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16 of 16 found the following review helpful:
 A damn fine pocket calc. Jan 25, 2004
By Mephistopheles
"Mephistopheles"
All through high school, I used a TI-86 graphing calculator. Unfortunately, once I got to college I found out that Chemistry professors are none-too-fond of programmable calculators, so I had to buy a new one. After some deliberation between another TI, a Casio and this Sharp, I finally decided on the Sharp. Needless to say from my review, I'm glad I did. Here's why: College is tough on equipment, so high build quality of a calculator is a must. I'm used to a TI-86 (which is built like a tank), so the extremely light EL-506v is quite a change. However, the build appears plenty solid. The calculator is gray on the front, with a dark blue back and a dark blue translucent cover which snaps on nicely. The buttons are translucent as well, with the number and main function keys dark blue and the secondary keys white (the on key is also pink, and the secondary function key is yellow). There are slightly fewer keys than on TI's comperable model, but every button has several contextual functions. The display is quite nice. There are two lines, a large numerical one where data is input (with a small section dedicated to exponential notation) and a smaller one on top which shows you the entire equation you're working on. The screen has great contrast, and is large enough to be easily read. The keys have little travel and feel slightly floaty, but nothing that would suggest cheapness.
The EL-506v claims to posess 330 functions, and I believe it. I count 37 keys (besides the d-pad, which allows you to edit your current equation or cycle through old ones), and all posess a 2nd-key function and most have a third contextual function. There are all the things one would expect from a scientific calculator, and some you wouldn't. Most notable are a whole series of 44 unit conversions (technically; though half are simply the same conversion the other direction). Everything's there: mass, volume, area and more. There's also 40 physical constants. Both of these abilities are accessed through pushing a key and entering a reference number for the conversion/constant you want; the ref. numbers are printed on a two-sided card held in the calc's slide cover. I'm very pleased with the abilities of this calc, many of which I thought were confined to the realm of graphing units. Also, one last interesting ability is the so-called "advanced DAL" (Direct Algebraic Logic) input method, which allows you to type in equations just as they appear in textbooks. This makes things much simpler, since you needn't learn all types of esoteric entry methods for complex equations. So, the lesson is this: if you need a convenient, small, thorough pocket scientific calculator, pick up one of these. You won't likely regret it.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Great for college students Jul 08, 2004
I'm a pre-med student on a quarter schedule, which means I have a lot of science courses to fit in a very small time. The DAL calculator is great: the keys are not too large and not to small and all the functions are labeled clearly with no obscure menus, this makes it a handy tool for those timed tests that can make or break your grade. The only thing I can recommend is making several copies of those little conversion rate guides that slide right into the cover because it is too easy to lose them. Oh, and read the manual, it helps.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Awesome Calculator. Jan 04, 2011
By haggas
Ah the Sharp DAL. I, quite by accident, converted to an early Sharp DAL model early in High school. I felt somewhat handicapped at the time because everybody else had TI-89's and higher but I passed my classes. Once I got to college I decided to fork out the money for an HP-48G graphing calculator and as my DAL died after 5 years of hard use I purchased this beauty. Needless to say after trying the graphing calculator and after I tried others I found that despite their capabilities no graphing calculator can match the speed at which I could get problems done on my little DAL. I prided myself for whipping out this little guy and wasting others who would slowly plink out some function on their monstrosities.
The DAL pulled me through 4.5 years of intense workout in Mechanical Engineering. It only finally failed me in that, as described by others, it's not allowed in the FE test (there is a dual line TI that is similar enough, and allowed that it wasn't too bad). Sadly a year after I graduated even this calculator died. I tried a new DAL from Sharp, but found they had removed some functionality that I enjoyed. Now that I found they still make these I'm going back and gonna get one.
Physically it's not large, with the hard plastic case (which slides by runners onto the calculator much like the TI-89 does)it's only about 1cm thick. The insertable table actually fits on runners in the plastic shell, so just leave it in there (the other side is a quick reference to work the calculator so just leave it on the constants and conversions side) and it will never slide out. As for the viewing angle? Yeah it reflects lights, I don't know of many calcs that don't.
This calculator is plenty powerful to do everything (except graph equations which as you'll find is really not important). It can do integrals, has 8 memories (which is really handy as it has the normal M, them A-F and even ANS (the last answer but be careful how you use that one)and you can program in equations with memory letter, and then change the number in memory to do multiple iterations rather quickly) all the trig functions, stat's mode, e
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Good Buy Mar 22, 2006
By James
I typically use a TI-89, and this calculator is awesome. Too bad it is not allowed in the FE Exam. If you need a solid calculator, this one is it. The craftsmanship is great, the calculator can do Binary, Hex, Dec, and Oct, as well as statistics; Calculus and all you can think of. The only thing that I wish it did was "pretty print" BUY NOW.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Broken and returned Jul 27, 2011
By M. Huang
"曼曼小姐"
I bought the calculator for a science class. I can only give 1 star for it because:
1) In my package the calculator and menu fell out from an opened plastic case. It seemed to me I had received a used product. This was not really an issue to me if it would work well but,
2) the screen dim significantly after I turned the power on. The problem existed even after I let it receive some sun shine to recharge. I had to turn the calculator with a specific angle so that I can read the digits on the display. The problem was likely due to its shorten battery life (because it was used before?). This was also tolerable since the price was so cheap and I might buy a new battery for it but,
3) the display couldn't show digits properly after I turned on the calculator for a third time. Part of the screen began to display nothing.
That's how I got really pissed off by it and ordered another model from a local store.
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