Which BASIC pocket computers make the best calculators?

[Helix]

(04-04-2021 06:15 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  One series of ecellent BASIC programmable calculators that has not been mentioned yet are the Sharp PC-E500 series. In principle they have all that one could wish for, decent alpha keybord, excellent calculator keyboard, large display, an enormous catalog of functions, units, matrices. But the build quality is abysmal, the display is really bad, and the rubber keys plain su**. This is a calculator that would be a super-classic if it had been built to the HP standards of it's time.

This super-classic calculator exists, it's the Sharp PC-E500S.
It is an improved version of the PC-E500, with solid plastic keys, high contrast screen, and four additional instructions for structured programming (IF…THEN…ELSE…ENDIF, REPEAT…UNTIL, WHILE…WEND, SWITCH…CASE…DEFAULT…ENDSWITCH).
Its drawback is a huge size. Also, like the PC-E500, it doesn’t have the AREAD instruction.