Review: Jot Scientific Calculator

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.