Advanced general-purpose calculators
There seem to be essentially 3 advanced “general-purpose” calculator apps available currently (see my definition
here).
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 possibly 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 can show intermediate calculation steps. However, it does not work offline, and expressions cannot be entered in textbook notation.
Maxima on 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 calculators”, 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.
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