All the Math majors out there.

[Sophisticated_Gamer]

Hey, I am currently in high school, but I am taking Calc 4 at a local college right now, and my TI-84 calculator is becoming a little bit obsolete, so I am going to buy a new one in the next few days, so far I am torn between a TI-89 Titanium and a TI-NSPIRE CAS. But I have never heard of the TI-NSPIRE CAS, but when I was looking up the prices for the Ti-89 I came a cross a newer model from TI and read up on it, and it seems really interesting, but I was wondering if anyone has used it before?

[Night]

I am in Engineering... going for my Masters. I took a look at the two you show, it would really depend on what kind of math you're going into. If you were going to stick to business math and statistics, the Inspire might be useful, but the hard math you're talking about, the Inspire isn't going to help you much more than you TI84... in fact the Inspire models claim TI84 compatibility.

The TI89 will probably be better for what it sounds like you want to do. TI does have a chart on what courses each calculator was useful for..
http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/nonProductSingle/graphing_course_comparision.html

Then again that's just from looking at specs...

It'll also depend on what's allowed. My favorite was the TI92 (affectionatly referred as the TI Monster because of the size of the thing), which will probably resemble the Voyage 200. I got the TI92 as an undergrad when I saw some of the professors allowing them.

[Sophisticated_Gamer]

Well, anything is allowed, and the next cource I'm taking is Deferential Equations... So I think I'll go with the TI-89 then.

[LtMarvel]

Heh...earned my math degree before such graphing calculators existed...trying really hard not to feel old...

[Sir Tim Drake]

Well, anything is allowed, and the next cource I'm taking is Deferential Equations... So I think I'll go with the TI-89 then.

I like deferential equations. They're very polite and humble.

Defiant equations, on the other hand...

[Ben Morgan]

I hate defiant equations, always refusing to give you the answers

[Expletive Deleted]

The 89 is probably your best bet. It's a nice cross between an 85 and a 92, with more power than the latter but without the brickness of the latter. I think it's basically replaced both of them, at this point. I used an 89 all through my engineering graduate work, and it did the job nicely.

That said, there are some software alternatives that blow calculators out of the water for higher math. You most likely can't use them in class, but for homework or project work they're invaluable. If you get the opportunity to learn how to use MathCAD, Mathematica, Maple, MATLAB, or anything along those lines, take it. Chances are you won't want to shell out for your own copy (seriously, they're ridiculously expensive), but good campus computer labs will often have them available.