First impressions on Casio FX-5800P

[david sanz]

(08-18-2016 07:36 PM)Ask Mait Wrote:  Hi folks, I am a new member and it is my first post.
I 've been with Scientific calcs. for over 30 years and mostly they were fx-82s. Have been using 35s since 2009 and learning to use RPN was really a challenge.
Today, I am considering getting the fx-5800P, did most of the online research I could but still have at least three questions. Hoping somebody would take his time replying to.

1) is fx-5800P the latest and the best from Casio programming ? as I also saw fx-4500, 3650 and 50 on their website?
2) Comparing the keyboard of 5800 with those of fx-82 and even HP-35s, I could not find a dedicated key for sign change (+/-). This would be important key to me, does is it take long to do without it ?
3) the last-but-one key on the bottom right (-), what is it for?

I understand my queries could be foolish, my apologies and sincere thanks in advance.

Thanks
AJ

1) I do not know if it is the best. Seems to be the last development in the 3800P, 4800P series, plus it's got some similarities with 880P but it relies heavily on menus, the programming language seems to have been simplified and it lacks communication abilities and function library


3) It is the equivalent to +/-, but it is a little bit tricky

to enter a negative number you have to press (-) before keying the value
to change sign of your last result you press (-) and then EXE, it takes two keystrokes rather than just one


edit:

I have just found a surprising "feature" of this machine. It switches on "automaticly" if you drop it from a height of 2 or 3 centimeters, or if you knock its back

Another unpleasant finding. Apparently, there is no back up battery. When changing the battery, calculation history is lost and I suspect any programs would be lost as well.