Calcbot 2

Unique in that you are entering an equation and it shows the result in real time as you enter terms. So you don’t need to hit equals sign very often at all, unless you want to remember the result in the tape. When you’re calculating multiple things times a common base value this makes for reduced keystrokes. For example if you want to calculate the calories and protein in a given weight of food (Dried Cranberries, say, which has 3.25 calories / gram and 0.025 grams of protein / gram). You type the 17 grams you ate first and then the multiply symbol. Then you type in 3.25 for calories and see the result without having to hit equals. Then use the delete key to delete the 3.25 and type .025 and see the protein result. Didn’t have to reenter the weight or the multiply symbol or the equals - faster and easier than other calculators! Multiply this time and keystroke savings by every ingredient you eat in every meal and snack every day of the year and you’ve saved enough time for at least a week of vacation on a beach on Maui! :) Other nice attention to detail like holding down on the delete/backspace key to delete all / clear the current equation really shows design and care that add up to a sweet little app.

Just because you can do things doesn’t mean you should. There are many things the developer probably thought were cute but severely impact usability. (1) After keying in the first number and pressing an operations key, as you’re inputting the second number the display shows the result you would be getting should you press equals or another operator key rather than showing you the number you’re keying in. You can see the number you’re keying in, but it’s very small and below the main display. This means that when you’re unsure of what you’ve keyed in there’s a significant delay while your eye finds the right thing to look at. No other calculator behaves this way. You see the number you’re keying in until you hit = and then you get the result. (2) swiping the display one way erases the last digit entered. Swiping the other way takes you to conversions. Related actions for totally unrelated functions. Since there’s already a delete button, why duplicate in a confusing way. (3) Way to many presses to send conversion results back to the calculator while sending to conversion requires no presses. (4) Conversion icons are mostly obscure. (5) Family sharing “isn’t supported” but it took reaching out twice to get this answer. Developer is unresponsive to those of us who have purchased the “pro” version and hasn’t updated the app in 2 years. I’ll be looking for something else. I’d advise you to do the same.

I use this app daily for calculations and converting units. It’s interesting that I tried this app years ago, and it has always stuck as my favorite calculator. I’ll try something else every now and again, and I just come back to this one. Across several phones, any expression that I’ve not deleted from my history has safely followed me. I’ve done annual inventory at a manufacturing plant several years in a row in this app, and it’s invaluable—and when I found I needed to convert an unfamiliar unit a couple days ago, the tool I needed was already in my pocket. So I felt obligated to give a review, considering the ridiculous value of this app. Maybe other calculators offer similar function, but this has the vital virtue to my workflow of feeling like a better instance of a stock application.