Consumer Reports likes Numworks

[toml_12953]

(10-24-2021 04:23 PM)bbergman Wrote:  I purchased one of the first NumWorks calculators that came out, blemishes and all. I was super excited about the concept, and it looked good. However, as I quickly found out upon receiving it, anyone who has used HP's will have heartburn with it. The keyboard is mushy, and while I've never had any double-presses, it just doesn't feel solid to me. Also, the color scheme is terrible (yellow or grey on white), to the point where I used to get so frustrated that I just wouldn't use it. Yes, some of that is probably my age, and maybe the younger crowd don't care, but I was certainly not the only one who complained about this to them. They mostly ignored the crows, but eventually did a revision with a "darker" shade of yellow. Go figure.

I much prefer the Prime screen, and of course the Prime outperforms it at virtually anything. NumWorks had Python long before the Prime, which was nice in thought, but it was painful to use. I will say that the firmware upgrade process, and the transfer of information, was so much easier with NumWorks, but HP has been pretty solid and simple for a while now.

Ultimately, I just couldn't love the NumWorks. I "liked" it, but not love. I'm biased, of course. But I'll take an HP over the NumWorks any day.

Totally agree. I suppose in a brightly lit classroom the keyboard would be readable but here at home, I have to wear a headlamp most of the time if I want to use it. The HP Prime is in a totally different ballpark from the Numworks. I do like the fact that it's so easy to update, though. You connect your calculator to the PC, visit the update site and immediately see if you need an OS update. If you do, two or three mouse clicks and you're all updated. With Prime, you have to visit the site, know what version you're using and check to see if the latest available is later. Then you have to download it to a specific directory, run the Connectivity Kit and run the update. The automatic updater in the CK has never worked for me.