I may have mentioned in previous reviews that I work in a payroll and HR office is a vital piece of equipment for my job is a calculator. At my desk I have a Sharp model that is plugged in and has quite a large screen and buttons but when I am called into various costing meetings I take a hand held calculator in with me and the model that I use is the Casio MX-8V model. The calculator was picked out by myself however and was not something that was purchased by my workplace, the only input that they had was that I did have to stick to a budget but seeing as we use a regular stationary supplier we also receive s significant discount.


I believe that this calculator can be brought in places such as WH Smiths and Staples and will cost around the £5.00 mark so at least it is not too expensive, I believe we got ours for about £4.00 so work were happy with the price. Calculators really do vary dependant on your needs, at school it was all scientific calculators and as I mentioned at work I need the plug in calculator and criteria for this was that it was just a basic calculator that would allow me to do costing's in finance meetings.


The calculator came in a sturdy cardboard box with a large picture of the calculator on as well as the Casio logo. There were also a couple of points on what the calculator offered. Inside the box there is an instruction booklet that will tell you all you need to know in order to be able to work the calculator.


On taking the calculator out of the box I found that it was quite light to hold and so not a problem to carry around to meetings. The dimensions of it are 10 x 16cm. The calculator is mainly grey in colour, quite a pale grey so you do need to wipe it down from time to time as it does show the dirt! He buttons on the calculator are a slightly darker shade of grey with the numbers or lettering printed onto them in black. The only button that is a different colour is the on/off button which is red.


When resting the calculator on a flat surface you can have it flush to the desk or slightly raised by pulling back the two feet that can be found on the back of the calculator to tilt it slightly. I find that this works best for me as I amused to my main calculator having the upright screen. The display screen is really quite impressive in my opinion for a smaller calculator as it is quite large so the figures really do stand out.


When I first started using the calculator I found that the keys were slightly difficult to use, but this was just down to what I had been used to as the keys on my Sharp model are quite big in depth and are big in size as well, I was finding that I was having to push really hard on the keys on the Casio model but I soon got into the habit of alternating calculators and used to this model.


The calculator can perform all the basic sums that you will need and also has a minus, percentage and square root key. What I have found handy is that there is a memory button as I sometimes need to save a figure and this is great for keeping a costing saved before I make a note of it.


The calculator comes with batteries which are 1.5v in size, there is also a solar panel built into the calculator and as my office and the meeting rooms that I tend to use are light I can never think of an occasion when I have had to turn the calculator off!


In summary, I would have no hesitation in recommending this calculator, it is easy to use and the fact that is light is a help for those that will need to carry it around with them. The calculator has really easy to use buttons as well as the functions themselves being easy to use.


I give this 4 out of 5

Thank you for reading