Need a cheap, used graphing calculator - which one?

[Automobili3XF]

[I wasn't sure of where i could post this, so i just posted it here, over in the off-topic section.]

 

Tuesday i started the first semester of my agricultural engineering class, and right off the bat the teacher tell us we are going to a need a graphing calculator.

I refuse to buy a brand new one, so i'm going to get a used model, but i don't know which one is the better calc.

I can either get the HP 49G+, the Texas TI-83 Plus or the Texas TI-84 Plus.

Which one of the three is the best?

 

[spwath]

ti-84 plus

[Dash Lambda]

The HP 50G has a very good reputation, but the 49G+ doesn't seem to share it. Out of the Ti-83+ and Ti-84+, I'd go for the Ti-84+ because it's basically an upgrade.

If you can, I'd look into getting the 50G. It's known to be more of a professional tool than an educational tool (where Ti's interpretation of 'educational' amounts to 'useless for anything meaningful').

 

Graphing calculators are sort of a "screw you, give us money" industry. There are no really good options, they haven't changed significantly in decades, and they're all many times more expensive than they should be. While certain ones may be better than others, generally they all do the same stuff, so you'll almost certainly be fine whatever you choose.

[Automobili3XF]

7 minutes ago, Dash Lambda said:

The HP 50G has a very good reputation, but the 49G+ doesn't seem to share it. Out of the Ti-83+ and Ti-84+, I'd go for the Ti-84+ because it's basically an upgrade.

If you can, I'd look into getting the 50G. It's known to be more of a professional tool than an educational tool (where Ti's interpretation of 'educational' amounts to 'useless for anything meaningful').

 

Graphing calculators are sort of a "screw you, give us money" industry. There are no really good options, they haven't changed significantly in decades, and they're all many times more expensive than they should be. While certain ones may be better than others, generally they all do the same stuff, so you'll almost certainly be fine whatever you choose.

I was taking a look on the 50G earlier on, but it costs more than double the price of those i listed.

I wonder, how far is it from the 49G+? They use the same case, albeit in different colors, and the software seems to be roughly the same as well...

[Dash Lambda]

8 hours ago, Chevy_Monsenhor said:

I was taking a look on the 50G earlier on, but it costs more than double the price of those i listed.

I wonder, how far is it from the 49G+? They use the same case, albeit in different colors, and the software seems to be roughly the same as well...

I was glancing over a few reviews hastily, people seemed to dislike it overall.

Looking a little further into it, the 50G is basically the 49G+ with a few alterations:

-It accepts one more AAA battery, which should extend battery life.

-The USB port is powered by the computer rather than the calculator, which should extend battery life in certain use cases.

-It has a serial port, though it's proprietary and requires an adapter to connect to a standard port.

-The case is changed to have a more subdued color scheme and better texture, 'cause people didn't like the case on the 49G+.

-Arguably the most important part is the keyboard. The 49G+ was plagued with unreliable, cheap, and poorly built keyboards. The 50G has a revised keyboard to remedy people's complaints. It looks like later 49G+ models used a better keyboard, but I don't know how you'd check for that.

 

Under the hood, at least from what I can find, they're both the same. Same firmware, same functions, same CPU, same storage, just a couple different peripheral features, a different case, and a different keyboard.

[Automobili3XF]

5 hours ago, Dash Lambda said:

I was glancing over a few reviews hastily, people seemed to dislike it overall.

Looking a little further into it, the 50G is basically the 49G+ with a few alterations:

-It accepts one more AAA battery, which should extend battery life.

-The USB port is powered by the computer rather than the calculator, which should extend batter life in certain use cases.

-It has a serial port, though it's proprietary and requires an adapter to connect to a standard port.

-The case is changed to have a more subdued color scheme and better texture, 'cause people didn't like the case on the 49G+.

-Arguably the most important part is the keyboard. The 49G+ was plagued with unreliable, cheap, and poorly built keyboards. The 50G has a revised keyboard to remedy people's complaints. It looks like later 49G+ models used a better keyboard, but I don't know how you'd check for that.

 

Under the hood, at least from what I can find, they're both the same. Same firmware, same functions, same CPU, same storage, just a couple different peripheral features, a different case, and a different keyboard.

Hmm, good to know, i was reading about this and there's actually a way to tell the latter ones by the serial numbers at the back of the case, and almost all 49G+ i looked are later versions with better keyboards.

I may just get it then, its half the price from the new 50Gs and i wasn't abble to find used 50Gs as well.