x=f(x)

November 28, 2005 2:36 PM

Graphing calculator recommendations?

My TI-89 recently went missing, most likely stolen. They've stopped making that model and now have something called the "TI-89 Titanium" with some more bells and whistles and an interface I really don't like. Before I go sniping on eBay for an exact replacement, what are some other similar graphing calculators I could look at?

I'm an aero/mechanical engineering student, and plan to use the calculator through at least grad school (if I get in, which is a whole other AskMefi question in itself). So I need at least multivariable graphing, matrix/vector operations, statistics, and maybe diff-eqs. I got the TI-89 in the first place because they loaned us TIs in high school, but now I have no brand loyalty and wouldn't mind learning a new system. Don't care for QWERTY keyboards, infrared dataports, or overly excitingly contoured keys.

posted by casarkos to Technology (4 answers total)

I own a TI-89 Titanium, and it's pretty much exactly the same thing as the old TI-89, with some additional memory and a pretty graphical menu.

It's very easy to disable all the fanciness (I promply did so) and this makes the Titanium identical in interface to the older model '89s.

Also, once you're used to one type of calculator it's very frustrating and time-consuming to switch brands, so I'd say stick with TI.
posted by lohmannn at 2:47 PM on November 28, 2005

It's a good point to stick with what you know, but if you want to switch, I love the HP-49G for it's RPN support. Some may find RPN weird and (literally) backwards, but as a programmer it makes sense to me, and the lack of parentheses everywhere makes things fast. There may be a slighter newer version out.
posted by thebabelfish at 4:01 PM on November 28, 2005

I got the TI-89 Titanium and am totally in love with it. I never used a TI before so I didn't have a problem with the "new" UI. All I can say is once you get used to it, like I have, you should be more than happy with it.
posted by pwb503 at 4:39 PM on November 28, 2005

to turn off the graphical interface on the ti-89 titanium: press [mode], scroll to the very last option which is called "apps desktop" and select "off". That made my calculator go from being unbelievably irritating to awesome.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 4:44 PM on November 28, 2005