I recently bought a new Casio FX-CP400 (ClassPad 400) for $135 at Staples and it arrived at the store, so I could finally pick it up. I haven't gotten much time to test it yet, but I was wondering if anybody got one?

The first thing that caught my attention is that the LCD is twice the size of the one on the TI-Nspire CX. That gotta be the largest calculator screen ever (both in resolution and in physical size). Too bad about the outdated hardware, although I was happy to get the calc for less than the insane $175 (excluding shipping/taxes) at some places, since it adds up to my collection.

I recently bought a new Casio FX-CP400 (ClassPad 400) for $135 at Staples and it arrived at the store, so I could finally pick it up. I haven't gotten much time to test it yet, but I was wondering if anybody got one?

The first thing that caught my attention is that the LCD is twice the size of the one on the TI-Nspire CX. That gotta be the largest calculator screen ever (both in resolution and in physical size). Too bad about the outdated hardware, although I was happy to get the calc for less than the insane $175 (excluding shipping/taxes) at some places, since it adds up to my collection.

Woah. That and an HP Prime. I. Need. them. really.

Is it available in the USA yet?

Not sure about USA. It came out in May 2013 in Europe and started appearing on some online stores, then it came out in August in Canada. It doesn't appear to be available in US based stores, though (Staples.ca got it, but not Staples.com). I would suggest getting the Prime instead, then if you have money, add the CP400 in your collection if you don't have a 84+CSE and PRIZM already. I got mine earlier because of the $35-off rebate.

Yeah. Also, sort of off subject, I am shocked at how low the price is for the HP Prime. I was expecting it to be much more expensive...

Indeed. Plus it's still very overpriced in Europe anyway. In USA it shouldn't be that bad considering it has more storage memory than my smartphone, yet is cheaper, but it's still high considering we can get Chromebooks for almost the same price.

... and he can report how horribly slow the machine is for simple BASIC programs.

How about the PRIZM? I know that drawing things on the ClassPad is faster than the PRIZM, but how does the rest compare?

Also, can DrawStat, FLine and stuff like that still be used to display stuff faster?

Casio always did the worst job in making a BASIC interpreter. Granted, many people here complained that TI-BASIC, even on the Nspire, was too slow for the hardware, but Casio has always been the worst. The only positive note is that since the FX-9860GII/PRIZM hardware is faster, certain BASIC programs can have respectable speed in terms of gameplay, but still, it's insane how slow it can get. The 84+CSE does a decent job, though, considering the hardware limitations.



HP wins on all these points with their two latest calcs, but again, they might have tried to make up for the (official) lack of ASM/C support, and even if BASIC is faster and less limited, if you slowed down the calc at 20 MHz or something, certain things might be very slow.

Funnily, the PRIZM can do it at decent speed. Couldn't they have used some code from it? It seems like the Classpad 330 was coded by a different team than non-CAS calcs and they just re-used code...

Maybe this should be submitted by multiple people as bug report or something?

I am curious if there is a way to hack the CP400 to run ASM programs... has anyone ever bothered trying or has the calc been dead on arrival due to the HP Prime and 84+CSE arrival?