HP Prime G2 Graphing Calculator,Black

I think this is the best graphing calculator available - in my view better than the TI Nspire, Casio or Numworks competitor products and better value for money given that the competitors cost around the same as the HP Prime. Although it is a HP calculator, it's not one of their traditional RPN calculators - it does have a RPN mode, but that's quite limited. On the other hand, the HP Prime feels very well built and retains the classic keyboard layout and feel of older HP calculators - and has the added benefits that it's slimmer than most of its competitors and also has a lithium-ion rechargeable battery rather than using disposable batteries.There are, however, a couple of negatives regarding packaging and contents. The calculator comes in a near impenetrable plastic "bubble pack" that is almost guaranteed to injure the customer as they try to cut it open in order to extract the contents (check out the Youtube unboxing videos :) - I wish calculator manufacturers would go back to using sturdy cardboard boxes, particularly for top end calulators like the HP Prime (there's enough plastic polluting the world without HP and others adding to it unneccessarily).Once you do get the packaging open, you will find the calculator, a couple of cables (one data/charging cable and one for connecting your HP Prime to another HP Prime) and a few scraps of paperwork - but that's it, there's no decent case (just the hard plastic slide-on cover), no charger and no printed manual (both my previous HP calculators came with a strong vinyl case, charger and detailed printed manuals, and I at least would have been prepared to pay an extra £15-£20 to have a case and proper printed manual included). As far as the charger is concerned, this appears to yet again be a case of a US company subsidising their home market at the cost of overseas markets, because the HP Prime costs much the same on US stores as it does on UK stores, yet the US models come complete with a travel charger with a set of interchangeable international plug heads in the pack.As a quick summary, the HP Prime is an advanced graphing calculator with a colour touch screen (the only one out there currently) and a number of built-in apps offering such things as 3D graphing and spreadsheets. The graphing capabilities are fantastic, 2D graphs are drawn pretty much instantaneously and even 3D graphs are rapidly drawn - and uniquely, touch gestures can be used to move around a graph or zoom in/out.As mentioned previously, the HP Prime only has limited RPN capabilities and is primarily an algebraic calculator (although that doesn't really do it justice). In the Home view it works pretty much like a standard algebraic scientific calculator, but in the CAS (Computer Algebraic System) view, it performs symbolic calculations - and this works with anything from simple arithmetic like fractions all the way up to trigonometric and calculus functions etc.Most importantly, for me, the HP Prime is programmable and it's capabilities are made all the more useful because it has a very fast ARM CPU (for a hand-held calculator anyway). It is programmed using HP PPL (which is based on Pascal I believe) and although I have seen quite a few criticisms of HP PPL compared to HP RPL or Python, I've found HP PPL to be easy to learn and functionally rich. I would like to be able to write programs using more efficient low-level code, or have access to a true compiler, but compared to older calculators programs on the HP Prime still run lightning fast.It will take a long time for me to become familiar with all of its features (if I ever do), but so far I'm very happy with the HP Prime. Although, on that topic, I'd advise you to download both the original and the latest PDF user guides, because there are some commands (e.g. the IFTE command) that are missing from the latest user guide but are described in the older guide.This was a very brief review, and I'd encourage people to look at the in-depth reviews of the HP Prime available on the Web to see if it will meet their needs - but make sure you look at the most recent reviews as the older ones are based on the G1 version of the HP Prime with older firmware and therefore often mention limitations that are no longer present with the G2 version and the latest firmware.

The good.The HP Prime G2 is an exceptionally good calculator with more capability than I will even need. It supports both infix and postfix (RPN), however the postfix is limited as to where it is available, infix is available everywhere, there's also the algebraic CAS mode. The calculator performance is excellent and so is the touch screen. The rechargeable battery is replacable so when it finally wears out replacement will be possible. Two cables are supplied, one for USB pc to calculator connection and a second for calculator to calculator connection. In PC mode you can screen capture the calculator's with the free HP software. You can also download the PC calculator emulator and the 600 plus page manual as a PDF. Overall battery life is acceptable but you'll definitely want to carry a standard USB charger with you. The keys are excellent and those familiar with previous older HP calculators will not be disappointed.The not so good.The packaging, it's a heavy duty seam-welded blisterpack made from thick industrial strength plastic. It's an absolute nightmare to open. Even once you open it, the calculator is almost impossible to remove from the packaging. Be sure to take your time to avoid damaging the calculator. One minor niggle is the sliding cover is difficult to remove. The viewing angle of the screen is not as good as it could be but it's OK.Be aware.The battery life is OK but the screen does tend to eat power. Updating the calculators operating system should only be done with a fully charged battery and I found the update to be unintuitive. No official HP charger is supplied so use a decent quality USB charging adaptor, avoid the cheap ones to minimise any risk of damaging the device. I would suggest one from a decent brand mobile phone, not a £5 bargain basement one from a no-name company.Over all it's not cheap but it's worth the money.

This is the best graphing calculator out there. Especially when considering the price. I manged to get it for £115 which is around £30 cheaper than the overrated TI Nspires. It's speed is unparalleled. It's hardware specifications are second to none. The build quality, oh my goodness, is absolutely solid unlike the Nspires whose buttons individually rattle for example.In response to Alexander's recent post questioning the Prime G2's graphing capability. Bottom line she is wrong. The calculator will plot the function she used as an example correctly, but you just need to present the equation in a slightly different way. Instead of plotting y=x^(2/3), plot y= 3rd root (x^2) and the graph is presented exactly as expected. Just don't have fractional exponents.The programming is very intuitive and when used with the HP connectivity kit (free download from HP) it is very easy to use. I frequently also use the free virtual version of this calculator to test things out before I transfer it to the calculator itself.The touchscreen I thought was a bit gimmicky at first but since using it, it has become second nature. I would hate going back to a non touchscreen calculator now.So happy with this purchase which replaced my trusty TI-85 from 1996. The leap forward in capability from that to this is astonishing.The ONLY reason not to get this is because exams do not allow it. But having said that, double check if the exam mode on this is sufficient to be allowed to use it as it can disable the CAS functionality.