Just like any other tool, the right one will give the best benefit or will aid our problem solving which is why it is important to pick the right tool like calculator especially for students. There are so many popular calculators in the market like TI 36X Pro vs TI 84 with their own benefit and features or capabilities. To make sure we are choosing the right tool, go check our article below to see what they can offer to you and their differences.
In this article, we are going to give you information about:
- Do you need a new Calculator
- What are TI 36X Pro and TI 84
- What TI 36X Pro and TI 84 Look Like
- What TI 36X Pro and TI 84 can offer to you
- TI 36X Pro vs TI 84
Calculators for High School Students
Calculators is a popular calculating tool that we can use to aid both students, professional or even casual users when they need to deal with lots of number quickly and effectively. Different from casual or professional, students are not always allowed to use the tool because they will need to learn the basic math first and to develop their understanding for higher level of lesson in the future, so only when they are in specific classes in secondary school, a calculator will be allowed in class.
Even though they may look similar to each other and can do basic calculation just the same, they are specified into several types which is used to separate them based on the main purpose of the unit such as graphing calculator, scientific calculators and finance calculator that are all optimized for the certain tasks they are going to deal with, so it is easier to find the one with the kind of features we need depend on what they are going to work on later.
For students, the type of calculators needed are mostly scientific calculator or graphing calculator because they are going to be useful when doing many tasks in the class depend on what they are learning.
Additionally, in general graphing calculator comes with lot more capabilities than scientific ones.
For high school students preparing for their tests, the most important thing is to look for those that allowed in the test and not necessarily the most advanced or expensive model out there, so there is no need to spend so much. Many people are recommending to ask your schools math and science department for their recommended calculator because they will know better and have more experience on the field, so their pick should be the most effective option for students.
About TI 36X Pro and TI 84
In the market, there are so many brands of calculators and we can pick the one we like or prefer or for various reasons or attract our attention the most. However, it is better to choose one from big names or those with good reputation on their products because even though the price doesn’t concern you, we also hope to see the unit last longer and come with many capabilities to aid our learning process and one of the most popular brand in the market now is Texas Instruments.
We are sure most of you already familiar with the name because in the United States, they are leading the current trend. The company offer so many calculators in their catalogue differentiated by types, main features and additional features while the most popular will undeniably be their graphing calculator. With their huge collection, users can pick the type or model they need while depend on the unit, their price range will also varying widely because the more rich-features they are, the pricier they will be especially for graphing calculator.
For those who are not familiar with Texas Instruments calculators line yet, the first is a scientific one and the latter is the graphing calculator, so until this point you can already guessed which unit you will need because it depend on the class you are in.
The TI 36X Pro is one of the newest addition into the 36 line which first available in the market since 1986 as another option of its younger brother TI 35 but now with solar cells. This scientific calculator then get several other models along the year but in 2011 they began releasing the X Pro type which is actually replacing the previous version of 30X Pro MultiView because there has been issues on the unit, so they have to take them off the market not long after being released.
At the other hand, the TI 84 graphing calculator or TI 84 Plus graphing calculator is released as the step-up game of the older model TI 83 Plus, so there is actually no original TI 84 model because the available model are initially only Plus and Silver Edition which only separated by some features. Comparing the unit from its predecessor, they are also quite identical but of course as a new unit, you can expect some upgrade in hardware here as well.
The prominent difference on TI 84 is now it have bigger ROM along with faster processor which making the calculator able to work faster and allow the user to some more data on-board. After the Silver Edition, there are other models on the line consisting of Plus C Silver Edition, Plus CE and Plus CE-T which the latter is for European market. What makes the last three model different from the initial two is because they are coming with colored screen as opposed to the previous black and white.
TI 36X Pro and TI 84 Design
Comparing both of them side by side from the design alone, we can see that TI 36X Pro is simpler and even from the screen we can guess that this one is scientific calculator because of course it have a narrower or smaller screen when compared to graphing calculator like TI 84. However, from the keypad layout, they are very similar to each other because Texas Instrument seems to use the same design for both of them but, the 36X Pro is also powered by solar while the other is not.
TI 36X Pro and TI 84 Features
Because of the new display that they used on 36X Pro, now the calculator is now capable of performing numerical derivatives and integrals in a way similar to other much more advanced graphing calculator, the TI 83 series and they have maximum expression length of 80 characters.
One great capability of TI 36X Pro in our opinion which is similar to those in more expensive graphing calculator is the ability to solve polynomial equations and systems of linear equations like those with PLYSMLT2 app on a TI-84 because now they bring it to the scientific calculator for those who also need the feature. Additionally, there is also an equation solver which wills solve most other equation for x just like in many other Texas Instruments’ calculators.
As you can expect from one of the best scientific calculators today, the TI 36X Pro is coming with a good amount of power because it can do many useful tasks you assigned to them like solving definite integrals and derivatives for calculus while performing variety of options on its screen is a breeze. The matrices can be edited in a separate window and operations are performed with alphabet named similar like how TI-84 before it was updated into OS 2.53. Additionally, it also able to deal with complex numbers as well as factors.
The TI 36X Pro is a scientific calculator which means it can’t be as powerful as a graphing calculator can be and even though we all already know that they can’t graph, unlike many graphing with CAS, a scientific ones doesn’t have the capability, so don’t expect to solve anything in terms of variable. However, there is a calculator that can help you to graph though not in the unit itself, check it on our TI 36X Pro vs Casio 991EX here. Being without CAS, scientific can only solve calculus functions for exact values only without definite integrals.
Another limitations of scientific calculator is their equations dimensions are limited, so we can’t solve the zeros of polynomial function larger than degree three or a system of linear equations. Even with the limitations, TI 36X Pro is still a very good item to have for students in late high school or those in college as a backup of their graphing calculator or sole option for those who are not allowed to use the graphing type.
At the other hand, the TI 84 calculators are more powerful than a scientific ones and can do the things we can do in the lower type because the unit is designed with additional functions in mind to ease student when handling various problems in class, home or while on tests. This model is mainly aimed for high school students and college students or those taking ACT because the calculator is allowed on the tests unlike the other brothers TI 89 Titanium or Nspire CX CAS with computer algebraic system.
Besides being able to do what a scientific can do, as for TI 84 itself, the prominent difference in our opinion is after they are updated with 2.53 MP which finally giving the unit the capability of Mathprint so now the calculator can view fractions look like fractions, exponents look like exponents and many more.
More amazingly, the calculator will allowed you to scroll the screen up to previous calculations to edit them as well as enabling a series of pop-up windows which you can access with F1-F4 keys. All of these updates are necessary to make the calculator in par with many of its competitors from Casio or HP because before the update, it seems that the unit is lacking behind those other popular brands. Additionally, not long after or about a year, another update is available to improve the usability.
Another feature that we would like to talk is the USB port because just like many other high-end graphing calculators out there, we can connect them into our PC but we need to have their software first to make sure the computer can view your device.
TI 84 have several models in the line and each one of them may have some differences, such as the Plus CE which is focus upgrading the screen because as opposed to the Plus model, this one have a colored screen which is of course more attractive to our eyes. The better resolution is also making it easier to read and help those TI programmers to organize more information on the screen at one time better than before.
Comparison
Now, let’s compare TI 36X Pro with TI 84. As it has been mentioned above, both of them are differentiated prominently because of the type since the first unit is scientific while the other is graphing calculator. The TI 84 calculators can deal with what we can do on 36X Pro with some additional capabilities as well besides graphing such as more equations dimensions and if you pick the one higher than Plus model, the screen will be better as well.
TI 36X Pro vs TI 84
| Name | TI 36X Pro | TI 84 |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | Texas Instruments | Texas Instruments |
| Features | - Ideal for curricula in which graphing technology may not be permitted. - MultiView display shows multiple calculations at the same time on screen. - MathPrint shows math expressions, symbols and stacked fractions as they appear in textbooks | - Real and complex numbers calculated to 14-digit accuracy and displayed with 10 digits plus a 2-digit exponent. Graphs 10 rectangular functions, 6 parametric expressions, 6 polar expressions, and 3 recursively-defined sequences. Up to 10 graphing functions defined, saved, graphed, and analyzed at one time. |
| Price | ||
| Rating | 4.7 out of 5.0 stars | 4.4 out of 5.0 stars |
| Best deal | Save Money Please click here | Save Money Please click here |
NOTE : Product prices, availability, ratings and save money information are accurate as of the date/time indicated on post time (as seen right bellow the post) and are subject to change. Any price, availability and save money information displayed on Amazon Site at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
Conclusion
All in all, both of them are a good option to pick for high school students. However, since we have different preference, it is better to consider your need because if you won’t be able to use graphing or not allowed to use it, the scientific 36X Pro is more than enough but, if you plan to use graphing calculator or allowed to do so and have no budget issue, we will highly recommend you to pick TI 84.