Texas instruments graphing calculator
July 31st, 2009
Texas Instruments TI-84 Plus Graphing Calculator
The new TI-84 Plus is a wonderful calculator. If anybody has had the TI-83 or 83 Plus, they know how easy and reliable it is. The 84 Plus is an all-around imprivement on the older version and even worth the additional $15-$20. I have had it since school started and have noticed than any problem I enter, it is solved immediately upon pressing enter, or solve. The speed is a great improvement over the 83-Plus. The computer features are nice, but rarely used by myself. For anybody who is supposed to buy a TI series calculator for school, the 84 Plus us definitely the one to pick up this year and for the next few years I assume. Easy, fast, reliable, durable, and even sleek. As long as you handle it properly and use it enough, you will get all of your $110 out of the TI-84 Plus. Read More Texas instruments graphing calculator Reivews >>>
After using a TI-83 Plus calculator for the last 5 years, I decided to upgrade to the TI-89 Titanium. This calculator is unbelievable in its features and power. First of all, it is more suited for advanced math, such as calculus and beyond. This calculator is NOT meant for high schoolers who are taking algebra, geometry or trig classes. If you don’t know what a derivative or an integral is, then save your money and buy a TI-84 instead. (Besides, I believe most high school math teachers ban the TI-89 on tests) This calculator can also run programs in its Flash memory, which can be downloaded from the TI website. A USB cable is included standard. TI has made the newly designed sliding cover much more secure than the old TI design (TI-83 plus, TI-86, TI-89 regular), whose sliding cover was not very secure and became looser over continued use. The cover is very hard to get off the first few times (I was almost afraid of breaking it off), but over time it has gotten easier. Switching over from the TI-83, the only problem I’ve encountered is the operation of this calculator is very different from the 83. The menus are different, the interface different, different buttons. It takes a while to get used to.
The TI-84 Plus Silver Edition is a powerful calculator with almost every function that one could desire, a powerful programming environment, and a well-organized keyboard.
On the other hand, the calculator-computer interface is slow and the PC software is limited and poorly documented. One can transfer programs from the calculator to the computer or vice versa, but this capability is not documented in the user manual. I would like to be able to edit a calculator program on the computer, but it appears that this is not possible.
I also have one complaint with the programming environment– There should be a “break” or “done” command to exit from a loop without using a goto.
Based on my current knowledge, I would rate this product at 4 stars rather than 3 (Amazon does not permit me to change this).
If you are a high school student, then this calculator is for you. It has everything you need, for algebra, precalculus, and calculus. The good thing about the 83+ is that it is upgradable, so the need for a new calculator doesn’t arise, every few years. Purchasing a graph-link can add on a TREMENDOUS amount of programs to use for Physics, Geometry, and even 3D-Graphs, (previously only on the ti-89 and up). If you are in High School, do NOT get the ti-92 or ti-89, because they will probably be banned from standardized tests, and high math classes, so ask your math teacher, because they are too hard to use and understand. Also, these 2 calculators are aimed for more college-level students, so if you are in college, try the ti-89. But in every case, a ti-83+ is ideal!
I had used a TI-83 for Precalc, but really needed something a little more powerful for Calculus, so I bought an 86. One of my friends has an 89, but many tests that allow graphing calculators still don’t allow a TI-89 because they have “algebraic manipulation” capabilities, plus the 86 is cheaper, so I went with that. I have not been disappointed. It has a much cleaner interface than the 83, and the 83’s only real advantage, a strong financial and statistics package, can be downloaded to the 86 as an addon. Be warned though if you do that, the Graph Link cable (to the computer) is not cheap. It’s a great calculator with a lot of good features. Those looking for more features can easily customize it by programming it, a pretty straightforward process.
Why would I want a TI 83 you may ask? What about the 89? It’s a higher model, and has more buttons! Yes, that’s exactly it, it has more buttons, and way to many features you won’t use. I have a Ti 83+ (More memory than the origional, but same everything else) and it is great! It has built in Financial Apps, which is a nice addition (and helpful!) compared to the 82 (which it is also compatible with!). But the 89? Even the 85? They take greater than calculus students to even need/use those functions, and they are a much harder to learn calculator. The Calculus teacher at our school says that the 83 will get you all through calculus and most likely beyond college. My calculator, which is really easy to learn, came in handy the first day in Geometry. We had to figure an area of a wierd shape and we only had the co-ordinates, i punched them in, and POW, found the area. If you do get this calculator, a TI-Graph Link is a must, this allows you to download software and updates from TIs website, some software could almost be considered cheating, while others can be games for fun. Unless you want to spend $200 for a TI-92+ (not even allowed by most teachers, it’s so powerful), this is THE calculator for you!
If you are thinking of using this calculator for Algebra, Geometry, basically any straight math, especially Calculus, DON’T. That is not to say it won’t work, just that there are better things out there, namely the TI-89. The 89 is somewhat more expensive, but, in my opinion and experience, it is far superior for these applications. A few reasons: easier to get the results from previous entries, support for derivitives and integrals, and the higher resolution looks better and lets you put more on the screen at one time, as well as allowing more symbols. However, if you are planning on using the calculator for Statistics, get the 83, because, for some unknown reason, the TI engineers declined to put ANY suppport for stats on the 89, but the 83 is great at it. I have owned TI calculators for many years, and I have never experienced any quality or production problems with them and have never had any of them break except when treated REALLY badly, such as having very heavy, blunt objects dropped on the screen, and I do tend to use mine pretty hard.
The TI-89 is an excellent calculator. It has an absolutley HUGEfeature set, and is so advanced that it can basically do most math for you. My favorite features are the CAS (computer algebra system), which can solve a lot of algebraic equations for you, and the factoring function (I dont have to waste time factoring on paper anymore! whoohoo!). My old ti-83+ seems like a slide rule compared to this thing, but the 89 is still quite easy to use. In addition, not only is this calculator great for math, its great for games! There’s a multitude of mathematical programs and games that you can find for free online. . . The only downside to this calculator is that the rich feature set can actually be a problem. A lot of students that use this calculator rely on it too much, and some of them barely understand any of the math that they are supposed to be learning. It is probably for this reason that it and its brother the TI-92 (difference between the TI-89 and TI-92 is the 92’s qwerty keyboard, useless for a calculator in my opinion,and the 89 is smaller) are banned in some colleges, and on some tests, like the ACT’s. If you’ve got the discipline not to rely too much on this fine piece of equipment (if you’re a student), I highly recommend this calculator. But be warned, keep your old calculator around for tests that you can’t use your 89 on, and NEVER rely to much on it.
My first graphing calculator was a TI-83 Plus. What a fantastic calculator! Its ease of use is a real credit to its designers. The TI-89 is more difficult to use than the TI-83, but its not too unnecessarily hard, especially considering its advanced features.
The Voyage 200, however, is a real pain in the you know what. Not only is the Voyage absent a printed manual–this may be the new cost-cutting norm for TI products–but the electronic copy is hard to use. Instead of putting all the main information in one manual like the TI-83, the Voyage 200 design team spread its manual out across 28 individual PDF files, making it nearly impossible to print out a hard copy for reference when you’re away from your PC. TI could argue that it was necessary considering the large volume of information, but after perusing the PDFs–replete with numerous examples of duplicated information–I’m sure it was really about a large lack of effort.
With that scolding of the manual designers out of the way, let me say that the features of this calculator are really quite good. When it comes to graphing calculators, TI really does make the best. If you are considering the most powerful graphing calculator on the market right now, it would come down to the TI-89 or this TI Voyage 200. The Voyage 200 is suppossed to be backwards compatible with the TI-89, but I’ve already found programs that run fine on the 89 but won’t run on the 200–I can’t understand why since they both use the same Motorola 68000 processor. Personally, if I had it do over again, I’d probably pick the TI-89 because its more traditionally styled case is less conspicuous, its features are easier to use, and it’s manual is better written and available in hard copy. But if you want a tiny built-in QWERTY keyboard, a slightly bigger screen, more flash memory, and are not bothered by difficult documentation, then the Voyage 200 is probably your best choice.
Categories: Graphing Calculator
