I give this calculator two stars because it has a lot of functionality. It is mostly a time sink and a source of frustration. Pros: 1. This is a capable machine. It can do a lot. Much more than I ever want a calculator to do, actually. 2. Hi-res screen. The high resolution is nice. Cons: 1. The keyboard is terrible. The keyboard on TI's earlier calculators were bad, and this one is actually worse. TI needs to take a lesson from HP on how to make keys that don't wobble around and that provide some decent tactile feedback. The keys, all of them, are squishy and wobbly. The extra crowding by the letter keys makes it incredibly difficult to type anything, numbers or letters, without hitting the wrong key. It is a constant source of frustration as well as a waste of time. 2. The learning curve it too high. If I use this in class, I will need to take considerable time (a few days) just teaching the students how to use it. This is time that then cannot be spent teaching math and physics. Which should I teach my students, Newton's Laws of Motion, or how to click "Menu...Action...Pointer..." 3. Doing simple tasks is now difficult. Turn it on, wait for the operating system to load, then click Home, then 1:calculator, then Enter, and then you can finally type 2+2 and get an answer. 4. The screen, while it is hi-res, is not all that easy to read. It gets a good bit of glare. 5. My students don't like it. With the TI-83, I would at least get a lot of "Oh, that's cool" comments when a nice graph would appear. When one of my poor students finally accomplishes a task on the nSpire, there is instead a sense of relief that they finally got it do what they were trying to do. This calculator is not enjoyable to use. 6. The calculator is bulky. Even the TI-83 was pretty large for carrying around, and this one is even larger. I'm sticking with the TI-83 for now, and considering switching to HP. If you want to do any real work in physics or engineering, go with HP. They are still the gold standard of calculators.
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