Best Calculator

What's the best NON-Ti graphing calculator? Preferably cheaper than the Ti-84, NSPIRE etc.

Your smart phone.

Texas instruments has a monopoly.

Genuine question, do people still use graphing calculators outside of high school?

I would sincerely only get the cheapest graphing calculator possible. At the college level and for any mathematics in the actual job market and real world you will NEVER use a graphing calculator but rather an actual computer.

HP Prime if you can afford it HP50g if you can't

No, at least not around any university I've ever been to. If you need something for symbolic calculations, graphing, numerical calculations, you just stick with a computer and something like
>Mathematica
>Maple
>MATLAB
>Python + sympy, matplotlib, numpy
>Maxima
>R
>Octave
>Julia
>...

There are dozens of alternatives. The nice thing about any of those is that they will probably teach you a more or less useful programming language that will help you later on when shit gets a little more complicated and makes a nice entry on a CV. Knowing how to use some antiquated device isn't exactly a useful skill on the other hand.

For exams graphing calculators are usually forbidden anyway. All we could ever use were very basic calculators for 10 bucks. And even those you hardly used or if at all just to calculate the end result.

....

What the fuck do you think? It's a necessity in every math and physics class

>It's a necessity in every math and physics class
It's absolutely not.

A graphing calculator is less powerful than a computer, so it's basically a restricted computer you can use on tests to do the stuff you're supposed to know quickly while concentrating on what you're actually being tested on.

My Calculus for Engineers professor lets us use nderiv and fint on our TI's on tests.

casio has my favorite graphing calculator all time

>you can use on tests to do the stuff
Not at any university I've heard of, including the one I've graduated from. I don't see how it's supposed to be useful either. It teaches you nothing and only gives you the false impression that you know what's going on, which can be fatal in math exams.

Let's say you're taking Calc III or DE's. You've already mastered how to take the limit of a function. Why should you waste time on your homework and tests plotting shit out point by point when you can just type it into the calculator and say oh, infinity as x->3, and spend more time on the new, complicated stuff youre trying to learn

Wolfram|Alpha

Literally every class in every university that I know of only permits scientific calculators during exams and for everything else there's wolfram. What kind of shit university do you go to that allows you to use a programmable calculator?

>cheaper than a graphing calculator

buy a thinkpad (R/T60-era works) off ebay, it'll cost about 80 bucks. Install R, pirate MATLAB or Mathematica (or install Octave), as well as any other programming languages you care about.

boom. A device orders of magnitude more capable than any handheld calculator, and for cheaper.

Casio FX

This is just a ridiculous example.You never have to plot out a function point by point and there simply is no situation where only being able to look at a function enables you to look at "new, complicated stuff". You are full of shit.

just stuck it up and buy the ti-84 CE user. it's the best solution and a pretty nice machine.

marked down competitors just aren't as good.

>pay thousands for uni
>doesnt want to buy 100 $ calculator

Explain me again why you study math becouse this literally makes no sense

>Not using the money to get mathematica instead
Oh the naivety

Why? There are plenty of free alternatives that are far more useful/versatile.

No. Not at all. Graphing calculators aren't allowed in any math or physics class offered by my school. And honestly there's hardly a need for a scientific calculator either besides evaluating the odd word problem that needs a numerical answer.

I hate the new TI's and hope mine never dies. Now I have to remember to charge my calculator every night, instead of going years and years on 4 AAA's? No thanks, fuck you Texas.