BeeLine Reader vs DB50X
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BeeLine Reader
This app uses eye-guiding color gradients to help you read faster and more easily. It's particularly beneficial for individuals with dyslexia, ADD, or vision impairments, and can be used with articles saved from Safari or browsed directly within the app on select websites.
- Eye-guiding color gradients
- Improved reading speed
- Enhanced reading ability
- Safari Action Extension integration
- Article saving via Share Extension
- In-app browsing on select sites
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Read faster and more easily with our digital reading technology, which has has won awards from Stanford and United Nations! Here's how it works: instead of using plain black text, we display text using eye-guiding color gradients. These gradients flow from the end of one line to the beginning of the next, so that when you move your eyes from right to left, they're automatically drawn to the appropriate line. Vision, literacy, and medical experts agree that BeeLine Reader improves reading speed and reading ability for readers of all ages and skill levels. It is particularly helpful for readers with dyslexia, ADD, or vision impairments—some readers are able to read over 50% faster with BeeLine. Find out how much it will help you by taking the BeeLine Reading Challenge on our website: www.BeeLineReader.com. Included app functionality: Read with BeeLine in Safari using our BeeLine Action Extension; save articles for later using the BeeLine Share Extension; and browse the web with BeeLine on select popular websites (AP News, Reuters, and Medium.com) within the BeeLine app. Never used an extension before? Find out how: http://bit.ly/1vaQaOf IAP: Add premium news sites to your reading list and read Kindle books with BeeLine (iPad only). Have epub files you want to read with BeeLine? Grab the ReadMe! app, which supports DRM-free EPUB files.
DB50X
This scientific calculator offers high-precision computations with arbitrary precision for numbers. It supports advanced functions like complex numbers, matrices, symbolic calculations, and graphing, with a user-friendly interface and extensive built-in help.
- Arbitrary precision calculations
- RPN and algebraic operations
- Complex numbers, vectors, matrices
- Symbolic and numerical solving
- Graphing and plotting
- Engineering units and constants
- Unicode text support
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DB50X is a new high-precision scientific calculator inspired by the legendary HP50G series from Hewlett-Packard. It is not an emulator, but a redesign from scratch, which is faster, and delivers never seen before capabilities like computations in arbitrary precision. Like the original HP50G, DB48X supports an unlimited stack, RPN and algebraic operations, complex numbers, based numbers, vectors, matrices, text, symbolic computations, numerical solving and integration, graphing and plotting, statistics, engineering units, and well over 1000 built-in functions. It integrates a library of equations and constants covering mathematics, physics or chemistry. Using modern technologies, DB50X goes well beyond the original HP50G in many ways: - It is significantly faster, uses less memory, and features a higher-resolution 240x400 pixels graphical color display. - Integer and decimal values can have an arbitrarily large number of digits, so you can compute log(pi) with 200 digits in a few keystrokes. - The six function keys feature up to three function per key, giving quick access to up to 18 related functions at a time. - Complex numbers can mix and match polar and rectangular form. - Symbolic operations extend to complex numbers, vectors and matrices. - Based numbers can be in any base from 2 to 36, and support any number of bits, making it easy to emulate a 23-bit or 512-bit processor. - Text is represented using Unicode instead of the proprietary HP encoding, facilitating data exchange with the rest of the world. - Multiple graphs can be distinguished using colour patterns - Engineering units include all the modern evolutions of the SI system, and can be configured by the user, e.g. to integrate currency units with the exchange rate du jour. Converting between USD/hour and EUR/day has never been so easy! - A built-in hyperlinked help system documents functions simply by holding the corresponding key, and combine a quick start guide, a user manual and a reference manual. - Over 700K of memory is available for RPL programs. - Access to iCloud to save your program and edit them from your Mac. DB508X will run many user RPL programs designed for the HP48, HP49 or HP50 directly as is. However, since it is not an emulator, it will not run any HP binary object, and notably will not run HP50G games or anything involving system RPL. This is an early-access release. Please consult https://github.com/c3d/db48x/blob/stable/doc/5-Unimplemented.md for a list of commands that are not yet implemented. DB50X is part of a family of related calculators that include the black-and-white DB48X and the entry-level DB40X.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: DB50X at 100% against BeeLine Reader's 38%. DB50X also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.3) and in-app purchases (none vs 6). BeeLine Reader's advantage is price ($4.99 vs $9.99) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 14.0). On ratings volume, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
BeeLine Reader costs $4.99 and DB50X $9.99 up front. BeeLine Reader sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. DB50X asks for nothing beyond the download.
DB50X holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 20 and 8 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of BeeLine Reader's written reviews are positive against 100% of DB50X's.
BeeLine Reader ships an update every 5 months, DB50X every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BeeLine Reader | DB50X |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 2.3 (20 ratings) | 5.0 (8 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 38.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 20 — better | 8 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #189 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | BeeLine Reader, Inc. | Christophe de Dinechin |
Customer experience
BeeLine Reader
DB50X
In-app purchases
BeeLine Reader
- BeeLine News Lite$0.99
- BeeLine News Pro$3.99
- BeeLine News Pro$4.99
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- BeeLine Email & Social Pro$4.99
- BeeLine PDF Reader$9.99
- eBooks Pro$19.99
DB50X
No in-app purchases









