Digit Standard Abacus Soroban Professional 17 Column (10.2 inch) Math Abacus, Math Calculating Tool with Reset Button for Adults Kids(Brown)

There are a bunch of abaci on available on this site which are prettier than this one -- fine woods, brass fittings -- but in general they don't work as well. The frame (I ordered the "Cofei" color) is a sturdy black high quality plastic, 28 centimeters (11 inches) long. The beads are plastic, but not molded plastic, Rather the beads were turned on a lathe with a precision hole drilled in the exact center.Molded plastic beads, and most wood beads unless the maker is very careful, vary in fit from bead to bead, which slows you down. The rods on this one are fine grain bamboo (there is a reason why so many slide rules are made of bamboo - it slides smoothly without "catching".) The reset mechanism is well built and works smoothly. If you want something for a display case, look elsewhere. If you want an abacus that works great, this is the one.General advice about abaci:Unless you already know the chinese suanpan system, get a japanese soroban abacus. Each digit on a soroban is 0 to 9. With the chinese saunpan there are 16 values a digit can have. In other words, the soroban uses a base 10 numbering system while the suanpan uses a base 16 numbering system. Of course if you are a collector you will get both as well as the Roman and Russian styles.Also, you don''t need a giant abacus with lots of digits. The reason people use the big ones is so they can do two calculations on the left and right. This is handy if you want to multiply or divide, but abaci suck at that. Use a slide rule instead. If you really want to do two calculations at once get two smaller abaci.

Inexpensive 17-column soroban with reset button. Looks nice. Good value.As expected, the buttons are small but easy to manipulate. The reset button works well. Good for learning and practicing how add, subtract, multiply and divide. I will see whether 17 columns are enough for more advanced things such as exponentiation, extracting square roots, and other operations.Learning how to use a soroban is a salubrious and very good hobby: it helps to develop concentration and mental acuity. It is not, of course, meant to replace an electronic calculator, although at some level of proficiency you could. Becoming really good at it requires a great deal of practice. But as orientals say, the abacus does not make mistakes.

Works well on a desk. But when you hold it vertically it does not hold the beads. Otherwise this is aweome

This thing is so cool:) It makes me appreciate math so much more than before I started using it. It's easy to learn, and once I learned it I use it for doing math just for the sake of math. I also use it for calculations done during my studies. Its light weight and seems to be durable. I have only had it for a couple of days, so we will see how time affects it.

The media could not be loaded. So far so good, it is in good size for kid's hand and the reset button is very helpful.

sits firmly enough. works properly. feels nice playing with it. pretty sure it will feel even nicer properly using it. still figuring out how to do that though

My kids love their abacus

I like this abacus, but the size of a little too small for fat fingers. I wish there was a version that was larger, but with less number places.