the OS they run. But the principle doesn't change, people are often more concerned with specs than user experience. And the fact that you brought up specs of a calculator clearly show that.

Rant over.

 

[gotluck]

Gs4 ge is faster than moto x tho IMO

 

[SlCKB0Y]

I used to use the TI85 at university and there are emulators available for Android:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fms.ati

 

[mKTank]

Gs4 ge is faster than moto x tho IMO

Lol no. Real world usage favours the Moto X. Owned them both.

 

[gotluck]

Lol no. Real world usage favours the Moto X. Owned them both.

In the eye of the beholder I guess. I've used both as well.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

You want to complain about calculators? What's crazy is that the TI-84 has been out for 30 years and hasn't dropped in price in all of that time. It has a black and white screen and touts 3D as a feature (shouldn't that have stopped being special a decade or two ago?). It renders so slowly you can watch it go one pixel at a time. The resolution is bull. TI no doubt recouped their R&D cost on the calculator many years ago, and they probably have a 90% margin on the calculator, but because the SATs list it as pretty much the only calculator you can use, they don't have to drop the calculator's price by a single cent.

Really, my biggest complaints are:
- High cost
- Slow speed
- Low resolution
- Black and White

I'd love it if they would just throw in a few colors to make plots easier to read, maybe higher resolution, and forgodsake, drawing 320 pixels to the screen should happen instantaneously, it shouldn't take a minute for it to approximate the area under a curve.

 

[siurpeeman]

You want to complain about calculators? What's crazy is that the TI-84 has been out for 30 years and hasn't dropped in price in all of that time. It has a black and white screen and touts 3D as a feature (shouldn't that have stopped being special a decade or two ago?). It renders so slowly you can watch it go one pixel at a time. The resolution is bull. TI no doubt recouped their R&D cost on the calculator many years ago, and they probably have a 90% margin on the calculator, but because the SATs list it as pretty much the only calculator you can use, they don't have to drop the calculator's price by a single cent.

Really, my biggest complaints are:
- High cost
- Slow speed
- Low resolution
- Black and White

I'd love it if they would just throw in a few colors to make plots easier to read, maybe higher resolution, and forgodsake, drawing 320 pixels to the screen should happen instantaneously, it shouldn't take a minute for it to approximate the area under a curve.

they're available with color screens now. a bit sharper on resolution, too. they've gotten a little slower and are still pricey, unfortunately.