Texas Instruments BA II Plus Financial Calculator
by Texas Instruments
|
List Price: Our Price: $27.81 You Save: $17.19 (38%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $16.95 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Texas Instruments BA II Plus Financial Calculator
Customer Review: Not the Best in the Category
Summary: 4 Stars
I have used (and own) many of the available financial calculators on the market. I "recommend" the HP-10B to my university finance students, both graduate and undergraduate.The HP 10B is a directly positioned competitor to the TI-BA-II+, but HP's entry is superior. The keys feel more solid, the machine itself "seems" better made. Having worn out more than one of each, my experience has been that the HP has more staying power. And, the TI-BA-II+ often requires more keystrokes to accomplish the same tasks (i.e., NPV calculations). Oddly enough, when there is a difference in price, the HP often sells for around $1 less; though I would gladly pay more.
The Like the HP 10B, the TI-BA-II+ has a well written manual, including examples on using the functions. TI has the manual available on-line on their website for the inevitable time that the user needs it and has lost the original.
While there are cheaper financial calculators, it seems that this particular level is the minimum I would recommend to professionals or students. Less expensive versions, while saving a few dollars, miss important features. As a general rule of thumb, if the calculator can perform the "IRR" function, as this one can, it will be able to handle pretty much any calculation into which the finance student, professonal, or banker will run. Lesser machines do not have this function. So, skip the cheaper TI, HP, or other financial calculators.
Ironically, even larger fancier calculators, such as the venerable HP-12C, are in my estimation inferior as well. The 12C uses RPN logic which, while saving even more keystrokes, is simply foreign to most students. More importantly, some functions, such as the Time Value of Money functions, on the 12C require interpretation. On the 12C, for example, solving for the number of periods in an annuity, the value gets rounded UP to the next integer. Not so in the TI-BA-II+ or HP 10B.
While I can recommend the TI-BA-II+, it is second only to the HP 10B as the best value in inexpensive financial calculators.
Customer Review: Great for the money. Comparison with HP17BII+
Summary: 5 Stars
It's hard for me to give anything 5 stars, but for about $30 this calculator is such a great bargain. If it was more expensive, I would give it 4 stars. The other calculator I tried was the HP17BII+. My HP stopped working after 3 weeks. I will probably stick with the BAII+, but I did like the HP's ability to store functions.Pros
- Lots of built-in functions. Seems like as many or more built-in financial functions than the HP17BII+.
- Better statistics functionality than the HP17BII+. Statistics is very important for business classes. The HP suprisingly lacks some basic functions, like population standard deviation.
- Has some trig functions. It can actually be a decent scientific calculator. Overall it's more versatile than any of the HP business calculators.
- Better build quality than the new HP's.
- Can be used for many standardized tests. You will not be accused of storing functions because you can't.
Cons
- In my opinion, not as user-friendly as the more menu-driven HP17BII+. The BAII+ usually requires more keystrokes and is not as intuitive. However, it's not so difficult that a good student can't learn it.
- Cannot store functions. Of course, if it did it would cost more and could be banned from certain tests.
- If you're one of the few out there that like RPN, it is not an option. The new HP's let you choose between Algebraic and RPN.
One thing that suprised me about the HP was how much their quality has gone down. They used to be the best built calculators. Now they are the worst. Look at the reviews of the new HP's. It's true! If HP doesn't get their act together, I think they will be out of the calculator market.
It would be nice if TI had a business calculator that could store user-defined functions like the HP17BII+ and have a more menu driven interface. The solver function would justify the price of the HP17BII+ if only the build quality was up to par. The quality of the newest BAII+ is not quite as good as the older ones, but it is much better than the quality of the new HP's.
Customer Review: Does what any financial calculator should do
Summary: 3 Stars
If you're used to scientific and graphing calculators, odds are you'll hate all financial calculators at first. After going through a few finance classes that don't allow graphing calculators (which can be loaded with financial software), these calculators are invaluable. In fact, after getting used to it for financial calculations, graphing calculators are bulky and unnecessary for most computations.
The BA-II Plus does pretty much everything any good financial calculator can do. There's not much to say about its capabilities, it does what it needs to do.
My issue comes with the design. I don't mind the lightweight design, but pair the weight with its smooth plastic feet and you could use this thing as a planchette on a ouija board. A flatter design with rubber feet should be their next logical design modification (similar to the TI-30XS, which I think is a stellar product). The feel of the buttons could use some tweaking too, bigger and flatter buttons should be employed, but it's not a big issue. I've also heard replacing the battery on this thing is a fight to the death.
The more expensive BA-II Plus Professional adds 3 or 4 extra calculations, has the flatter design, but I'm not a fan of a soft case for a calculator. And I'm not sure if it has rubber feet if you take the soft case off (or if the soft case comes off at all). Many exams such as the actuarial exams do not allow you to bring in the case covers, so depending the BA-II Plus Professional may still be a hockey puck on ice.
Customer Review: Very useful for loan calculations and retirement planning!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have owned two TI Business Analyst calculators in the past. One finally broke after many years and I replaced it with this one.The functions provided are extremely useful for so many calculations, like the monthly payback on a loan, what the future value of a series of payments into an IRA would yield at some assumed interest rate, discounting a future sum of money by an assume inflation rate, and many other calculations like converting a stated interest rate to a true annual rate and vice-versa and figuring the yield to maturity of a bond. You name it.
A VERY useful book comes with the package, better than the book with my last one because it shows clear examples of how to perform different calculations. It will also suggest some things you can do with the calculator that you may not have intended.
The calculator is encased in a protective plastic cover that removes from the calcuator and can be either placed to the side or slid onto the bottom of the case to avoid losing it. The keypad has good feedback, nice feel.
The only negative, and this is a nit, is that there's no battery hatch. You have to take the case apart to replace the coin battery. I don't know why they've done that but the batteries last so long (5 years?) this shouldn't be an issue.
I've seen HP and Sharp financial calculators and in my view considering the TI's price, ease of use, and terrific manual, it's a real winner!
Customer Review: Poor Engineering & Design
Summary: 1 Stars
This calculator has most of the capabilities for a financial person and it is approved for professional exams, CFA. It has a nice hard cover to protect it as with most TI calcultors, except for TI BAII Plus Professional.
HOWEVER, please do not expect it to be an easy task to change the battery. You can rest assured that your calculator will get ding-ed when it comes time to change your battery.
Also, please don't expect to view the values you have entered for your variables all at once....like how you can see a bunch of values on a regular TI-83/84/89 display, because you just can't on a one line display with this calculator! And everytime you need to do a fresh calculation, it is a pain to have to hit "2nd" + "clear work" before starting because it is set up just the way it is. Aside from being the "approved" calculator you can bring to the exam, it is another piece of junk set to collect dust at the end of the day. The TI BA II Plus Professional is even worse than this; it is almost like you need to apply unimaginable high pressure force to push the buttons on the TI BA II Plus Professional calculator. So save your money and just get this regular one for the exam.
Stick with your regular TI 83/84/89 for all your non-exam use because the Financial Application has all that you need.