*If this post isn't in the right place, move it please.

My birthday is in 4 days and I have no Idea which calculator to get. TI-Nspire, TI-Nspire CAS, TI-Nspire CX, or TI-Nspire CX CAS. I was planning to get a Casio Prizm at Bestbuy, but they are sold out online. Which one is the best?

None of the above. You should either use a TI-84+SE or a Casio Prizm. Why would you want an Nspire at all?

If I did have a TI-Nspire I could also get the TI-84+ Touchpad to go with it. It would be like having 2 for the price of one. I do want a Casio Prizm.

I would say CX.

It comes with the better screen. (Color and higher refresh rate) as well as more memory. 128 MB compared to ~30 MB I believe.

Also, since it's not a CAS, it will be allowed on standardized tests, so imo, it's the best option. (Unfortunately, it does not come with the 84 touchpad)



Nspire nowadays means Ndless. That's more or less the largest reason for purchasing one. As long as you chose not to upgrade the OS, you'll have a quite decent platform for development.

I'm trying to find a different Casio Prizm than the one at bestbuy at a low price. Found one that's $79.50 not including shipping and $85.45 with shipping.

I don't know previous models, but for engineering the TI-89 Titanium is enough.

I wouldn't know what to suggest. It depends on what you need/want actually.

That's still way cheaper than an Nspire, at nearly half the price. Also, exactly what Charlie said: we need to know what you need it for. Math? Science? Learning more programming languages? College? If so, engineering or something else?

I need it for math, and learning new programming.

If you can use a CAS in your standardized tests, I'm with CharlieMAC: the 89T remains a better choice for programming (although nowadays, there are few active TI-68k developers) and it does nearly the same math job as the Nspire (CX) CAS - not to mention it has more programs.
If you cannot, then as Kerm wrote, stick with your 84+ Silver Edition, or buy a Casio Prizm. They're more programmable than the Nspire series, again.


Indeed, for math, the Nspire series is hardly better than the 10-year-old TI-68k (nowadays, the 7-year-old TI-89T) series. The Nspire's CAS is still largely the same code base as the one provided 15 years ago on the TI-92.
Of course, the calculator's math abilities do not matter much if you're in one of the too many countries whose stupid exams forbid calculators with a CAS...

And for programming, not only the Nspire has never been a good choice, but also, it's unlikely to ever become one...
* from 2007 (introduction) to early 2010, the Nspire was limited to a horrible BASIC - the 20-year-old TI-81 can do better in some aspects. The first OS version for Nspires didn't even have a BASIC.
* from early 2010 to April 2011, there was intermittent choice between the same horrible BASIC (only marginally improved with a Request-type function) and native code (C/ASM) programming. TI is actively fighting native code programming and closing the holes on the very next OS upgrade, even if native code programming is a basic user right.
* in April 2011, TI shut the door once more to native code programming, and introduced a proprietary implementation of Lua, significantly two-way incompatible with standard Lua. For instance, it cannot even read from, or write to, files; it provides a proprietary event-based toolkit for user interaction (graphics, keyboard). Lua is an interesting choice for high-level programming - it's quite efficient, even if native code can usually beat its performance by 10x-1000x.
* Ndless 3.1 beta has recently (January 2012) provided the ability to program in native code on OS versions which have Lua support... but it's very likely that the next OS version, which ought to be released some time in the spring, will close the holes once again.

Thanks for that very thorough post, Lionel! I had this topic open for a few days to see if Spenceboy would have any thoughts on your post before replying, but since he hasn't yet, I appreciate your effort. I think that's a fairly objective summary of the history and current status of the TI-Nspire as a programming calculator.

And I forgot to mention the bugs in the CAS introduced by TI in Nspire OS 3.0.1.1753. Various math queries which used to work, on both TI-68k calculators and earlier Nspire OS versions, suddenly started producing wrong results, or taking an inordinate amount of time.

OS 3.0.1.1753 was also infamous for a bug that could brick Nspires upon the second boot of the new OS. Nspires in that condition cannot be fixed with the usual USB cable and the usual linking programs; re-flashing the boot2 through the serial port is necessary, which can be done by third parties equipped with e.g. a USB-RS232 TTL adapter ($15-$20).