TI-83 Plus Graphing Calculator Teardown

[sonnytiger]

I'm not sure how popular this calculator is elsewhere but in Canada it is very popular in the school system, and for good reason, its definitely my go to calculator for any calculations!

http://youtu.be/CKiy_qLI6Ok

Thanks and Enjoy!

[ivan747]

Thanks a lot for that!

I really want to see a teardown of a TI-36X Pro, a fried of mine has one but he won't let me touch it with a screwdriver 

[sonnytiger]

Haha, haven't you reassured him it would be fine! oh wait that never works lol.

[amyk]

The computational capacity of this device is approximately equal to that of a CP/M system of the early 80s.

[ivan747]

But I'm sure that calculator doesn't cost more than $20 to produce in such high volumes, yet they sell it for $100 or more. Some might argue it's the software that costs, but I say the software hasn't changed much since 1996 apart from a few changes. In fact some microprocessors in the more recent calculators have like 8 times more RAM than previous generations but the software doesn't support allocating that much memory, so they use a fraction of it. After more than 15 years in the marked, the R&D cost of these calculators shouldn't make the final product so expensive. That leaves us with documentation, and materials for teachers, but again, the calculator hasn't changed it interface in years, so nothing should have changed. Nothing justifies the $100 price tag.

[c4757p]

Teachers are incredibly stubborn. This and the TI-84 have been the de facto standard in American high schools for a long time now, and being the de facto standard with people as stubborn as high school teachers is pretty much a monopoly position. We all know what that does to prices, don't we?

[amyk]

And they're probably not very popular elsewhere, as otherwise they'd be cloned by the Chinese.

[sonnytiger]

As I mentioned in my video they are just as popular in Canada, it is overpriced to be sure, but then again, what isn't.

[b_force]

They're also widely used in the Netherlands.
Unfortunately it didn't had a colour LCD (like the Casio did).
I believe the newer versions have colour LCDs.

I still use mine on a daily basis, simply because I can't work with the simple/old calculators any-more 
(the input interface is really different)

[metalphreak]

Ah I had one of these when I was at an international school (run by mostly american teachers). It may not be the most advanced, but its pretty damn good for students without overwhelming them with useless features.

When I came back to Australia, my school used these ungodly rubbish Sharp EL-9900 calculators. My first one had at least 10 lines of the LCD faulty from new. Wasn't a good start. My sister's school used some HP ones which were much more advanced than the TI-83.

I spent half my time in math class programming in games and other random programs xD Came in really handy for Chem and some other classes where you could enter a few vars into a calculator and save heaps of time.

[MetraCollector]

I have TI-82 and I really like it, I bought it here 2 years ago:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Texas-Instruments-TI-82-Graphing-Calculator-TI82-/321084031088?pt=Calculators&hash=item4ac2198070

Texas calculators aren't spread and aren't used in Czech Republic, most of students have Casio 991-ES or lower models. I am not sure why, perhaps only a few people know eBay.

[sonnytiger]

Interesting, I wonder what calculators they use in other countries.

[Flávio V]

In portugal the TI-84plus seem the standard(and similar models)

[FenderBender]

For the person who asked about the 36X Pro, this video gives you a bit of an insight to what the internals are like.

Seems to be very similar to all of the other TI designs I've seen, which is pretty mediocre in terms of build quality, though they don't fail often. Probably only difference here is a bit more capable CPU and that's about all she wrote.

[Hydrawerk]

Interesting, I wonder what calculators they use in other countries.

Well, in Czech Republic almost nobody uses graphing calculators at secondary schools / universities. I don't know why. I have the Casio fx-5800p and fx-991 ES PLUS

[Hypernova]

Interesting, I wonder what calculators they use in other countries.

Well, in Czech Republic almost nobody uses graphing calculators at secondary schools / universities. I don't know why. I have the Casio fx-5800p and fx-991 ES PLUS

Maybe because they are banned in exams? That's how it was in New Zealand when I was in school, so it makes no sense to own a calculator that you can't take to the exams.

[sonnytiger]

Interesting, I wonder what calculators they use in other countries.

Well, in Czech Republic almost nobody uses graphing calculators at secondary schools / universities. I don't know why. I have the Casio fx-5800p and fx-991 ES PLUS

That graphs? The resolution seems rather low, at least from the looks of the picture.

[metalphreak]

Yeah my university only allows basic scientific calculators. Nothing with programmable memory either (for those sneaky exam notes). Such a true test for preparing people for the real world. So many times at work I've come across a problem that I can't remember the equation to solve it, and I've had to just go "well I guess I better quit this job now". 

[Hydrawerk]

Maybe because they are banned in exams? That's how it was in New Zealand when I was in school, so it makes no sense to own a calculator that you can't take to the exams.

Yes, they are banned.

[Hydrawerk]

That graphs? The resolution seems rather low, at least from the looks of the picture.

No, the FX-5800P cannot draw a graph. But it is programmable. It has 28kilobytes memory, but no PC connection.
The fx-991 ES PLUS also cannot draw a graph, and is not programmable.