Calcium:Fast Free Calculator for S60

Jul 7, 2010 by Shivendu Madhava

A zippier, simpler calculator than the default tool

One of the mysteries of life that will probably go unanswered forever is why mobile phone calculators are always clunky and difficult to use. They are the easiest application to code for any programmer, and yet, not one is pleasing to use.

For Symbian users, there is a way out. Calcium is a superb, lightweight calculator that gets the job done in a lot fewer clicks.

In fact, we tried out the little challenge they put up on their site: Take a standard cell phone calculator and run the following equation: (2/3)x7. It took us 13 clicks, while Calcium did it in 6!

The transition has been possible because of the shift from keypad-based navigation to the joystick/navigation-pad. Calcium looks a bit like an iPod, with the four points of the click-wheel depicting the four major mathematical signs (addition, subtraction, division and multiplication), while the centre is the ‘equal to’ sign to calculate your solution.