# Halcyon Calc Lite

> Advanced scientific and symbolic calculator for iOS devices. (iPhone/iPad app by Halcyon Touch Software.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/halcyon-calc-lite/id408004888 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Halcyon Touch Software](https://appshunter.io/developer/327064662)
- Category: Utilities, Education
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.70/5 from 15 App Store ratings · 7 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 16.6 · 13 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2010-12-15
- Data updated: 2026-08-29
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/halcyon-calc-lite/id408004888/reviews.md

## What is Halcyon Calc Lite?

For students, engineers, scientists or people who fondly remember classic calculators, Halcyon Calc Lite is a great application for manipulating numbers and even symbolic expressions. 

Features: 
- Use this calculator on an iPhone, iPod Touch or an iPad 
- Use your finger to quickly scroll through the stack to review intermediate results 
- Copy and paste support 
- Over 225 built-in operations, including trig, logarithms, real functions, complex operations and more 
- Allows you to work with real, complex and integer numbers. 
- Real and complex numbers can be displayed in standard, fixed, scientific and engineering format 
- Integer numbers can be displayed in decimal, hexadecimal, octal and binary bases 
- Work with real and complex matrices and vectors
- Enter symbolic expressions and solve them for different values. Even better, solve quadratic formulas, collect and expand factors and terms, find minima, maxima and roots of any expression. 
- Plot symbolic expressions in X/Y coordinates. Pan the coordinate space by dragging the plot in any direction. Zoom in and out using a pinch gesture.
- Determine symbolic derivative, taylor series or numeric integral of an expression.
- Store numbers, lists, strings and expressions in symbols.
- Store statistical data and calculate totals, averages, standard deviations, linear regressions, etc over that data.
- Calculate the probabilities associated with standard distributions like the normal, F and T distributions.

## Key features

- Symbolic expression manipulation
- Graphing of expressions
- Matrix and vector calculations
- Statistical analysis
- Multiple number formats (decimal, hex, octal, binary)
- Over 225 built-in operations

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Programming Support | $1.99 | one-time |
| Larger Display Upgrade | $1.99 | one-time |
| Directory And Unit Conversion Support | $0.99 | one-time |


## Recent user reviews (7 of 7)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/halcyon-calc-lite/id408004888/reviews.md

### 3/5 — Trigonometry

*2024-03-29*

I love the nice clean look of your calculator. How ever I can’t make head nor tail of your trig functions.  Are you using the traditional functions?  For example, it keeps telling me the sin of 45 deg is 0.8509 and cos 45 is 0.5253.  How are you getting this?

### 5/5 — Splendid Simulation of a HP-28S

*2015-06-30*

This is a close to perfect simulation of the venerable and highly successful HP-28S, which is the grand dad of the most advanced series of HP’s scientific RPN graphing calculators. Being a genuine simulation and not a simple emulation working with the old ROM, this little beast is running at full speed and makes good use if the iOS’ native screen resolution and larger display. In brief it’s a charm to work with for anyone used to HP’s series of RPN calculators. It’s fully programmable, deals with complex numbers, matrices and arrays, and it’s able of plotting full screen, including pinch&zoom&scroll. 

The developer has been implementing most HP28s functions, and the few that are still missing don’t hurt too much (e.g. the ALGEBRA menu, but for this one might be better of with a dedicated CAS system anyway). Only drawback is its name - no one would guess to find a full-fledged HP28 simulator behind something called Halcyon, and also the icon does not hint at its true origins.

So in brief this is highly recommended to any HP enthusiast. The original HP28 layout with the separate alphanumeric keypad makes it very easy to use. It runs natively and makes full use of the iOs graphics display and resolution to its advantage (gestures, copy, paste, scrolling etc).

### 1/5 — I had the hp28s.  This is a good replica

*2015-06-15*

Pros: look and acts like the hp 28s.
Cons: free version is too locked down to tell how well it works.  I would have like to tried out other features, but that requires at least 1 upgrade possibly more.  I could not tell for sure.  I would pass on this one since I cannot tell how well it will work.

**Developer response:** I appreciate the feedback and I am sorry you found the free version locked down.  But I am wondering if perhaps there is a different problem.  The free version is fully featured and I believe is quite functional without purchasing extra features.  There are in-app purchases which unlock the following:

   - A larger display which also removes in-app advertisement banners
   - Unit conversion so you can convert feet to meters or any number of other units, including units you define yourself.
   - Programming support so you can create your own custom actions and operations.
   - The ability to create directories to store your own symbols in a hierarchical tree.

Those are the only restrictions in the free version.  You can do basic calculations with real numbers, integers, complex numbers, vectors and matrices.  You can enter equations, plot them, perform calculus on them, evaluate them for various values of variables.

Perhaps you were having a technical issue with the app which was preventing it from working for you and I am more than happy to work with you on that and help you to resolve it.

### 5/5 — HP 28S Calculator Replica

*2013-03-22*

Just like the last reviewer, I had a HP 28S since 1989.  It bit the dust last year.  This is an exact replica!  If you do not understand (RPN - Reverse Polish Notation) you will be confused like Phat Dude.  Take some time to learn RPN, you will find it straight forward and easy to use.

### 4/5 — Love the HP 28S

*2013-03-13*

I've used my HP 28S for three decades.  I'm thrilled to find an app that emulates this classic scientific calculator.  I haven't used the app much yet, but I'm looking forward to testing its features.

### 1/5 — Crap on a Stick😡

*2013-02-28*

I don't like this app but my algebra teacher sed to get it but its way too complicated😤

**Developer response:** I completely agree that this calculator is complicated and I am sorry that you did not find it useful.  The app is definitely not for everyone and one goal is to try to capture a bit of nostalgia for some of the high-end scientific calculators of the 1990's while also being a highly functional tool for those who want something like that on iOS.

I suspect your algebra teacher is exactly the kind of person who is interested in something like that and it would appear that you are not.  Fair enough and I hope you found a calculator which was more to your liking.

### 1/5 — bbye!

*2013-01-31*

not replacing my 1st gen ipad.  can't follow you into 6.0

deleting.

**Developer response:** With every new version of iOS, I need to make a decision about what the minimum version of iOS I will support.  I generally try to support two.  The most recent version and the previous.

I am responding to your review long after you posted it but today, the latest version is iOS 11.  I plan to ship a couple of update to the app in the iOS 11 timeframe and plan to support both iOS 11 and iOS 10.  When iOS 12 comes out, I will be focusing on iOS 12 and iOS 11.

Time I spend testing old version of the OS on old hardware is time that I could spend working on adding more features to the app.  I do need to make a tradeoff between these two and I am sorry that you found that tradeoff to be a problem for you.

## Frequently asked questions about Halcyon Calc Lite

### What devices does Halcyon Calc Lite support?

Halcyon Calc Lite is available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. It is compatible with devices running iOS.

### What kind of numbers can Halcyon Calc Lite handle?

Halcyon Calc Lite allows you to work with real, complex, and integer numbers. It can display these numbers in various formats, including standard, fixed, scientific, engineering, decimal, hexadecimal, octal, and binary.

### Can Halcyon Calc Lite plot expressions?

Yes, Halcyon Calc Lite can plot symbolic expressions in X/Y coordinates. You can pan the coordinate space by dragging and zoom using a pinch gesture.

### Does Halcyon Calc Lite have ads?

Yes, Halcyon Calc Lite contains advertisements. This is common for free utility applications.

### What is the age rating for Halcyon Calc Lite?

Halcyon Calc Lite has an age rating of 4+. This indicates it is suitable for users of all ages.

### How often is Halcyon Calc Lite updated?

The latest version, 4.2.10, was released on October 8, 2025. While specific update frequency isn't detailed, this indicates active development.

### What are the benefits of the in-app purchases for Halcyon Calc Lite?

The description mentions in-app purchases, but does not specify what features or content they unlock. Users may want to check the app store listing for details on these optional upgrades.

### How does Halcyon Calc Lite compare to other calculators?

Halcyon Calc Lite offers advanced features like symbolic expression solving, graphing, and matrix operations, which go beyond basic calculators. Its ability to handle complex numbers and various bases also sets it apart.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 4.3 — 2026-05-06

In this version, the size of the font in the display area will grow or shrink based on the user's "Text Size" setting in the "Display & Brightness" section of the system settings.  So, if you have your text size increased from default, you should find that the text in the display of the calculator will also be somewhat larger and easier to read.  If you have the setting low so that your text tends to be smaller than default, you should find that the text in the display of the calculator will also be smaller and show more content on your screen.

Let us know if the behaviour is not to your liking and we can tweak this behaviour in future versions.

### 4.2.10 — 2025-10-08

Minor UI fixes:
- On the iPad, the bottom of the stack was not always visible.  This should now be fixed.
- On the iPhone, there was sometimes a background colour leaking through along the top of the UI which should not have been visible.

### 4.2.9 — 2023-05-02

Fix COMB and PERM to correctly return one when doing combinations or permutations in groups of zero.

### 4.2.8 — 2023-03-17

Fixes the order of arguments restored by the LAST command with a series of multi-argument operations.  Prior to this, some operations would restore their arguments in reverse order.  Now, they should all restore their arguments correctly.

### 4.2.7 — 2022-12-05

Fix a bug where the display panel may not be visible on relaunch on an iPad.

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## More apps by Halcyon Touch Software

- [Halcyon Calc](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/halcyon-calc/id327064659)
- [ListenerGS](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/listenergs/id1613273510)

All apps by Halcyon Touch Software: https://appshunter.io/developer/327064662

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-29.*