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Tech · Texas Instruments · 2015

TI-84 Plus CE

The calculator most teachers demonstrate on, with a color screen and a battery that charges over USB.

Graphing calculators to buy used, by exam — #1

Overall

8.4

out of 10

Axis scores

No axis sits more than 0.6 from another, from Value at 8.2 to Ease of use at 8.8. The 8.4 overall is the plain average of all 5 Tech axes, with no weighting.

TI-84 Plus CE — axis scores out of 10Horizontal bar chart of editorial scores out of 10 across 5 axes. Bars run from a shared zero baseline; longer is better. TI-84 Plus CE: Performance 8.4, Value 8.2, Durability 8.2, Ease of use 8.8, Design 8.4.PerformanceTI-84 Plus CE — Performance 8.4 out of 108.4ValueTI-84 Plus CE — Value 8.2 out of 108.2DurabilityTI-84 Plus CE — Durability 8.2 out of 108.2Ease of useTI-84 Plus CE — Ease of use 8.8 out of 108.8DesignTI-84 Plus CE — Design 8.4 out of 108.4Editorial score out of 10 — higher is better
  • Performance — How well it does the core job
  • Value — What the same money buys elsewhere
  • Durability — Failure and fade reports past the one-year mark
  • Ease of use — Setup, daily operation, cleaning, maintenance
  • Design — Build quality and how it sits in a room

Specs

Display
Color, 320×240, backlit
Power
Rechargeable lithium-ion, USB charging
Memory
3MB archive, 154KB RAM (TI)
Exam mode
Press-to-Test
Body
Thinner and lighter than the TI-84 Plus (TI)

As published by the manufacturer. We didn't measure these ourselves.

Is it for you

Buy it if

  • Your teacher demonstrates on a TI-84 and you want your keystrokes to match the board
  • You want one calculator from algebra through AP Calculus and AP Statistics
  • Hunting for AAA batteries the night before an exam is not something you want to do

Skip it if

  • The listing shows a battery that won't hold a charge and no replacement is included
  • You want a computer algebra system that does symbolic algebra, which this model doesn't have

The keystroke compatibility with older TI-84s is what keeps this model ahead. A classroom full of different TI-84 generations still follows one set of instructions, and the CE only adds color and a lighter body.

Look at the battery before you look at anything else. The rechargeable pack is a standard part and easy to replace, but a listing that says “needs charging” with no screenshot of a charged screen often means a pack that won’t hold one.

Units leaving a school can still be in Press-to-Test mode, which shows as a blinking LED and some features greyed out. Clearing it takes a link cable to another calculator or a computer running TI Connect CE. It’s harmless but annoying the night before class, so ask the seller to reset it first.

TI removed support for assembly programs in OS 5.5.1. That matters to students hoping for games and to nobody else.

The Python edition looks almost the same. If a listing says Python, the word should be on the faceplate; if it doesn’t, you’re looking at the standard CE, which does the same math.

Last updated . The scoring method is on how we rank.