Casio ClassPad 300 Touch-Screen Graphing Scientific Calculator

by Casio

Product Details

Product Manual [12.86mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002AUVP2
• Item model number: CLASSPad300
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
  • #49 in Electronics > Office Electronics > Calculators > Graphing
  • #55 in Electronics > Office Electronics > Calculators > Scientific
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 26, 2004

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The ClassPad 300 uses an intuitive pull-down menu interface that simplifies even complex operations. Solutions, expressions, and other items can be selected with the tap of the stylus. The calculator supports drag and drop, copy and paste, and other pen-based operations that help minimize key operations. Versatile graphing tools for 3D graphing and drawing of geometric figures provide plenty of support for the math studies of students.

The presentation application provides the teachers with tools for creating materials that promote student understanding of mathematical concepts and problem solving. The eActivity application creates eActivities that can include figures, expressions, and explanations.

What's in the Box
ClassPad 300 calculator, user's guide, warranty information

Product Description

The ClassPad 330 es with all the functions of the ClassPad 300 including an impressive collection of applications that support self-study like 3D Graphing Geometry eActivity for creating discovery based lessons and lots more. Uses an intuitive pull-down menu interface that simplifies even plex operations. Solutions expressions and other items can be selected with the tap of the stylus.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a superb calculator !, November 18, 2008

By 

Jeff "Always Learning" (Midwest USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

I purchased this Casio ClassPad 330 through Amazon and Computer Brain Inc. I ordered the calculator on November 15 and I received it on November 18 via an express carrier. I am delighted by the responsiveness of Computer Brain and their working relationship with Amazon. It's an ideal partnership that gives buyers like me a great feeling of security, and attention at a great price.

I bought the Casio 330 AFTER I already purchased the Hewlett-Packard 50G AND the Texas Instruments nSpire with TI-84 keyboard. The HP is a quality product built to the standards of their long line of calculators. The TI nSpire represents great value for the price along with a widespread user community. I kept the HP because of its external SD storage capability although it will take me a long time to master the keyboard and internal functions. I'd rather not spend the time required with the HP to master its capability. I was a former jet aircraft pilot and I like to joke that the HP is more complex than my old aircraft cockpits. Regrettably, I returned the TI nSpire/84 because the display was so dim that my eyes hurt after ten minutes of straining. When calculators like the TI have adjustments for contrast, it's really an erroneous understanding because when you increase font contrast, you also increase the contrast of the background screen which means the font does NOT improve relative to its screen background.

The Casio 330 has tremendous contrast range which actually works. I even left the contrast setting at the default level because it is super, even for my old, tired eyes. The screen has stylus touch ability that HP and TI both lack. This makes the Casio operate a lot like a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). It's intuitive, responsive, and fun to work with. There are applications, functions, and modes of operation common to other high-end devices along with the ability to connect to a desktop. If you feel that Casio is limited to low-end, low-cost devices, think twice and give this calculator a chance. If you purchase it from Computer Brain through Amazon, you'll discover like I did that it's the perfect solution to other troublesome calculators. One last thing-the Casio comes with a hard-shell protective case, startup manuals, cable connectors, batteries, and the best news of all - IT'S NOT PACKED IN A BUBBLE-PACK which is often impossible to open. Casio comes in a nice, "retro" box.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad screen, poor documentation, lopsided CAS, August 23, 2005

By 

Joseph D. Coyote "http://web.mac.com/drcoyote" (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio ClassPad 300 Touch-Screen Graphing Scientific Calculator (Office Product)

First off, I bought this calculator more out of excitement and curiosity than need. I thought a touch screen interface would be a wonderful thing for a calculator, and the descriptions leading up to the ClassPad's release were tantalizing and exciting. To sum up, what I feel I actually have is a strange mixture of poor planning and deep insensitivity to users' needs.

The display contrast is terrible. And if you try to remedy this with a strong light source, you trade horrible contrast for double images caused by shadows. The 'screen protector' Casio provides is no help, either. It adds a reflection problem to the mix.

The huge amount of screen real estate seems like it would be a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, it is used by the calculator's OS with stunning inefficientcy. Even performing basic calculations can be frustrating. As soon as you bring up the soft keyboard, a full half of your screen is lost. Answers or problems that exceed one line are simply truncated, followed by an ellipsis and a tiny, tiny triangle you must tap to see the rest of the line. There is no way to display the whole line at the same time.

The touch screen interface, the most intriguing aspect of this calculator for me (before purchase), is very poorly implimented. The calculator has a very basic keypad for entering numbers and basic functions. It also has dedicated keys for three variables, x, y and z. Oddly, they have no keys for storing anything in these variables. The only way to do it is using the 'soft keyboard', a touch screen keyboard with several panels of keys, all of which are quite tiny and very difficult to see due to the poor display. Imagine being in an engineering or technical environment and having to pull out a stylus every time you wish to do anything but the basic four functions. You cannot lay this calculator on a table and use it with one hand effectively, unless you wish to try to balance the stylus in your remaining fingers as you enter numbers, then flip it about to use it on the soft keyboards. And yes, you must use the stylus. All the soft keys are far too tiny to be used with a fingertip.

The documentation is bewildering. Individual commands and functions are often explained in relation to other commands and functins, and examples are given with no remarks or explainations. The upshot is that when you need to understand a function, you often have to make several trips to various indexes, back to pages that explain other functions, only to be driven back to the indexes again. To top it off, many functions have bewildering, counterintuitive names. What might be a self-contained 'if' command in another calculator or in a spreadsheet, for instance, is called 'piecewise' in the ClassPad.

The CAS is odd. As a matter of fact, the entire operating system is confusing at times. Menus are arranged in strange ways, icons on toolbars give few clues as to what function they perform. The built-in applications are not even loosly tied together, save by obscure system variables whose names are all but meaningless to humans. There's a plethora of functions and commands, but there is odd and glaring omissions as well. Who has seen a recent scientific calculator, for instance, that has no engineering format for the display? Only the ClassPad.

Programmability of this calculator is weak. It is especially difficult to prompt users for input, as there are odd limitations on things like input and output commands. And, of course, the poor, difficult to use documentation does not help.

This is a machine with tremendous potential that is marred by poor implimentation, and after having one for some years now, I see no signs of improvement. I would strongly advise anyone considering this calculator to visit the Universal Calculator Forum's ClassPad area. Read it carefully before investing in this expensive but frustrating machine. In my book, it is not a practical calculator for anyone, though some students seem to like it. Use this URL- http://www.casiocalc.org/ and click on the ClassPad forum.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unusable LCD Display, September 17, 2004

By 

Roy S. Miller (United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Casio ClassPad 300 Touch-Screen Graphing Scientific Calculator (Office Product)

The LCD diplay on these units (I have purchased two, now, with the identical problem) is so bad that the units are essentially unusable. The LCD display contrast is very, very low. (it is hard to believe that the contrast is even 10:1? (a good LCD computer monitor is about 500:1))

Even under the best lighting conditions, carefully holding the instrument just so, etc. the units are hardly even readable. I have 1) replaced the batteries (both the batteries that came with the units and these replacement batteries tested fully charged) 2) carefully adjusted the contrast (being unusable is the BEST that I could get, any other contrast is hopelelly worse) 3) reset the unit, etc.

After the problem with the first unit, I looked at the Amazon.com reviews and the reviews did not mention this problem. I therefore, reasonably, assumed that this first unit was defective and so I arranged to exchange it for another one. Unfortunately, the second unit's display is equally abominable so I assume that this very unfortunate defect is intrinsic to the product.