Next year, I will be taking Algebra 1. My school requires a graphing calculator, and it suggests a TI-84. However, I have found that the TI-Nspire CX costs about the same as a TI-84 CE, and the Nspire is technically superior. A lot of reviews say it is also easy to use. Is it going to be easy to follow the teacher's instructions with the Nspire? Are the controls similar?
The controls are not similar at all between the TI-Nspire CX and the TI-84 Plus family. You're right that the TI-Nspire CX has better specs (a faster processor and more memory, anyway), but the interface is significantly different, and if you care about programming, you can't write native apps for the TI-Nspire CX. I suspect that you and your teacher would both have to take some time to translate the TI-84 Plus directions for lessons into TI-Nspire CX instructions.
KermMartian wrote:
The controls are not similar at all between the TI-Nspire CX and the TI-84 Plus family. You're right that the TI-Nspire CX has better specs (a faster processor and more memory, anyway), but the interface is significantly different, and if you care about programming, you can't write native apps for the TI-Nspire CX. I suspect that you and your teacher would both have to take some time to translate the TI-84 Plus directions for lessons into TI-Nspire CX instructions.

Ah, I see. I'll get the TI-84 in that case. Thanks!
KermMartian wrote:
and if you care about programming, you can't write native apps for the TI-Nspire CX.


Writing native apps for the Nspire is not only possible, but quite easy, thanks to Ndless
Ivoah wrote:
KermMartian wrote:
and if you care about programming, you can't write native apps for the TI-Nspire CX.


Writing native apps for the Nspire is not only possible, but quite easy, thanks to Ndless
Right, you can't write native Apps out of the box; the available options are Lua and Nspire BASIC. Ndless gives you the ability to install and run native programs, but based on topics like this one, I'm wary.
KermMartian wrote:
Ivoah wrote:
KermMartian wrote:
and if you care about programming, you can't write native apps for the TI-Nspire CX.


Writing native apps for the Nspire is not only possible, but quite easy, thanks to Ndless
Right, you can't write native Apps out of the box; the available options are Lua and Nspire BASIC. Ndless gives you the ability to install and run native programs, but based on topics like this one, I'm wary.


That's not a result of Ndless, but of trying to install an unsupported OS on the calc. It's very difficult (if not impossible) to brick a calculator like that just using Ndless.
I never really liked the Nspire interface. It made you choose a specific app type thing to do math or other stuff. The TI-84+CE is much easier to use, and it has some nice colors. I won one through the Calculate Your Color contest, and it was lightning. It arrived recently and I like the color a lot.
As a matter of fact, unwarranted fearmongering against community tools is considered offensive in the Nspire community, or in any well-behaved community, especially if repeated. It makes the fearmongerer sound incompetent Smile

First of all: it's extremely hard to completely brick a Nspire calculator, or a Prime calculator, for that matter: both have strong recovery modes. But even the TI-Z80 and TI-68k series aren't that easy to brick.

While it's true that a third party can put a Nspire calculator in a sorry state, from which the calculator can pretty much always be healed through the RS232 TTL port (real bricks are exceedingly rare), it's usually a result of someone's incompetence, usually the user's.
Said incompetence ranges from disregarding bold red safety warnings about prerequisites and bricking (most common cause of trouble), to recompiling sane and safe tools after disabling safeguards which were there for a very good reason (happened to several CM calculators whose owners tried to upgrade them to CX at any cost), through following severely outdated and unsafe tutorials left for consumption by an unsuspecting audience for way too long.

Let's not forget TI's own buggy OS upgrades can also put calculators in a sorry state, beyond repair through the provided USB A <-> mini-B cable. That occurred twice, and judging by the public reports of dozens of semi-bricked calculators, the actual number of semi-bricks in the real world probably tallies much higher, in the hundreds, or thousands...
Also, some of the "protections" in TI's own software upgrades sometimes trigger on prototype versions of their calculators getting in the wild, making life more difficult for the unsuspecting buyers.
Being *wary* of something you are unfamiliar with is completely natural.

anyways, should someone (me) want to buy a new nspire CX, What should they look for? Other than security updates, what do the revisions do for the user?
I have the same question as I am in Algebra 1 and I do not have a graphing calculator, I have been using jsTIfied for a while but it's just not the same. I want to get a TI-Nspire CX, and I do not need to program anything. Should I get the TI-Nspire CX or the TI-84+CE?
TI 84 PLUS CE
It is better in my POV because it is easier to handle and keep/open
CE. You are in Algebra 1. Most textbooks and teachers accommodate for using an 84 anyway, so leave the Nspire and fancy stuff for when you leave high school.
  
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