soupcraze's Full Review: Texas Instruments Voyage 200 Graphic Calculator
The Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT is the highest-end calculator offered from Texas Instruments. Texas Instruments does make some of the best calculators on the market, with the TI-8# series being the most popular among high school and college students. The Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT goes up a step ahead of the TI-89 with more features, flash apps, more space, and just a completely different configuration. I was excited to try this thing out, and here's what I found.
-Price-
*The Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT can be purchased for around $200. This makes it about $50 more expensive than the Texas Instruments TI-89 which is the most powerful of the Texas Instruments calculators with the same configuration as the lower-end calculators such as the TI-86 and TI-83+. The Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT does have more features and is more powerful than the TI-89. It offers more flash applications than the TI-89 offers from Texas Instruments. This includes Cabri Geometry which allows you to do work with geometry problems, CellSheet which allows you to make spread sheets, Finance which allows you to do problems regarding money and financing, Geometer's sketchpad which allows you to make mathematical models, Polynomial root finder which is great for solving annoying polynomial problems that would otherwise take longer to solve by hand, Statistics program which allows you to make data tables and perform statistical analysis, and StudyCards which allows you to make study flash cards. The Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT runs on a 12MhZ processor which is adequate for it and allows it to run applications at a fairly nice rate. It also has 2.7MB of space which can be used for applications. If you need the ultimate machine to be doing statistical analysis, geometric analysis, and calculus analysis, then the Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT is a good choice.
*However, a drawback to it is that it might not be allowed on many exams. That's why the TI-86 or TI-89 (In some cases) might be more favorable since they are more widely accepted. But if you're doing a lot of mathematics work which requires the most power that you can get, then the Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT is a good choice.
-Function-
*The Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT is a quick machine, despite the low speed rating of the 12MhZ processor. In comparison to the Texas Instruments TI-92+, it features an easier to use menu, modeled similarily to the layout of Palm OS for PDAs. A Palm OS PDA does allow you to download mathematical programs, and with today's Palm 5 view it all in color, but the Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT is built more as a calculator than a PDA, so therefore the Voyage 200 does offer more power when it comes down to doing mathematical work. The flash applications are very powerful. The statistics application is great since it features every statistics function you'd need for a college statistics class, with an easier to use interface than the TI-83+ or TI-86. The TI-89 and higher models are also known for their exceptional calculus performance, and the Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT doesn't fail since it offer calculus flash applications. When it comes down to versatility, the Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT is capable of using the same programs from the Texas Instruments TI-92+. So if you're into college mathematics or science, no matter how difficult, the Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT can help you through it.
-Ease of Use & Interface-
*The Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT has a better interface than the Texas Instruments TI-92+ which I used years ago when I first started college and needed geometric and calculus functions. I am very familiar with Palm OS featured with many PDAs, so I found the interface to be very inviting. It's definitely easier to use than that of the TI-92+. Also, this device offers a QWERTY keyboard which makes your whole typing experience much better. It's definitely a complex calculator, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes pretty easy to use. The only thing I wish it had was a 16-bit color display. If it had a color display like today's PDAs do, it might make mathematics a little more exciting to do on it, and might allow for more efficient analysis of graphs and other things. But I guess I should keep dreaming. The Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT is NOT a PDA.
-The Verdict-
*I really wish that I were able to take advantage of such a device during my undergraduate years at school. So, if you're into advanced mathematics whether it be in college or high school, the Texas Instruments Voyage 200 PLT is an excellent tool which will allow you to go much further than the conventional Texas Instrument graphing calculators. Texas Instruments gave it a very efficient interface along with a QWERTY keyboard which gives excellent versatility. It might not be as neat looking as a PDA with Palm OS, but it can do more than what most of the mathematical programs on a Palm can do.
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