Saturday, June 17, 2017

Casio fx-CG50 Review (updated 3/2/2018)

Casio fx-CG50 Review



Company:  Casio
Type: Scientific/Graphing
Price:  (about) $119
Battery: 4 AAAs
Memory: 60 KB RAM, 14 MB Flash
Colors:  Can display up to 65,536 colors, graphing and text can be use up to 8 colors

I’m going to focus more on the new and updates in this review.


2017 fx-CG50 on the left, 2011 fx-CG10 on the right


Keyboard

The fx-CG50 is an update of the popular 2011 Casio Prizm (model fx-CG10 or fx-CG20).  The fx-CG50 has an updated keyboard, in the style of the new fx-260 SOLAR and Casio FX-991 ES.  As a result, the keys are easier to read, more consistent to the touch and size.  In the previous keyboard (fx-CG10/20), the number keys were large but the function keys were very small.

The Screen

Like the previous fx-CG10/20, the diagonal of the screen is 3.17 inches.  However, the screen of the fx-CG50 is brighter. 

Processing Speed

Although I wasn’t able to find anything about the chip or its speed, the fx-CG50 seems to operate faster in accounts.   

I tested a sample program:

For 1 → A To 1000
ClrText
Locate 2,1,A
Next

On the fx-CG10, the program took 1 minute, 24.83 seconds to complete.  With the fx-CG50, the program took just 34.87 seconds, a reduction of 58.89%.

General Features

fx-CG50 Menu selection screen

* Financial Solver: Time Value of Money, Days between Dates, Bonds
* Recursive, Polar, Function, Parametric, Inequality, and Conic Section Graphing
* General Function Solver
* Polynomial Solver: up to the 6th degree, coefficients must be real, but roots can be complex numbers
* Simultaneous Equation Solver:  up to 6 x 6 linear equations, can include complex numbers
* Number of Statistic Regressions (curve fitting): 12

Also textbook entry, calculus, and full complex number (yes that includes exponential, logarithms, and trigonometric functions of complex numbers – yes I’m happy about this!**).  Base calculations include binary, octal, decimal, and hexadecimal integers.

** As of OS 3.10, trig functions no longer accept complex numbers.  Why Casio why?  (3/2/2018)

Additional modes include Geometry, Conversion, and Spreadsheet.  3D graphing is new to the fx-CG50.

Graphs can be used in one of 8 colors: black, blue, red, magenta, green, cyan, yellow, and white.  This palette is the same of the SECAM palette shown on certain Atari 2600 machines.  (Link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_console_palettes#Atari_2600 )

3D Graphing

The 3D graphing mode offers one of four possible types: line, plane, sphere, and cylinder.  Each of the types offer various formats to enter coefficients.  Keep in mind these are the only four types of 3D graphs offered.  The graph has full zoom features and it is pretty snappy with regards to rotation.  



Physium

Physium is included with the fx-CG50.  There are two features with the Physium:  Periodic Table and Physical Constants.

Periodic Table:  an underrated feature.  You can display the entire table, or zoom in to a portion of the table.  The atomic weight of each element can be stored in a variable (A through Z).



Physical Constants:  Choose between 39 physical constants from five categories: Universal (speed of light, electric constant, Newton’s constant of gravitational, etc.), Electromagnetic constants, Atomic & Nuclear constants, Physico-Chemical constants (Avogardo constant, molar gas constant, etc), and three Adopted Values (Josephson constant, Klitzing constant, standard acceleration of gravity).  Units are in SI.



Verdict

If you don’t have a Casio fx-CG10/20 and are interested in getting the updated version, go for it.  I also think getting the update is worth it primarily for the faster processing speed, brighter screen, and much better keyboard as far as contrast on the labels and key size.  Obviously Casio is very consistent with the programming language, so if you are upgrading from a previous non-color or three-color version, you should feel right at home with the fx-CG50.  The one thing I wish the fx-CG50 had was more RAM instead of only the 60KB from fx-CG10.  It’s not terrible, but given the TI-84 Plus CE has 128K RAM, Casio should have at least matched that amount.

Eddie


This blog is property of Edward Shore, 2017