[General Topics] Skyica:
Summary of the review and recommendations

Since the introduction of Android in 2008, independent programmers from around the world, as well as small and large companies, have developed hundreds of calculator apps (as we have seen, there are currently at least 432 apps with the phrase scientific calculator or graphing calculator in title or summary available on Google Play).

There is currently no single app with as comprehensive, reliable, and convenient calculation functionality as the best hardware calculators (like the TI-89, TI-Nspire, or Casio fx-CG500 / ClassPad).

However, for many purposes there are perfectly suitable apps, which are sometimes even preferable if one has a hardware calculator at hand (e.g., for graphing).

Note that there are also emulators available for Casio’s and HP’s flagship CAS calculators (but not TI’s), which however greatly suffer from emulation related problems.

For almost all purposes, a combination of the best native Android apps (e.g., Hiper Calc, GeoGebra, and WolframAlpha, see below), is probably the best choice.

Advanced general-purpose calculators

There seem to be essentially 3 advanced general-purpose calculator apps currently (see my definition

above

).

Of these, I would rate

Hiper Calc

as the best overall. Its numeric and symbolic calculation functionality is rather comprehensive and seems to be quite reliable. It is very easy to use and often very efficient. Important disadvantages are weaknesses with symbolic computation and small bugs, and very limited graphing.

Scientific calculator plus 991

has a more extensive calculation functionality than Hiper Calc (e.g. for statistics), and its symbolic calculation is more powerful in some areas (simplification and integration). However, it has some bugs and inconveniences, not all functionality is well organized and documented, and 3D graphing is missing.

(There are some

very similar apps

that may possibly be used instead of the Plus 991.)

Scientific Calculator by Philip Stephens

may be chosen for 3D graphing (see below), some user interface advantages, and maybe for statistics. Its numeric calculation functionality seems to be good, but symbolic calculation is very limited. While the user interface has some great features, it also has significant issues, and documentation is missing.

Apps for difficult symbolic and numeric calculations

In general,

WolframAlpha

(based on the leading mathematics software Mathematica) can be recommended as the most powerful tool for difficult calculations on Android. It can also give further information on definitions and concepts, and often show intermediate calculation steps. However, it does not work offline, and expressions cannot be entered in textbook notation.

Maxima for Android

is the long-established open-source computer algebra system Maxima with a command-line interface.

Xcas Pad

is another open-source computer algebra system with a command-line interface .

The best alternatives seem to be

GeoGebra

,

Symbolab

, and maybe

Maple Calculator

, which all support entry in textbook notation. GeoGebra works offline and is based on the open source CAS Xcas/Giac, but does not give intermediate calculation steps or further information. Symbolab and Maple Calculator often give intermediate calculation steps, but no further information.

For equation solving,

Hiper Calc

seems to work well also, but it has problems with simplification and symbolic integration. For symbolic integration,

Plus 991

seems to work well also, but it has some bugs and problems with equation solving.

WolframAlpha sometimes shows the results in a more complicated form than other apps, and in one of my tests it did not return all minima of a simple function, while Hiper Calc did this. So, it may sometimes be a good idea to check with different apps.

Apps for graphing

For 2D graphing,

Plus 991

,

Graphing Calculator + Math

,

Desmos

, and

GeoGebra

are probably the best, with different advantages and shortcomings.

For 3D graphing,

GeoGebra

and

Scientific Calculator by Philip Stephens

seem to be clearly the best, also with different advantages and shortcomings.

GeoGebra and Graphing Calculator + Math may also be used as a “general-purpose calculator”, however the keys are quite small on phones for quick calculations.

Apps for longer complicated calculations and programming

MATLAB Mobile

allows to create and execute MATLAB scripts in the cloud. MATLAB is a full-featured programming language, extensive numeric and symbolic calculation functionality is available, and 2D and 3D graphs can be created (but not navigated).

For tablets, a “notebook interface” is also available, where the code is placed on an interactive document together with the calculation results, graphics, and formatted text. While this concept is optimal for longer complicated calculations, there are serious problems with the interface of the app currently.

micro Mathematics

is another calculator app with a notebook interface (for phones also). It seems to work reliably, however the input mechanism is quite inefficient, and symbolic computation and programming are missing.

GeoGebra

and

Graphing Calculator + Math

also have kinds of (more limited) notebook interfaces.

Plus 991

seems to have a full-featured programming language, however there are significant issues currently.

Graphing Calculator (X84)

includes TI-BASIC programming.

Scientific Calculator Scalar

has limited scripting functionality.

The

Casio fx-CG500 / ClassPad

emulator might also be chosen for a “notebook interface” (eActivity) and for programming, however there are emulation related inconveniences.

The web-interface of

SageMath

might also be used, however it is quite inconvenient on phones.

An alternative would be to use a general programming environment with math libraries like SymPy, but this is beyond the scope of this review.

Apps for simple calculations

ChampCalc Scientific Calculator

is a very sophisticated and customizable "basic" scientific calculator.

TechCalc Scientific Calculator

includes formulas for many important mathematical, scientific, engineering, and financial applications.

Scientific Calculator Scalar

allows to define custom functions easily, and has some scripting functionality.

Panecal Scientific Calculator

may be very efficient for longer simple calculations.

CalcTastic

has comprehensive base-n calculation functionality.

Graphing Calculator – Algeo

and

Jade Scientific Calculator

have a simple and convenient user interface and some advanced features.

If more advanced features are needed,

Hiper Calc

can be recommended as the easiest to use advanced calculator.

Apps that imitate hardware calculators

Scientific calculator plus 991

has essentially the keyboard layout of the Casio fx-991 calculators, while being much more powerful.

Graphing calculator plus 84 83

has essentially the keyboard layout of the TI-84 calculators, while being much more powerful.

Graphing Calculator (X84)

imitates the TI-84 quite closely, still making use of the touch-interface of Android devices.

If you find this review helpful, please read the

note at the end of this page

.

Introduction to the reviews of individual apps

I list all apps that looked promising to me from the store descriptions (as described in the section about the searches above, I have looked through several hundred apps).

For the apps that I would not recommend after testing, I only give the Play Store data and quickly explain the problems.

For the apps that I would recommend, I give screenshots and more information.

For apps that I would recommend for regular use, I give complete “feature lists”. For the others, I only note distinguishing features.

Reading the feature lists

In the feature lists, I take the “essential” (blue) features from the

above lists

as the baseline.

As advantages, I note especially good implementations and additional features. As disadvantages, I note bugs, bad implementations, and missing “essential” features. This may be a bit confusing, but I see no better way.

So, to make sense of the feature lists in the reviews, you must read the blue in the lists above.

If you are looking for apps with a specific feature, just use the search of you browser, all reviews are on this page.

I always review the full-featured and ad-free versions. For the good apps these are all available at a very fair (or more than fair) price.

Reading the Play Store data from App Finder

The numbers left of the colorful stars are the average user ratings calculated by Google Play, the top one for the United States, the bottom one the whole world.

The stars represent the rating distribution: The size (that is, area) of the stars is proportional to the number of 5-, 4-, 3-, 2-, and 1-star ratings (from green to red). Between different apps, the star-size is correlated with the total number of ratings at a logarithmic scale.

Paid apps without an indication do not contain ads. For apps with in-app purchases, the price range is shown in parentheses.