Which BASIC pocket computers make the best calculators?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

For me, a Basic programmable calculator needs a decent QWERTY keyboard. Having to enter letters with alpha-shifted A-Z sorted keys is just too tedious for my taste. This is the big mistake (or rather one of many big mistakes) that HP made with the Prime as opposed to the Ti Nspire.

But in order to be a good calculator for manual calculations also, there has to be a dedicated keyboard for that as well. This is what HP did not get entirely right with the 71B unfortunately. It's keyboard is outstanding qualtity wise, but there are no unshifted mathematical functions. The Ti 92 and Voyage 200 show how it can be done. Sharp made some calculators like this (e.g. the PC-1402), but the keys are way too small and the display is one short line only.