The TI-84 Plus CE cuts 30% of the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition's weight, weighing just 201g (7.1 oz) with its slidecase and battery or 163g (5.7 oz) without the slidecase. Size and Weight: TI markets the new TI-84 Plus CE as "Surprisingly Slimmer, Lots Lighter" despite the rather unfortunate grammar, we feel this describes the new calculator in a nutshell.
While much of the case is still made of matte ABS plastic, the face of the device is shinier plastic, with a glossy black border around the 320x240-pixel color LCD, and a glossy faceplate in the calculator's color. Instead, it uses a significantly thinner, more rectangular case that feels modern and comfortable in this reviewer's hands. The TI-84 Plus CE is the first calculator in over a decade to abandon the curved, streamlined case of the TI-84 Plus, TI-84 Plus Silver Edition, TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition, and TI-89 Titanium. Balyta was sporting a dark blue ("Denim") calculator at TI's T^3 2015 educator conference in March. At press time only the black ("Classic") and red ("Radical Red") calculators have made it out to the public, although Dr. At publication time, the new calculator is already available in black and red from educational distributors this summer, students and their parents will be able to buy the TI-84 Plus CE in eight different colors from retailers.īy far the most obvious change that the TI-84 Plus CE introduces is the thin, light case in 8 attractive colors. Now that I have my own Radical Red calculator (and my fellow Cemetech staff Shaun "Merthsoft" McFall and Daniel "tifreak8x" Thorneycroft have bought their own), I better appreciate how this new calculator updates the look-and-feel of the calculator, even if it doesn't introduce novel math and science features.
Peter Balyta, President of TI Education, kindly sat down with us for an exclusive interview announcing the TI-84 Plus CE. On January 13, 2015, TI and Vernier posted more information confirming that such a device existed, and on January 26, 2015, Dr. We learned about a possible TI-84 Plus CE calculator way back in 2014 from a student who posted a photo of his teacher's experimental TI-84 Plus CE prototypes on Reddit. In short, the TI-84 Plus CE addresses complaints about the speed of the two-year-old TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition and is a thin, light, easy-to-use device with familiar math and science features. Of course, I'll reiterate my observations about the math features of the TI-84 Plus CSE and TI-84 Plus CE from my TI-84 Plus CSE review for our readers more accustomed to the monochrome TI-83 Plus and TI-84 Plus family. The TI-84 Plus CE largely brings the existing math features of the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition to a thinner, faster, lighter calculator, so I'll be focusing on the new calculator's physical characteristics, hardware, and speed. Now, I have my very own Radical Red TI-84 Plus CE, as previously announced via photograph, and I'm excited to share my hands-on experiences with the TI-84 Plus CE with you. Two years ago, in February 2013, Cemetech got its hands on an early sample of the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition thanks to TI Education's generosity, and I quickly wrote a hands-on review of the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition.