The storied TI-84 is about to get its first refresh in a few years, and the experts at Cemtech have some exclusive information on the latest entry. Here comes TI-84 Plus CE.
TI-84 Plus CE is a follow up to the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition released a few years ago. Like its predecessor, the new grapher has a colour 320 x 240 display. The functionality of the new grapher appears to be largely the same app-based TI-OS interface, but TI has taken pains to make the hardware more attractive to a new generation of students.
According to an interview with the president of TI Education Peter Balyta, the new TI-84 is 30 per cent lighter and 30 per cent thinner than the previous model. Which is a pretty impressive slimming of the hardware. Maybe the craziest improvement, however is battery life. From the write up by our friends at Cemtech:
Dr. Balyta particularly stressed the longer battery life of the TI-84 Plus CE. Realistically, students aren’t always great about managing battery life, so with typical use, students can use the TI-84 Plus CE for up to a full month on one charge; battery life is no longer measured in hours or days. Based on comments from teachers and students about coming back from summer vacation or long breaks and finding their calculators’ batteries dead, the TI-84 Plus CE also introduces a new deep sleep that will save the battery over months of non-use.
That battery life is huge. It’s virtually infinite when compared to the batteries on the consumer electronics we use most often. A month of battery life compared to the 14 hours I get from my phone (if I’m lucky), is almost inconceivable. OK, in fairness a graphing calculator won’t be used nearly as often as your phone, and doesn’t perform power-intensive tasks like connecting to cellular networks. But a month, yo? That’s nuts.
Given that so much of what you do on a graphing calculator can be done, you know, on your smartphone with an app, TI has obviously taken pains to make using a graphing calculator useful in one critically important way: It will always be ready to go when you need it. Not to mention that you won’t waste your phone battery doing something lame like graphing a function. Save it for texts, bro! [Cemtech]