There were some rumors about the possibility that Casio announces two new calculator models today at Journées APMEP 2023 where various calculator producers traditionally appear. This is where the TI-Planet team saw that Casio was actually planning to release two new higher-end CLASSWIZ calculator models for Back to School 2024 (maybe before? The PRIZM came out in January 2011, after all). It's the Graph Light and the Graph Math+.


(Image from TI-Planet)

The first model appears to not be programmable and lacks a backlit color display, but it's a graphing calculator and it looks like an enhanced version of the fx-92 series CLASSWIZ model. It could probably replace the fx-7400gIII (which lacked add-in and storage memory support and costed way more than a fx-9750gIII). Nonetheless this will most likely be a significant change from previous monochrome graphing models in terms of interface and I doubt it will be very expensive, but at the same time I hope it's not a step backwards in terms of technical hardware specifications and functionality compared to previous graphing models.

The second model appears to be higher end and have an exam mode. We can speculate that it might replace the fx-CG50 and Graph 90+E as it features a color screen and appears to have a Python app where 9 lines of code can be viewed at the same time in the code editor. Hopefully it has hardware improvements over the fx-CG50/G90+E. The interface also appears to be significantly different from previous models. I assume it has an USB port for Python script transfer, so I bet it can be hacked to run ASM and C add-ins.

Both models seems to use the most recent style of Classwiz keypads.

I am honestly surprised by this news but I like the idea of a graphing calculator that is cheaper to buy than the fx-9750gIII. It would also be much better quality than those Catiga/Truly/Lexibook/Esquisse/CTTTZEN knockoffs from China. As for the other model I would also like to see Casio try to lower their price so that they can compete harder than TI. If TI is worried about losing market share then maybe they'll adjust their prices or release more powerful models.

I would not be surprised if Casio planned to release those two new models outside of France too.

Original topic: https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=273721

Thanks for posting, DJ! I did notice Casio teasing an announcement of some sort on Twitter, so I'm pleased to have confirmation of what it was. I'm particularly curious if that color-screen calculator will come in at a low price point: is there any speculation of where that might be? Casio seems determined to blur the line between scientific and graphing calculators, and if the price comes down while they do it, I'm all for it.

TI-Planet posted two clearer pictures of what the two calculator screens look like: https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=274658#p274658

Graph Math+ Lycée: https://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=18975
Graph Light Lycée: https://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image.php?mode=medium&image_id=18974

This confirms that the Graph Light has no programming and no user memory available. The Graph Math+ however has a Python app and obviously exam mode.


EDIT: Larger resolution, this time of the whole calculators: https://tiplanet.org/forum/gallery/image_page.php?album_id=885&image_id=18984

The last link seems to be broken.

Yeah they seem to have deleted the image. It showed the entire calculators.

Observations of the Graph Math+:

* The Graph and Table modes are merged. I like this since bother are easily related.

* The Base mode returns (the early graphing calculators (i.e. fx-7700G) had this mode). On the fx-CG 50, the base mode was through SET UP. It will match the non-graphing scientific calculators.

* There is still no word of the Finance, Geometry, Graph 3D, or Periodic Table mode/app. Maybe the is in Suites mode?

* Will there be an international version of the Graph Math+, where the French version only has Python but the international offers both Python and classical Casio Basic? It wouldn’t surprise me given how Casio tailors similar models to the requirements of different countries.

* Knock on wood that numpy comes to calculator Python.

* I'm glad that the ALPHA key has returned!

I look forward to purchasing a Graph Math+ in the near future.

Additional thoughts after March 7's post from TIPlanet.org and Casio's 5th episode of La Bonne Equation:
https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=274846&sid=637d021c27db4fdde78c2d3b93618766#p274846

* I'm happy for whoever wins the trip to Tokyo. If I was a math teacher in France, I would volunteer to test the Graph Math+ out.

Graph Light:

* There are no screws in the battery compartment. Thank you, Casio.
* With the deletion of the Scratch app, expect the fx-92+ College to be a collector’s item, and very expensive.
* The Graph Light seems to be a battery-operated fx-991CW with functional graphing. If someone is going from the Graph 25 (fx-7400GIII), it seems like the polar, parametric, and inequality graphs are gone. Not even plotting tools (line, points, circles) seem to be present.
* There is a units converter mode, but its limited to speed and temperature units.

Graph Math+:

* Again, no screws required to open the battery compartment.
* I wish a USB-C cable would have been included, fortunately, this cable is widely available.
* It is possible that finance functions will be moved to the TOOLS key. Also, apps that didn't make it from the fx-CG 50, such as Physium, Geometry, and Sim Prob might be added in future updates.
* It's going to be interesting working with the two double arrow keys to navigate context menus, instead of the F1 through F6 keys.

I notice that the Graph Math+ doesn't offer much of an upgrade for the hardware, sticking to 61 KB of user RAM for example. On the other hand, by sticking to similar hardware as the two previous color models they must be saving a lot of money, so they will probably have more freedom with the suggested price, and they have to, especially in France where the TI-83 Premium CE Edition Python is far cheaper than the fx-CG50.

In fact, the ti83ce, the Casio Graph 90 (=fxcg50) and the Numworks cost about the same in France (around 80€ VAT included). My guess is that the new Graph Math+ will also cost around 80€. Outside France, I expect that the equivalent model to the Math+ should be available for back to school 2025, when Casio will have finished the UI conversion of all their apps for the new keyboard, and my conjecture is that it will cost around 100$ in the US...