Customer Reviews:
Good symbolic math for a handheld June 14, 2008 5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I'm a grad student in physical chemistry and I use it a lot, both for my symbolic calculations, as well as my numerical ones.
It's powerful, and has many functions - excellent for linear algebra, symbolic integration even on some improper integrals (the ones with infinite boundaries that converge), Fourier transforms, equation solving of any kind, differential equation solving, symbolic differentiation, complex number arithmetic, number base conversions, etc. For some functions that do not exist, you can download a program in TI BASIC off of many websites or write your own code in C and compile it in TI-GCC, the TI compiler, and put it on the calculator.
User support is the best in the market, because TI is a very popular brand and many people own as their high end handheld calculator either this or the simpler TI-89, with which the Titanium is entirely compatible. Its user manual is decent and provides a good introduction to a beginner. Besides, a simple search on the many support forums will answer any questions.
Like with all handhelds, the bottleneck is generally the user input speed, not the calculator's speed. Nevertheless, this calculator has the slight disadvantage of being rather slow for complex operations which the user can automate, because it's running on a 16 MHz ARM processor. Graphics are very slow for the levels of complexity that my figures require, so I don't even bother with it on the TI 89 Titanium. For those tasks, you're better off using Mathematica or Matlab on your computer. Remember this is a handheld calculator, not some supercomputer.
In summary: PROS: 1. good user support; 2. many add-on programs available; 3. easy to create your own programs, especially in C; 4. good diversity of pre-installed commands: calculus, linear algebra, spreadsheet capability; 5. large screen (if not largest in this category); 6. easy to master (took me 2 weeks).
CONS: 1. slower than others on the market, like HP 50g, although you might not necessarily notice; 2. lack of a real equation editor - you must type your formulas in on one line, which leads me to lose track of parenthesis matching sometimes.
Fantastic June 2, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you can find something it won't do and do well, your ready to take over for Stephen Hawking. Excellent calculator.
Excellent product and service April 15, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
All expectations were accomplished with this product. Excellent for post graduated studies in engineering, which is what it is being used for. Internet utilities are good and easy to get.
TI-89 April 6, 2008 7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Be careful shopping for the TI-89! There are several different versions of the same model. Make sure that the USB cable comes with the calculator so you can connect to the computer and update etc. The cable will cost you another twenty dollars seperatley.
T-92 a little better April 5, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
While a ti-92 and a t-89 have the same functionality, the qwerty keyboard on the ti-92 is the only thing I miss. This calculator is a must have for advanced chemistry and calculus.
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