Taking a week off to focus on non-calculator aspects of my life has been beneficial. I missed reviewing my calculators though, so I'm very happy to be back to tell the world what I think about them.
To make up for the lack of reviews, I decided to start this brand new week off with something truly special...
Fans of calculator reviews, this day marks the end of an era. I've been reviewing calculators for a while now, and at long last it's time to bring about the conclusion. I hope this doesn't disappoint everyone, but I understand if it does. Today, I am reviewing the third and final Dollar Tree $1 Jot Calculator.
My hopes were not high for this device, especially after the Jot Scientific Calculator and the Jot Pocket Calculator. Long-time followers of these reviews will also notice that today's calculator closely resembles the Big Display 8-Digits Electronic Calculator. I'd been dreading opening the packaging because I knew this calculator was going to suck. It's time I move on with my life and be done with the Jot line.
This calculator sucks. It's exactly the same as the Big Display, except it doesn't pretend to be solar powered. The internals are identical. The only difference with this one is the color scheme. I like the black and white look, but it's wasted on this garbage.
I don't recommend this calculator nor any other device in the Jot line. I'm sorry this is such a short review.
Welcome to another week of calculator reviews! Starting this week, I'm going to highlight the best comments of the previous week. These comments may come from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or this site. Feedback is always appreciated, so thank you for your kind messages!
A few weeks ago I reviewed the Jot Scientific Calculator and was disappointed with it. It was a $1 calculator with too many design flaws to recommend. Today, I'm giving Jot another chance with their Pocket Calculator, which also costs $1 and can be found at the Dollar Tree.
Jot Pocket Calculator
Wow. What a piece of junk. I was able to make sure this thing actually worked before removing it from its packaging, but until it was actually in my hands for use, I had no idea how bad this really was. The very first thing I noticed when this went into the palm of my hand was how rough and sharp the sides were due to terrible injection molding. The face plate and back piece don't fit together quite right, so this only exacerbates the side problems.
The buttons feel okay, which is probably the best thing I can say about this device. The screen is unusually small for the size of the calculator and it runs on a battery so there's a lot of empty space inside that could have been used to fit a solar cell.
During the video review, I ran out of things to say, so I disassembled the device to make it a bit longer. Everything inside felt cheap and poorly designed. That's not so much of an issue, but what isn't shown in the video is the calculator no longer working properly after I reassembled it.
This calculator is further evidence that $1 calculators are not worth buying. The Jot Scientific Calculator had a few redeeming qualities, so I had some hopes for this one, since it has less functionality but costs the same amount.
Here's a picture of it not working, next to a useless manual.
Like that other one, this one also has to be completely disassembled in order to get to the battery. I'm generally careful when putting things back together, so someone who isn't as interested in calculator preservation as I am will likely mess it up as well.
I still have one more Jot calculator to review, and that one's not looking promising...
I'd like to start today's post with a huge thank you to everyone who has been sharing this blog on social media. I haven't mentioned here, but I did frequently when I was posting on Facebook, that I have received overwhelmingly positive responses about these reviews. I look forward to writing these and to reading the comments.
One of the issues with writing calculator reviews is that not all of these calculators can be easily found. Some of you may be looking for a device to call their own, but aren't sure where to look. Today's review is the first to address this issue. This calculator can be found at the Dollar Tree for $1, but is it worth it?
The Jot Scientific Calculator:
aptly named
The Jot Scientific Calculator eschews a fancy name and just gets right to the point. You don't need a picture of it to know what it is. For its size, it sure packs a lot of functionality. It's roughly the size of a standard algebraic calculator, yet features a 10 digit LCD screen and 56 different functions.
Okay, but this is a $1 calculator. Surely that's where the positives end, right?
Wrong.
It doesn't have clicky buttons, but they feel responsive enough. Nothing essential feels like it's going to break or fall off without considerable effort. The rubber grips on either side naturally conform to the palm of your hand, allowing for comfortable calculations. It also sports a solid plastic cover that protects the screen and buttons well enough.
Come on, it's a $1 calculator. That's got to be all of the positives by now.
This photo is for showing the cover, but it also represents where the cover
usually is when the calculator is on: not on the calculator.
Yeah, it is.
The cover, while protective, doesn't stay attached to the calculator when the calculator is in use. It's also completely blank, whereas most devices would provide metric conversion rates, button explanations, or some other kind of useful information. This has nothing, and the cover just seems like something that could be easily lost.
The previous owner must have lost two
of the screws when changing the battery.
But that's not nearly as much of a problem as the power supply. It can run on either one or two LR1130 batteries, but this device came out within the past decade. The earliest I can find a mention of these is 2013, so there's no reason to not make this solar powered. This wouldn't be so bad if it was easy to access the batteries. It's not. In order to get to them, you're going to need a jeweler's screwdriver and something to contain the eight micro screws. It's extremely inconvenient and by itself makes this calculator almost impossible to recommend.
While I would never call a calculator disposable, it feels like that's what Jot was going for with this device. It might be good for an emergency calculation, but it's worthless for long-term use without additional tools. It's really a shame that this could have been a solid device, but instead it's unreliable.
You should never need to see this much
of the inside just to change the batteries.
If you'd like to get a Jot Scientific Calculator of your own, get it at Dollar Tree. It's sold in a lot of other places, but usually for $5 - $15. I've seen many variations in the packaging of the device, but I assure you they are all the same thing. If you're going to be spending that kind of money, you might as well get something better.
For a good time.
Hey, this would have been useful inside the cover.
