Do schoolkids still have calculators? A pocket calculator was pretty much mandatory when we were in school (back in the last century. Yes, we do feel old, thanks) but do today's students still get to write BOOBIES in upside down numbers, or has the calc been replaced with the calculator function on most/all mobile phones? Find out what TouchCalc for Symbian S60 5th Editin has to offer with our hands-on review.
Thing is, most mobile calculators just aren't up to the standard required by even a GCSE Maths course. Typically a mobile calculator app will give you addition subtraction multiplication and division, with one memory slot and a % function if you are lucky. Fine for working out how to split a restaurant bill, but no cop whatsoever if you need to work out engineering problems or plot a function.
Touchcalc may be just the thing, however. This app is a proper scientific calculator in handy S60 app form. It comes with a bundle of mathematical functions, plus a nifty graphing utility that will let you enter a function and see it plotted on an x-y axis. 5318008 might not look like a rude word in the standard S60 font, but we think being able to play MP3s and surf the web might just about make up for that.
The interface is pretty much what you would expect - a numeric keypad, with a few buttons for +, -, etc. More advanced functions such as TAN, COS and SIN are hidden away behind a menu button. Unlike a conventional calculator, with TouchCalc you can actually assemble a calculation, with parentheses and functions before hitting the = button to get your answer. This seems a little odd at first, but is actually pretty powerful and makes using the calculator much more like working out an equation on paper.
TouchCalc gives you five memory slots, which are persistent even when the app is closed. Annoyingly, there doesn't seem to be any way of clearing these slots, otehr than by entering a new value into them. Not a terrible problem, but still irritating.
TouchCalc also has a useful graphing function. You can construct equations (of the fn(x)=x^2 variety) and plot them on a graph. You can have several equations visible at once, each assigned to a different colour - not a function you will likely be using down at Tesco's checkout, but really handy if you are studying maths A-Level. There is a rather mysterious 'Window' button in the Graphing mode which does nothing apart from pop up a window saying "This feature requires TouchCalc Pro" - something that happens if you select a couple of the more obscure calculator functions too. As there currently is no such Pro version available, and this isn't even a trial version of the app - it costs £3 a pop - including this kind of teaser just seems a bit silly, really.
TouchCalc Pro is a pretty decent calculator app with a useful graphing function. It is hampered by rather amateurish design and some rough edges, but if you need a scientific calculator app, this is worth a look.
Details
Price: £3.00
Size: 0.14 MB
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