My HP Prime G2 review.

[cyrille de brébisson]

Hello,

The text is blurry on Prime, NOT because of pixel density, but because the fonts are rendered using dithering (same as on your computer), while the fonts on the TI are not dithered (like they used to be on windows XP and similar).
If you look on the HP, you will see that "pixels" on the edge of the characters have gray scale while on the TI (if I am not mistaken) it's white or black with no in between...

Cyrille

[debrouxl]

My Nspire CX CAS running OS 3.1.0.392 (it's still running that old version, instead of OS 4.5.x, due to the annoying anti-downgrade protection, even though that can be worked around in various ways) does not use font antialiasing, but my CX II-T CAS running OS 5.0.0.1509 does. Use of antialiasing would need to be checked on newer CX I OS versions.

[TheLastMillennial]

OK so it appears I need to make a correction to my review, thanks Cyrille for clearing that up! One question though, why does the Prime use dithering/anti-aliasing for the fonts if it makes it so blurry? Also, wouldn't the dithering look much less blurry on higher resolution displays?

I agree thenozone, larger pixels are easier to see and the Prime is by no means unusable at this resolution. Now that I understand that it's not the LCD itself making some things blurry perhaps it will change my opinion. (I can still dream of a 720p micro-LED calculator screen though )

debrouxl that's an interesting fact. Which calculator in your opinion is easier to read? Are there other calculators out there that use this anti-aliasing to compare to?

Thanks for your responses guys! I have a unrelated question: I've swapped out my Prime's original battery for my Galaxy S3's slightly better 2,300mAh battery and now when I turn the calculator on, it always 'gains charge' after a few minutes (the battery indicator always goes from say 50% battery up to 75% or from 25% to 50%). Why would this be?

[Eddie W. Shore]

Thank you for the review.

[debrouxl]

(07-05-2019 07:37 PM)TheLastMillennial Wrote:  debrouxl that's an interesting fact. Which calculator in your opinion is easier to read? Are there other calculators out there that use this anti-aliasing to compare to?

It's been years since a significant part of my usage of calculators has become testing libti*/gfm/tilp, and I mostly use calculators which do not anti-alias fonts, so I'm not very qualified to compare

[TheLastMillennial]

Hey it's been a while. Due to new information that came to my attention (e.g. the font dithering and the G2 being released in the US) and because I wasn't happy with the negative tone that my review seemed to have, I've revised a large part of it. Most of the facts remain the same, however I've rearranged some of those facts and I've added more information along with letter grades for each topic I cover. (A+ being the best and F being unacceptable) I've edited the first post to include these changes. A list of all the scores is at the bottom of the first post. Please let me know if you like the change!

Bleh, in hindsight it wasn't such a good idea to jump into making a video so soon, now I've got to re-record and reshoot footage!

[harryp]

That was a meticulous and outstanding review. Always we want more, we want perfection, but engineering is always a set of compromises. What your review shows is that overall the HP Prime does what it needs to do in the important ways. I've done photography since age 16 and I was a shooter later in life and the arguments never cease over this versus that. I sold photographic products in the early part of life and the amateurs would argue Nikon vs. Minolta and all that. The pros would come in with a dented camera around their neck and they'd say "It's a tool, that's all, if it gives me what I want that's all I care about." The pros take what tool is at hand and get it done. However, reviews are important starting points before you decide on an expensive tool and your review will be a big help to people considering the Prime vs. the competition. I enjoyed reading it!

[TheLastMillennial]

Thanks harryp! I suppose you're right, there's always people for and against certain companies, but if the tool gets the job done then at the end of the day it doesn't really matter which side you choose.

[grsbanks]

(06-01-2019 03:50 AM)TheLastMillennial Wrote:  I'm very happy to report that I haven't needed to update the time since last daylight savings!

You may not be aware of this but the Connection Kit does actually sync the Prime's clock to that of the computer whenever you connect a Prime to it.

[TheLastMillennial]

(08-07-2019 08:25 AM)grsbanks Wrote:  You may not be aware of this but the Connection Kit does actually sync the Prime's clock to that of the computer whenever you connect a Prime to it.

I was not aware of that! That's really cool, I'll have to add it in!

[TheLastMillennial]

This doesn't exactly go with the review, but I'd like to link my unboxing video I finally got around to editing. I'm still working on the review video, but due to life, it's going to take me a lot longer. I may end up summarizing my review then making a video on that to save time, if people are still interested after watching then I could link them to the full text review here.

[maxrk]

Great review and thanks, also, for the YouTube video. Being an older person and with reference to the TI 84 series, nSpire CX CAS series, Casio CG-50, and Casio latest ClassPad CG-500 - visually, the Prime and the Casios are best for my old eyes. Back lighting is a plus for sure that helps with me seeing the information on the screen with less eye strain.

On a graphing note, I noticed in the group of CAS calculators in the list above is that if one does piece-wise graphing, the CG-500 shows the graphic results properly meaning that those functions that are inequalities, show proper symbols on the graph lines i.e. open circles for < and > and closed circles for <= and >=. I think for exploratory algebra, that is key for students. Anyway, the other CASs in the list really fall short there including the Prime.

One more graphing thing is that I like to see numbers on the Prime's axes. I know there is trace, but still, just a hint would be nice.

Maxrk

[FabVir]

Great review, thank you
Besides some issues related to some conversion factors and constants that should be corrected, plus the 0^0 issue, what I would really like to see in the HP Prime is:
- the full implementation of the Giac CAS, e.g. the variable precision floating numbers
- the possibility to program it in Julia (I think it is preferable to Python as more readable and powerful)
- the possibility to program it in assembler or in RPL.
Thanks again

[Tim Wessman]

(10-26-2019 01:24 AM)maxrk Wrote:  One more graphing thing is that I like to see numbers on the Prime's axes. I know there is trace, but still, just a hint would be nice.

Plot setup.

Although only at edges to avoid clutter...

[lrdheat]

I do find that the CASIO fx-CG50's labels along the y and x axis are nice, not cluttered. I do wish that on the CASIO, that if far from, say, the y axis, that labeling could still be given, perhaps screen left...

[John Keith]

(10-26-2019 09:22 AM)FabVir Wrote:  ...what I would really like to see in the HP Prime is:
- the full implementation of the Giac CAS, e.g. the variable precision floating numbers
- the possibility to program it in Julia (I think it is preferable to Python as more readable and powerful)
- the possibility to program it in assembler or in RPL.

Julia is a nice language but Python is widely known and more importantly is the official language of the French computer science curriculum.

I don't think that assembler is necessary or desirable on an ARM-based calculator. OTOH, if Claudio can get NewRPL to run on Prime hardware that would be a good thing. HP certainly has no interest in continuing RPL development.

I do strongly concur with arbitrary precision floating point, that would be a major improvement, along with removing artificial limitations on list and array sizes.

[cdmackay]

(10-26-2019 06:37 PM)John Keith Wrote:  Julia is a nice language but Python is widely known and more importantly is the official language of the French computer science curriculum.

and I think here in the UK, too. At least, my daughter has just started her 3-year GCSE course in CS, and they're basing it around Python.

[TheLastMillennial]

I can't believe it's been almost a full year since I got my G2 and I still haven't finished my review. Every time I re-write it, a new development comes out and I have to write part of it again! Not that I'm complaining, I love that there's far fewer mysteries about the decisions that went into HP calculators than say TI calculators.

Now that there's been a break in new information, I've decided to start on my video again. It's coming out really nice so far! Looking at my timeline, it looks like I'm over halfway done putting in all my footage. The video should be 15-17 minutes total. Just for fun, here's one of my favorite frames I've finished:

[TheLastMillennial]

I can't believe it's been almost a full year since I got my HP Prime G2 and 8 months since I started my review! I'm excited to announce that I'm finally finished! I've added the video to the top post but here's a link to it too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_9vCZyHdwY I spent so much time on this, I really hope you guys enjoy it!

[Voldemar]

(01-20-2020 04:00 PM)TheLastMillennial Wrote:  the video

Great.
Thank You.