Texas Instruments BA II Plus Financial Calculator
by Texas Instruments
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Texas Instruments BA II Plus Financial Calculator
Customer Review: Terrible Usability, I Don't Like
Summary: 2 Stars
Nice things about this calculator are it's good looks, simple interface, and price. But, maybe it's just too simple. Personally, I feel this calculator is not pleasant to use.
CONS:
1. Awkward viewing angle. The LCD is positioned such that you can view it only if your sitting back. Forget about looking straight down while solving problems. You'll be greeted by a terribly dim display.
2. Button response is bad. For a $30 calculator, I expected the buttons to be at least decent. They're not. If you're like me, and are capable of quick entry (sometimes even with 2 hands) and enjoy responsive buttons, you'll be disappointed. The buttons are not firm to the touch and just feel cheap.
3. Lacks slightly more advanced features. While the interface is easy to use and the basic features expected of a financial calculator are there, I think TI has room for some more. For example, there is no Option Pricing feature. That would have been great.
For students (like me) who have worshipped the TI-8x's, the BAII is just horrible to even touch. Nonetheless, most people will find this calculator to be decent, at best. Really, don't expect any surprises, as this is as basic as it gets. For real value, perhaps invest a little more in an HP.
Customer Review: BA II
Summary: 4 Stars
Bought this calculator a few months ago and it has already paid for itself many times over. I also own the HP12C and the 19B for a number of years (as well as other TI calcs) but prefer the BA II for high pressure situations i.e. CFA exam and purchasing any item with financing.Was recently at an auto dealership helping my girlfriend buy a car and saved lots of $ and frustration by having this little jewel along. The finance mgr started quoting some strange monthly pmts and I was able to sit him down with the BA II and show him that his numbers made no sense based on our agreed purchase price. After a few rounds of this he gave up the tricks and started dealing straight. Yes I could have probably done the same thing with the 12c but in a situation with real $ at stake I reverted to thinking in Algebraic io RPN: Its very easy to get confused with several salespeople pressuring you to sign on the dotted line.
While the 12C will always be a classic compared to the BA I appreciate the BAs straightforward design.
Cons: Construction is a little weak, reverts to 2 decimal places after power is turned off
Pros: Excellent manual, menus for cash flow calcs, no need to learn RPN, faster than 12c
Customer Review: Needlessly complicated, but suitable for Intro to Finance
Summary: 3 Stars
I purchased the BA II Plus Financial calculator on the recommendation of my Finance professor. Certainly the calculator is specially geared toward financial calculations (Time Value of Money, Interest, etc.) and will save some students a great deal of time. But my gripe with the BA II Plus is in its complexity. It is almost impossible for a novice to pick up the most beneficial uses of the calculator without sifting through a thick manual. It is not user friendly in the least, nor is it a good calculator for non-Finance courses. In statistics, for example, one would run into a great deal of trouble with the automatic rounding function of the BA II Plus. This can be turned off, but I could not do it without the assistance of someone from Texas Instruments. Add to that, I am still unable to use mathematical parenthesis on the BA II plus, or fractions, so often I must revert back to another scientific calculator in order to more easily perform those functions.
Within its narrow range of finance problems, the calculator does an fair job. But outside the subject, students will end up needing a more versatile machine than the BA II plus.
Customer Review: Lots of Power For a Very Reasonable Price
Summary: 4 Stars
The TI BA II Plus is a great calculator for virtually any business application. I am currently using it in some graduate business courses and haven't found anything it can't handle. Unlike some reviewers I have not had any problems with build quality, and although the paper quality in the included manual is apparently low grade, recycled newsprint, I don't mind as the directions are very encompassing and complete.
I have been a long time TI calculator user, and actually use my older TI-30Xa scientific calculator more often than the BA II Plus. I am dinging the rating one star for a very annoying feature that the BA II Plus has that no other TI I have ever used has, namely, the On/Off button is a combined button where the On/Clear is on all other TI calculators I have ever seen. The net result, obviously, is that I continually turn the calculator off in the middle of a string of calculations, when all I want to do is clear the ledger. (The clear key is at the lower left, where it has never been on my other, albeit mostly scientific, TI's.) Aside from this annoying but minor control configuration, I am perfectly happy with my BA II Plus.
Customer Review: Garbage
Summary: 1 Stars
This is by far the WORST financial calculator I have ever used. It doesn't even deserve one star. One can only speculate why AIMR picked this. The only thing this calculator is good for is putting under the leg of an uneven table or as a door stop. When I tried changing the battery the solder broke when I barely touched the battery housing. For some dumb reason, the "engineers" decided to require you to remove the whole back of the calculator in order to change the battery. The keyboard stinks and it does not allow you to rapidly enter in numbers like the HP does. Tends to give ambiguous results as well, but I am not sure however if it was because I was entering the numbers in too rapidly or the programming is just plain wrong. Even though the HP 12C is a pain to enter data, it is significantly more reliable than this piece of trash. Further proof that TI cannot create a decent calculator to save their life. If you have another choice of calculators - take it!! If you are not bound by AIMR's narrow minded calc rule, get the HP 17C. Light years ahead of this defective abacus.