Graphing calculators are one of those markets that barely moved for 30 years because TI had schools locked in. Anything that breaks that is worth paying attention to.
It's the same price as a "standard" TI graphing calculator, has ugly buttons, and doesn't appear to have any special features in the software to distinguish it from competitors. What exactly is supposed to be better about this?
It doesn't look like it has a CAS (so it's not for mathematicians), and the scientific notation key isn't prominent (so it's not for scientists or engineers), so... who is it for? Part of the thing with the older TI calculators is that they were good for professionals, too, not just students. (My TI-89 is still in intermittently-very-heavy use 30 years later!)
When my daughter finally needed one of those godawful monopoly-priced calculators for school, we went to the nearest pawn shop and found a TI 84 Plus, opened, for $40, and a TI 84 Plus CE in its unopened (but roughed up) original packaging for $65.
Are there any with backlit keypads (that are truly purpose-built calculators)?
I see this as a nice feature but not a must-have. Not sure if the industry agrees, or if the industry just doesn't know how many people would spring for backlit keypads because none have existed so far.
> USB-C charging—no more scrambling for AAA batteries
Bear with me if you’ve already seen this comment, but I dug out my old TI-89 a while ago for some reason, and all I had to do was plug in four AAA batteries and it worked.
If it had been fitted with a rechargeable battery, 30 years ago, even assuming it was still functional, I would have needed to recharge it... but with what?
Now we have USB-C rechargeable AA/AAA batteries, so there’s really no excuse.
I haven't seen that comment, but please keep making it every time it's relevant.
Non-user-replaceable batteries are terrible. It turns devices into e-waste. I wish device manufacturers would understand that. I wish consumers would understand that.
The reason it would be a problem is because USB didn't have a suitable port in 1998.
Upgrade to 89 Titanium and it already has a USB (mini) port built in. Mini is not ideal but it's fine. You can get a whole pile of mini and micro adapters for a couple dollars.
The fact that batteries wear out is a significant issue for longevity. Backwards compatibility is a solved problem if you use USB.
Is there actually a use case for graphing calculators anymore? Desmos provides a great graphing program for free in a web browser. In any professional capacity you would be using MATLAB, Mathematica, or the scientific Python ecosystem.
I mostly remember playing games on my TI-84 in high school. We used it in class maybe once or twice. None of my college classes allowed graphing calculators on tests, so ironically I had to buy a "dumb" calculator even though I owned the fancy one.
No approval for AP/IB/SAT/ACT, as far as I can see.
No RPN. Every modern graphing calculator needs a mode (doesn't have to be the default) with RPN and a visible (4+ entry) stack. Once people actually learn how to use that for rapid, efficient calculations, they won't go back, but they never learn because all the major calculators don't even offer it as an alternate mode. That's the killer app for "graphing" calculators, because they can show multiple stack entries.
RPN may not be useful for math classes, which tend not to have as many problems involving many sequential calculations, but it's extremely valuable for science and engineering.
Zero BASIC feels quite close to Casio's programming language.
Now apparently MicroPython has replaced BASIC in most calculators, the issue is that apparently always lags a bit behind, this one appears to still use Python 2.7.
From teardown [0] at 3:50 you can see an ARM7 Cortex M4 @ 240MHz, so BASIC or MicroPython should both be speedy enough for most tasks.
But from both the teardown and from another review [1] there are some concerns about the bugs and lack of features in Zero's BASIC and MicroPython. The firmware is updatable, so hopefully Zero irons things out, but still not a good look to have this present in a release.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 39.8 ms ] threadDoes it have a CAS?
I see this as a nice feature but not a must-have. Not sure if the industry agrees, or if the industry just doesn't know how many people would spring for backlit keypads because none have existed so far.
Bear with me if you’ve already seen this comment, but I dug out my old TI-89 a while ago for some reason, and all I had to do was plug in four AAA batteries and it worked.
If it had been fitted with a rechargeable battery, 30 years ago, even assuming it was still functional, I would have needed to recharge it... but with what?
Now we have USB-C rechargeable AA/AAA batteries, so there’s really no excuse.
Non-user-replaceable batteries are terrible. It turns devices into e-waste. I wish device manufacturers would understand that. I wish consumers would understand that.
No need to think about charging the controller - just have a pair of charged AAs nearby and switch them out when it becomes necessary.
The reason it would be a problem is because USB didn't have a suitable port in 1998.
Upgrade to 89 Titanium and it already has a USB (mini) port built in. Mini is not ideal but it's fine. You can get a whole pile of mini and micro adapters for a couple dollars.
The fact that batteries wear out is a significant issue for longevity. Backwards compatibility is a solved problem if you use USB.
I mostly remember playing games on my TI-84 in high school. We used it in class maybe once or twice. None of my college classes allowed graphing calculators on tests, so ironically I had to buy a "dumb" calculator even though I owned the fancy one.
No RPN. Every modern graphing calculator needs a mode (doesn't have to be the default) with RPN and a visible (4+ entry) stack. Once people actually learn how to use that for rapid, efficient calculations, they won't go back, but they never learn because all the major calculators don't even offer it as an alternate mode. That's the killer app for "graphing" calculators, because they can show multiple stack entries.
RPN may not be useful for math classes, which tend not to have as many problems involving many sequential calculations, but it's extremely valuable for science and engineering.
Seems only superficially cheaper than the TI-84 ($89 vs $112)
Now apparently MicroPython has replaced BASIC in most calculators, the issue is that apparently always lags a bit behind, this one appears to still use Python 2.7.
But from both the teardown and from another review [1] there are some concerns about the bugs and lack of features in Zero's BASIC and MicroPython. The firmware is updatable, so hopefully Zero irons things out, but still not a good look to have this present in a release.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRf_cVGDhYs
[1] https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20941&start=0