Sharp EL334FB

Perhaps it's because I'm a woman, but aren't calculators clever? As long as the answer to your sum is ten digits or less, it can tell you the answer to everything ever. Please feel free to inform me how a calculator works.....I live with someone who can't wire a plug, so it's no use asking him.

The full name of this product is the Sharp Elsimate EL-334. It can take ten digits and mine is a grey-beige colour with the following design:

Tax buttons are dark yellow
The digit buttons are a dark mauve
The memory buttons are light blue
The On/off (C.CE) is pink

This mixture of colours is, frankly, vulgar. However, the layout of the calculator is fine and features a natty little "back arrow" button that allows to correct a figure on the display before you press the "function" or total button. For example if, for some reason, you're adding up 100 and 100 and you accidentally type in 101 instead, you can press the back arrow button and 101 will be replaced with 10, leaving you free to enter the correct "0".

Another good feature is the "00" button. If you're typing in high round numbers like 10,000 you can press this twice instead of "0" four times. This would, I assume, be great for accountants and those who use high, round figures on a daily basis.

But there are down sides to this calculator too. It does what it says on the tin. It's very basic and will not do scientific calcultations and draw yoou pretty graphs. All the usual "functions" are there: plus, minus, percentage, divide, multiply, positive/negative, decimal point and equals. That's your lot.

Overall, it's not going to win any design awards, but rather cleverly the entire outer edge has been lined in rubber, so if you drop it the damage to it should be minimal.

Expect to pay around £4.99 for this durable, reliable but, ultimately basic little calculator.