My HP Prime G2 review.

[TheLastMillennial]

Hi, I've been working on this review for a couple of weeks now, I've designed the wording to be more of a script since I plan on making a video out of this. While you're reading, if anything misleading or outright wrong stands out to you don't be afraid to call me out on it! I'd like to be as accurate as possible and any feedback is appreciated. Enjoy:

Too long? Don't want to read?
Check out my video which summarizes the whole review!

Want this review with images too? Check out this review on Cemetech: https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15835
Hello everyone, you may have noticed my HP Prime G2 unboxing video, it's been roughly 1 year since I shot that footage and I've been using my HP Prime heavily during math class ever since. How has it held up during that time? Are the materials weak? Are the specifications up to par with my workload? Does it have the software support to back the internals? How does it compare to similar calculators like the TI Nspire and Casio Classpad? Is it good enough to make me switch from my TI 84 Plus CE? For each topic I cover I'll be giving it a letter grade from A+ being the best and F being unacceptable.

Let's start on the outside and work our way in starting with the build quality. The HP Prime is slightly wider than the TI calculators but a bit shorter too while staying just as thin as an Nspire CX. I'd say the plastic on the HP Prime is more grippy than the TI 84 Plus CE but maybe not as much as the TI Nspire CX. This makes the calculator easy to hold with one or two hands and makes it feel like you've just upgraded from a regular sized phone to the 'Plus' version. The rubber feet are miles better than the TI 84 Plus CE allowing it to stick on to extremely steep surfaces. Although I have not dropped my HP Prime, I can tell you that the plastic on the HP Prime does not feel as durable as the TI 84 Plus CE, personally, the plastic feels thin and I'm afraid it will crack after a few drops on a hard floor. My TI 84 Plus CE on the other hand has survived numerous drops and does have many chips but no cracks. That's not to say the same about the metal plate, it feels very durable and I kind of wish the whole calculator had been made out of it.

Let's go over what my HP Prime actually looks like after using it for a few months. Most noticeable are the scratches. The plastic back is not very scratch resistant. I've been keeping this calculator in my bag next to my glasses case. The case is like a capsule and has a glossy smooth finish. That's nothing compared to the zipper pocket I've been keeping my TI 84 Plus CE in for four years, and it doesn't look much worse! On the other hand, the HP Prime's metal plate has absolutely no scratches. The next thing I'd like to cover is the gunk that gets on the calculator. Fortunately it doesn't get in between the metal plate gaps. However, it does get on white keys and under the direction pad. It's simple to scratch it off the keys but it's not so easy to clean the direction pad. Lastly, fingerprints. They actually weren't an issue in the places I thought they would. The screen and the glossy bar on the slide case wipe off very easily. I did apply a tempered glass screen protector to my calculator so I don't know if the actual screen is this easy to clean. The place where finger prints are difficult to remove is the glossy bar under the screen where the buttons are. They don't come off easy and it's quite tedious to go in between each button. Therefor I highly suggest you get a fabric case to store the calculator in, people who have used a case report that their HP Prime still looks brand new. Overall I give the HP Prime a solid A for build quality. It feels durable, and the rubber feet and metal plate are very nice. I wish it was more scratch resistant but there's only so much you can do with plastic.

Enough about the outside of the calculator, let's get to the best part: the internals. The HP Prime G2 has a 32 bit Cortex/ ARMv7 CPU clocked at 528 megahertz. For comparison, the Nspire CX 2 has a 32 bit ARM9/ARMv5 CPU clocked at 396 megahertz and the TI 84 Plus CE has an abysmal 8 bit ez-80 CPU clocked at only 48 megahertz! The Prime also has 256mb of RAM and 512mb of NAND FLASH while the Nspire CX 2 has 64mb of RAM and 128mb of FLASH and the TI 84 Plus CE has a mere 256kb of RAM and 4mb of FLASH.

The fantastic specifications of the HP Prime provides incredible speed allowing it to do operations insanely quickly! Just watch me benchmark this summation equation on my HP Prime and my TI 84 Plus CE. As you can see the HP Prime was nearly instant while the CE took 10 seconds to calculate it. The only issue with this speed is now I have to wait for my teacher and classmates to catch up with my because they're still computing some complex integral! This speed, along with it's very accurate capacitive multi touch screen allows it to do things like scroll through the intuitive GUI, zoom in and out of your plotted graphs, or rotate 3D shapes without any lag! This makes the HP Prime score an easy A+ for internals and speed. Unfortunately, what it doesn't get an A+ at is the screen itself.

Let's start with the good things about the screen. Like I just said, the multi touch screen is a joy to have on this calculator. Unlike many other touch screen calculators, the HP Prime has a capacitive touch screen (like the one used in your smart phone) rather than a resistive touch screen . This is important because capacitive touch screens not only feel much better to the touch, it makes it much more responsive and durable, allows the calculator to not require a stylus, and gives it the ability of multi touch. Another good thing are the colors, I was surprised to find they're fairly decent on the HP Prime. Unlike the TI 84 Plus CE and Nspire which can only display roughly 65,000 colors, the HP Prime can display over 16 million colors! Don't expect great color calibration out of the box though. The blacks are darker than on my TI-84 Plus CE but not as dark on my laptop monitor while whites are a bit beige than both my laptop and TI 84 Plus CE.

I guess this leads into the cons of the display, the screen resolution is the only thing that's not improved over the Nspire or the TI 84 Plus CE. It still has a 320 by 240 pixel LCD screen but the HP has enlarged out the screen so it's much bigger than the TI calculators, but in doing so HP has reduces the pixel density to 114ppi while the Nspire has a slightly better 123ppi (an 8 percent increase) and the TI 84 Plus CE has much better 142ppi (almost a 25 percent increase). Although this sounds like a downgrade, for a calculator screen it's actually very usable in my experience. What isn't so great in my experience is the dithering effect HP applies to the text. I do appreciate HP deciding to make the font bolder instead of leaving the font looking like a pile of sticks however, I strongly feel that using Freetype2 was not the best solution. Although Freetype2 does make the font bolder, it can make characters quite blurry on a screen like this, especially if you daily drive the font size at small. Personally I think subpixel rendering is a much more legible solution, however your experience may be different depending on your font size.

The experience with the screen is worsened by the fact that the viewing angles are not great when you're looking at it like you normally would from a desk. You need to be nearly right above the screen to see it clearly and make out any contrast. This is because, for some unknown reason, someone at HP decided to ignore the developers requests and installed every LCD upside down. It's a real shame because when you turn the calculator upside down, viewing angles become quite good. Onto refresh rates, the HP Prime's refresh rate is not its strong suit. In fact when you look for it, you can see the screen refreshing with just your plain eye. I'll admit though it's easier to see this refresh in certain colors than others and you'll really only see it if you're looking for it. Finally, this is the last gripe I have about the LCD, is the brightness. While it gets up to an acceptable brightness, it's much dimmer than the TI 84 Plus CE's top brightness (especially when I use my advanced brightness changer program). Overall I give the LCD a C+. The viewing angles need to be fixed so you can read the display when sitting normally at your desk, the font needs to be less blurry, and although it's usable, a higher resolution, and brighter display would be welcome. The only thing that redeems the display is the excellent touch screen experience and the amazing amount of colors it can display.

Perhaps keeping the display brightness low was a battery saving measure, by default the HP Prime dims the screen after 30 seconds then waits 5 minutes before auto powering down. However, you can easily change these times to whatever you want.

Speaking of the battery, boy is it big, by far the biggest rechargeable battery I've seen in any calculator. It comes preinstalled with a 2000mAh battery, for comparison the Nspire and the TI 84 Plus CE both come equipped with a 1,200mAh battery) that can last you over 24 hours with nonstop use. You can even order a slightly bigger 2,300mAh battery to upgrade it since it's compatible with Samsung Galaxy S3 batteries! If you're a normal human being, you probably don't use your calculator nonstop so HP integrated a coma feature that basically shuts down the calculator completely, this allows the battery to last for months on a single charge. This feature automatically activates after 3 days, but you can activate it yourself by pressing and holding shift then press on. HP gets an easy A+ for this, I rarely have to worry about charging the HP Prime and having the option to upgrade the battery is fantastic.

What about turning the calculator back on from coma mode? On the Nspire a cold boot up is very slow. On the TI 84 Plus CE, recovering from its coma mode takes about two seconds, on the HP Prime it takes 1 or 2 seconds to boot up from coma mode. When it's just in standby, all the calculators turn on in under a second. A+ for boot time!

While we're on the subject of time, how about that internal clock? The clock on the TI 84 Plus CE is an honestly and embarrassment, it drifts several minutes in the span of a few hours and consistently gets reset back to the default time. So I was pretty worried about the HP Prime performing the same. I'm very happy to report that I haven't needed to update the time since I first set it up since it automatically syncs itself with your computers time whenever your connect it! The HP Prime's clock is overall fantastic and I've been very pleased with it. A+ for that HP!

Let's backtrack, remember when I said the HP Prime has a lot of storage? Well HP decided to utilize some of that space for features such as storing the entire ASCII table in a menu, but more importantly it contains the help menu that appears when you press the [help] key. It's incredibly useful, much better than the help menu on the TI 84 Plus CE and Nspire. It explains in detail how a function, command, screen, or just about anything on the calculator works! It even contains examples if you want to try out a working example of that command and includes list of similar commands! A+ for onboard help, very nice!

*How about the keypad? Personally I think this is the best keypad I've felt on any calculator. It's more firm, clicky, and has less travel than a TI 84 Plus CE but isn't nearly as loud as the Nspire. The keymap layout takes a while to get use to, especially when you've strictly been using a TI 84 Plus CE for 4 years. After using this for a few months however, I've grown accustom to the layout and I can type in calculations fairly quickly. If you don't like the keymap, you can actually change it on the fly! Although I haven't used this feature yet, it's a unique feature I haven't seen anywhere else. The keyboard also contains the copy and paste functions which are very convenient to have. The clipboard can holds the last thing you copied along with the last 4 calculations you made! I'd give the keypad an A+ but there's one big complaint that knocks it down. Unlike the Nspire and TI 84 Plus CE (albeit in a very limited fashion) there's no undo key! It's too bad that this has been a highly requested feature ever since the original HP Prime was released in 2013 however, despite all the other features HP managed to cram in this calculator, they dismissed the undo key as 'too hard to implement'! Nevertheless, the keypad is still a great part of the HP Prime and I think it still deserves an A.

Now we're getting into the software of the calculator and oh boy is it a roller coaster of pros and cons.

I know I bashed the LCD pretty hard but the software does give it one pro I have not seen on any other calculator. Dark mode. That's right, this calculator has a system wide dark theme! This is super nice for students who stay up late at night. There's even an option to adjust the system color to a light orange which simulates the night-shift feature on your smartphone. Although I wish the dark mode could be configured to automatically turn on at night and there could be more system colors to choose from, it only takes a second to enter settings and toggle it manually. Well done HP, you get an A for night support.

Let's focus on the home screen where you do your calculations. It's a nice environment, it smoothly integrates the touch screen so you can double tap calculations in your history to bring them directly to the entry line, drag on the entry line to select part of an equation, and horizontally scroll across equations/ answers that don’t fit on the screen (I'm looking at you TI 84 Plus CE). You can tap on a result in your history, then if you press the fraction/decimal toggle button you can change that individual result. A very neat feature is the 'show' button. If you have a long and complex calculation in your history, you just tap the soft key that says show and it will focus on just that entry. It'd be kind of nice if you could zoom in on a specific part of the equation without changing the system font size to large though. You can also scroll through your history and continue typing in your entry. One feature I was surprised wasn't on the home screen was the ability to move the history off the screen while still keeping it around for later use. Currently you can only permanently delete the history. The only thing I really wish this could do is chained history edits. So if you edit one thing in your history, all calculations after it that utilized its output will be changed too. The Casio Classpad does this and it's very convenient. Again though, an undo key would be very welcome in case you accidentally clear your entire entry line.

There's a few other things HP did that just optimize your experience such as one button click to toggle decimal and fraction answers. If you tap the top right corner you can quickly change from degrees to radians and vice versa, and in one button there's a menu for all the most common math functions. If that function isn't there you can quickly find it by clicking the toolbox button and typing in the name of the function you want. That's not always necessary though; since the whole system is ASCII based rather than token based, you can just type out the command you want with the alpha keys! Overall I think the home screen gets an A, it just needs an undo key and chained history edits to be the ideal environment.

Now how about the programming options? Well there are not nearly as many as I hoped there'd be. There's very limited support for Python but people don't recommend that you use Python yet. The best language on here is the Prime Programming Language or PPL for short. For those familiar with TI calculators, PPL is kind of like TI's built in language called TI BASIC however this is better in so many ways. I've just started using it but I've been able to create programs I could only dream of making in TI BASIC at incredible speed! Let's compare a program I made called JPL in three languages. First TI BASIC, next PPL, finally ez80 Assembly. You can see that my PPL and Assembly versions are both far better than my TI BASIC one. And while I programmed my Assembly version with better graphics, I have no doubt that PPL can handle much more complex graphics with better speed. Although PPL is great, I'll have to give the HP Prime a C for programming variety options.

What about the stability of PPL? In TI BASIC if your program encounters an error it simply throws an error and stops the program. In ez 80 assembly if it encounters an error it either stops the program and resets the calculators memory deleting the program in the process or it will freeze requiring you to reset the calculator manually. In PPL it's kind of a mixed bag. Most of the time it will catch the error, stop the program tell you what's wrong. It also contains a fantastic debugger not seen on any TI calculator. Sometimes in complex programs however, PPL will seem to get ahead of itself and crash the calculator. I'll have to give PPL a B for stability, I'd give it lower if not for it's incredible ability to recover from a crash quite well. The program that crashed is not deleted and all your history and settings are kept. Strangely, the apps section often gets mixed up and requires you to put all your apps back where they were which is slightly annoying but bearable. If anything does go majorly wrong, HP provides an on-calculator backup feature that allows you to save and restore your calculator's current state at any time. I'd like to add that HP has two ways for you to reset the calculator manually. One way is by pressing [on] and [symb] at the same time, the other is by pressing the button well hidden in the back of the calculator. HP definitely gets an A+ for recovery options!

Having PPL is great, but what about learning it? The best place for that is on a site called HPmuseum.org It's got dozens and dozens of resources you can use to get familiar with PPL. Unfortunately, the HP community is much smaller than TI's community meaning there are fewer, well experienced members around to help. Overall I believe PPL gets a solid A+ for speed, a B+ for support, and an A overall.

On to a different topic: connectivity. The HP Prime comes with a single micro USB port unlike TI's calculators which have mini USB. Although it's a small complaint, for a calculator this advanced in 2019, I really wish HP had decided to use USB type C since it's more durable and it's the standard connection type now. That's not to say the micro USB isn't enough for most of the calculators connection requirements. Files transfer very quickly between your computer and the calculator. To use the calculator with your computer you need to install the HP Connectivity kit. This isn't unusual, TI requires you to install TI Connect CE to interact with their calculators however it would have been nice if HP had taken after Casio's approach where the calculator just acts like a mass storage device if you just want to look at the contents. With how simple the user interface is, it's not a big complaint. Although HP Connect doesn't look as fancy as TI Connect, it has several key features that are missing from TI Connect. First there's a live update feed of the calculator's screen. Second, you can send a message to one or more connected calculators, third it can detect emulators running on your computer and treat them as if they were a physical calculator! More on that later. Due to the way the HP Prime stores files, HP Connect is a bit more organized than TI Connect. Instead of listing every file at once, it groups them into folders, this makes it much easier to find what you're looking for. I have had issues with physically moving the HP Prime around while it's connected to the computer. For some reason it will often quickly disconnect then reconnect to the computer, and occasionally it will just crash altogether, an issue I never had with my TI 84 Plus CE and it's Mini USB connection. Overall HP Connect gets an A.

Enough about HP Connect, let's go back to the calculator's connection abilities. It can transfer data between calculators that are either wired together or with a wireless adapter, and it can utilize some scientific equipment. Sadly, unlike the TI 84 Plus CE, the HP Prime cannot be used with Human Interface Devices such as keyboards. and it cannot communicate with any other HP Devices such as Printers. Casio already has a feature that allows its calculators to connect to Casio projectors so it would've been a nice surprise to see the HP Prime communicating with other HP devices. The Nspire has similar poor support for external devices however it is at least compatible with the TI keyboard. Overall the HP Prime gets a B for connection support and stability since, although it can connect to wireless adapters and transfers data very quickly, it needs a more reliable port than micro USB, needs to not crash when it loses connection, and HID support would be nice.

I'm sure many of you are waiting for the big catch, performance normally comes with a huge price right? In this case, price is not the catch! When I got my HP Prime G2 back in February of 2019, it actually wasn't available for sale in the US yet, but even after importing mine from the Netherlands and paying the shipping cost, the total price was only 10 dollars more than a full price TI 84 Plus CE, and 25 dollar less than a full price Nspire CX CAS coming in at 160 dollars! Now that it's available in the US, you can get it on BestBuy and other venders for around $150. Even though that's still expensive, compared to the specs list I provided earlier, it's a much better value than the TI calculators. A+ for value!

What if you don't want to fork out 150 dollars just to try out the calculator? Well remember that emulator I mentioned earlier? There's actually free, restricted, iOS app you can just get from the app store. There's also an unrestricted Pro version of the app that cost about 25 dollars for iOS and 20 dollars for Android. There's even a free unrestricted emulator for Windows and Mac. Compared to TI who only offers a computer emulator that costs at minimum 85 dollars, and Casio who only provides a computer emulator that costs 25 dollars; the HP Prime emulator isn't a bad deal. A+ for first party emulator support!

Wow, ok so I've just gone over what this calculator has and what it can and can't do, but what's it like to actually use it? Under normal use it's very nice. As I've said numerous times before, it's extremely snappy. Inputting equations is easy and quick, using the Computer Algebra System is perfect for all the calculations I've needed to perform so far in AB Calculus and Physics C. One issue is the calculator is picky about implied multiplication, an issue not seen on the Nspire or TI 84 Plus CE, and doesn't always throw accurate or helpful errors when you mess something up. For example I cannot do 5 e to the fourth because the calculator thinks that there's an invalid exponent when in fact that's not the issue at all. If I do 5 times e to the fourth it works perfectly fine. The implied multiplication stopped being an issue for me a while ago because I just started using the multiplication symbol all the time. However the errors need to be more accurate and descriptive to be much help. Therefor I believe it deserves an A- for general use and a C+ for error descriptions.

The last topic I'd like to cover is graphing. It really is a breeze. You can calculate and edit all sorts of functions either from the symbol screen or directly from the graph screen. You can even sketch a rough graph with your finger then fine tune it with the transform function! There's two features that are strangely missing, the first is, for some reason you can't calculate an intersection with the x axis without two or more graphs plotted. Anyways, Just like other calculators, the HP Prime can graph polar, parametric, sequential, and 3D equations. The only missing graphing feature is a parametric 3D grapher. I'll briefly mention the other built in apps, there are several solver apps and statistic apps. A Financial solver app, an in-depth spreadsheet app, and a very powerful geometry app which can graph dozens of functions, shapes, lines, and transformations. Some apps are easier to learn to use than others but it's all possible thanks to the amazing help button. The graphing gets an A+ for the environment and an A for graphing features it only needs a 3D parametric grapher to bump it to an A+.

In summary: I truly believe the HP Prime G2 is a great calculator with the potential to be the perfect alternative of an Nspire. Not only did it scored an A overall, it has unmatched hardware performance and reasonable value. However I believe the software support a bit lacking for it to take advantage of the superior specifications. To be fair, the Nspire lineup has a 6 year head start and Casio Classpad lineup has over a decade head start on software features than the HP prime. Hopefully the HP team can include some of the key features missing from the HP Prime soon. Until then, should you buy this calculator? I'd say if you're looking for the fastest, calculator on the market and you're not too worried about the missing features I mentioned, then you'll be very happy with this calculator. If you are worried about those missing features and you're willing to fork over the extra money, then I think you'll be satisfied with either an Nspire CX CAS II or the Casio Classpad fx-cg500. As for me, I'll be leaving my TI 84 Plus CE behind and switching to the HP Prime G2.

Thanks for reading, if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them!

TL;DR
Scores:
A+ for specifications (CPU/RAM/ROM)
A+ for 1st party emulator support
A+ for crash recovery & options
A+ for graphing environment
A+ for internal clock quality
A+ for onboard help
A+ for PPL's speed
A+ for battery life
A+ for boot time
A+ for value
A for build quality
A for night support
A for graphing features
A for home screen environment
A for keyboard quality and experience
A for HP Connect experience & features
A- for general use (math calculations)
A- for PPL as a whole
B+ for font legibility
B+ for PPL's support
B for PPL's stability
B for connection support via USB port
C+ for error descriptions
C+ for LCD experience
C for programming variety options
Average: A-


EDIT: Thanks to Joe Horn, cyrille, Tim W., and Runer112 for correcting some information!

[Voldemar]

Thanks for the comprehensive review.

[Gene]

Agreed. What a comprehensive review!

[rrpalma]

Very thorough review. Thank you!

Having started with 15C, then 42S, then 28S, 48SX, 50G, and then Prime for my going back to relearning Engineering, the Prime doesn't cease to amaze me. It has its quirks, but it is a wonderful machine.

[toshk]

In summary:
the HP Prime is a great calculator with the potential...Nspire I or II? Classpad (are you just doing 1+1=? then use your iphone instead)
It is Prime!! A great Calculator compare and miles away to anything on the Market.
with their 10 or 6yrs? they have to catch-up with Prime.

Python: Popularity contest<>Prime should stand on its Grounds
HPP/CAS Language has enough in it to to be on the likes of Matlab\Mathcad\ Mathematica.
Do you enjoy Advance Maths? Prime has it all...with a better VR interface and more integrated XCAS they can compete with the giants (MatLab\ MathCad\ Mathematica) right in your palm.

KEY features missing from the HP Prime? and your KEY is? and Nspire I II and Classpad has all the KEY features. View of someone that can write that long and scaling review of a product.

HP Prime is a great calculator with the potential to be greater than anything to be called a calculator.

[TheLastMillennial]

Thanks Voldemar, Gene, and rrpalma I enjoyed writing this!

I'm sorry toshk, I don't understand half of what you just said.

(06-02-2019 05:11 PM)toshk Wrote:  In summary:
the HP Prime is a great calculator with the potential...Nspire I or II?

I'm trying to say it has the potential to be the perfect alternative to the entire Nspire lineup. I'll clarify that.

(06-02-2019 05:11 PM)toshk Wrote:  Classpad (are you just doing 1+1=? then use your iphone instead)

I don't understand what you're trying to say here, are you saying the Classpad is an under-featured calculator?

(06-02-2019 05:11 PM)toshk Wrote:  It is Prime!! A great Calculator compare and miles away to anything on the Market.
with their 10 or 6yrs? they have to catch-up with Prime.

I agree other calculators need to catch up in terms of hardware, however as I said in my review, the lack of some features means the Prime is behind other competing calculators in terms of software. Perhaps you misunderstood, I said the Nspire and Classpad have a 6 and 11 year head start because they were released long before the HP Prime.

(06-02-2019 05:11 PM)toshk Wrote:  Python: Popularity contest<>Prime should stand on its Grounds
HPP/CAS Language has enough in it to to be on the likes of Matlab\Mathcad\ Mathematica.

I agree PPL is very powerful and easy to learn, however there's no harm in adding another language most people already know. Python on a calculator is a big selling point (more so in Europe than the US) and I think the Prime could definitely benefit by adding it.

(06-02-2019 05:11 PM)toshk Wrote:  Do you enjoy Advance Maths? Prime has it all...with a better VR interface and more integrated XCAS they can compete with the giants (MatLab\ MathCad\ Mathematica) right in your palm.

What does VR mean? I'm pretty sure you don't mean VR as in Virtual Reality. I personally don't use MatLab\ MathCad\ Mathematica that much so maybe you're right, the Prime could be a great competitor. Right now, I don't see the Prime taking down Mathematica.

(06-02-2019 05:11 PM)toshk Wrote:  KEY features missing from the HP Prime? and your KEY is? and Nspire I II and Classpad has all the KEY features. View of someone that can write that long and scaling review of a product.

I can't tell anymore, are you angry with me? Let me reiterate some of the 'key' features I mentioned: No undo/redo button, no 3D parametric grapher, inaccurate errors, wonky implied multiplication, poor support for any language other than PPL. I know not every feature I listed will be important to everyone, but people have different features they'd like to see in calculators and I think it's worth mentioning them.

(06-02-2019 05:11 PM)toshk Wrote:  HP Prime is a great calculator with the potential to be greater than anything to be called a calculator.

aka a computer? We can't call it that, it wouldn't be accepted on any standardized tests!
To be clear I'm not saying the Prime is a bad calculator, I'm not saying that at all. I suggest you reread my summary. I'm saying if you don't care about the missing features I mentioned, then you'll love the Prime, if you do care about them, them you'll be happy with an alternative calculator. I don't want to trick people into buying a calculator that doesn't have the features they want, that's why I posted my review here, so I can remove anything misleading or inaccurate.

Thanks for your replies everyone! I'll get my fixed version out hopefully before the end of the day!

[toshk]

Virtual Machine not VR.

Your fix version:
In summary: the HP Prime is a great calculator that plays in the Big League...others still need to fill up the quantum leap space Prime left behind....

[TheLastMillennial]

Haha that picture is too true. I see your point, but my view is: if people already know Python, why should they learn PPL? They would be spending time learning a new language ('acquiring new gear') rather than improving their skills in Python ('learning to use existing gear'). Python is a much more widely used language than PPL and every other major calculator brand has included it in some form or fashion for educational purposes. So why shouldn't the Prime include it? It could easily be the best calculator with Python due to its superior performance.

Thanks for the suggested fix however, it sounds far to biased for me. If you disagree, please, make your own review! Your experience with the Prime is obviously different from my experience.

[Benjer]

Quote:Let's go over what my HP Prime actually looks like after using it for a few months. Most noticeable are the scratches. The plastic back is not very scratch resistant. I've been keeping this calculator in my bag next to my glasses case. The case is like a capsule and has a glossy smooth finish. That's nothing compared to the zipper pocket I've been keeping my TI 84 Plus CE in for four years. The next thing I'd like to cover is the gunk that gets on the calculator. Fortunately it doesn't get in between the metal plate gaps. However, it does get on white keys and under the d pad. It's simple to scratch it off the keys but it's not so easy to clean the d pad. Lastly, fingerprints. They actually weren't an issue in the places I thought they would. The screen and the glossy bar on the slide case wipe off very easily. I did apply a tempered glass screen protector to my calculator so I don't know if the actual screen is this easy to clean. The place where finger prints are difficult to remove is the glossy bar under the screen where the buttons are. They don't come off easy and it's quite tedious to go in between each button.

I keep my HP Prime in one of those fabric cases that originally came with the HP 50G, with the slide on cover always on the back. It fits perfectly and even after about a year and a half being carried around in a backpack I would describe my calculator's appearance as being "like new." I haven't had the issue with gunk build-up on the keys although I do occasionally wipe the front of the calculator down with a microfiber cloth.

[cdmackay]

on a semi-related note, is it only me that has trouble getting the slide-on case off easily?

[Joe Horn]

(06-03-2019 05:07 PM)cdmackay Wrote:  on a semi-related note, is it only me that has trouble getting the slide-on case off easily?

I did too, until I tried this method: Hold it with both hands, fingertips on the back, and thumbs at the cover's "hp" logo. Now press your thumbs towards your fingertips, which bends the cover inwards slightly and thereby splays the friction tabs outwards slightly. While still squeezing, slide your thumbs downward, and the cover slides right off. (YMMV) Also, the friction tabs eventually wear down enough for cover removal to be much easier.

[toml_12953]

(06-03-2019 08:45 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  

(06-03-2019 05:07 PM)cdmackay Wrote:  on a semi-related note, is it only me that has trouble getting the slide-on case off easily?

I did too, until I tried this method: Hold it with both hands, fingertips on the back, and thumbs at the cover's "hp" logo. Now press your thumbs towards your fingertips, which bends the cover inwards slightly and thereby splays the friction tabs outwards slightly. While still squeezing, slide your thumbs downward, and the cover slides right off. (YMMV) Also, the friction tabs eventually wear down enough for cover removal to be much easier.

Thanks, Joe. I had been pulling and pushing all over the place to remove the cover. Your method is so much easier!

[cdmackay]

(06-03-2019 08:45 PM)Joe Horn Wrote:  I did too, until I tried this method: Hold it with both hands, fingertips on the back, and thumbs at the cover's "hp" logo. Now press your thumbs towards your fingertips, which bends the cover inwards slightly and thereby splays the friction tabs outwards slightly. While still squeezing, slide your thumbs downward, and the cover slides right off. (YMMV) Also, the friction tabs eventually wear down enough for cover removal to be much easier.

perfect! thanks Joe

[TheLastMillennial]

Thanks Benjer! You just reminded me that I wanted to advise using a case!

Cdmakay personally I never had an issue with removing the case, looks like Joe Horn got that all sorted out though.

EDIT: I've edited the first post with the changes suggested by Joe Horn, Benjer, toshk and the folks over at Cemetech. Particularly the paragraphs: what my prime looks like after a few months, the LCD paragraphs, and what it's like to use the calculator.

[toml_12953]

(06-01-2019 03:50 AM)TheLastMillennial Wrote:  The Prime also has 256mb of RAM and 512mb of NAND FLASH while the Nspire CX 2 has 64mb of RAM and 128mb of FLASH

The CX II CAS has 92.3MB RAM.

[TheLastMillennial]

(06-04-2019 12:42 AM)toml_12953 Wrote:  

(06-01-2019 03:50 AM)TheLastMillennial Wrote:  The Prime also has 256mb of RAM and 512mb of NAND FLASH while the Nspire CX 2 has 64mb of RAM and 128mb of FLASH

The CX II CAS has 92.3MB RAM.

Sorry, where did you find that information? I looked on TI Planet and their compare system shows the same amount of 64mb of RAM as the old Nspire CX. I also looked back at several articles and many websites: all of them they say it's getting 64mb of RAM.

Oh, perhaps you got confused when you saw this on TI's website:

Quote:90 MB storage memory / 64MB operating memory

They're saying that there's 90 mb of user accessible ROM (storage memory) and 64 mb (operating memory) of RAM.
I'll admit that's a dumb way to write it, tricked me for a second too!

[debrouxl]

Yeah, the CX II family has the same amount of RAM and Flash as the CX "I" family. It's therefore even more infuriating that the Nspire Basic graphics drawing capabilities, which have been clamored by users for 12 years (since the beginning of the Nspire series) because drawing pixels is a basic feature for a calculator, will only be provided on the CX II. Indeed, unlike what they did with the older Clickpad / Touchpad models, they announced that they'd quit updating the CX I OS immediately now that the CX II is available, apart of course for interoperability fixes with the CX II's communication protocol and also closing the vulnerabilities used by Ndless... It seems that the CX II's communication protocol is derived from another protocol never previously reverse-engineered because it was used only by school equipment.

On the CX I, they haven't even maxed out any of the CPU, or the amount of RAM, or the amount of Flash memory. I know that some of their designs and coding are extremely poor, e.g. the insanely heavyweight XML soup inside proprietary compression and encryption they use for documents, and the fact that on the older TI-68k series, their whole graphics stack traded performance for genericity - but still.

Oh, and other pieces of the CX II ASIC are different enough from the CX I ones that the CX II OS can't run on the CX II without major surgery.

[toml_12953]

(06-04-2019 03:01 AM)TheLastMillennial Wrote:  

(06-04-2019 12:42 AM)toml_12953 Wrote:  The CX II CAS has 92.3MB RAM.

Sorry, where did you find that information? I looked on TI Planet and their compare system shows the same amount of 64mb of RAM as the old Nspire CX. I also looked back at several articles and many websites: all of them they say it's getting 64mb of RAM.

Oh, perhaps you got confused when you saw this on TI's website:

Quote:90 MB storage memory / 64MB operating memory

They're saying that there's 90 mb of user accessible ROM (storage memory) and 64 mb (operating memory) of RAM.
I'll admit that's a dumb way to write it, tricked me for a second too!

I own a CX II CAS. The Status screen and the manual say User available storage is 92.3MB but it doesn't say RAM so you're right.

[TheLastMillennial]

I don't know if I mentioned this anywhere, but I'm turning this into a video that I plan to upload to my YouTube channel. It's by far the biggest video I've ever tried to make coming in at 20 minutes but I'm almost 25% done! I'd like to make it the best I can so I may upload a few short clips of it here for you to criticize!
This first clip shows an animated chart about the screen resolution. I'm happy with how it turned out, but I'd like to know what you guys think and how I could improve it. (I'm leaving background music out until the very end of production)

[thenozone]

This thing about smaller pixels or more per inch seems to be a thing put forward by apple to make a small displays sound/or convince people it's better . bigger pixels are easier to see, and all are sharp on all my prime calculators. As long as there are plenty of them and they all work I go for bigger is better, not smaller with a larger number of Pixels per inch or mm.
I think python is pushed from the education stand point as a curriculum requirement for some, not because it is better.
Thanks for your article.