Shop For Texas Instruments BA II Plus Professional Financial Calculator

Beginning with the first HP 11C that I bought 25 years ago to the HP 100LX that I continue to cling to, I've found that HP makes the best calculators. So, when a class I'm taking permitted only the HP 10BII or the TI BAII Plus, I immediately went for the HP.

First off, the HP has no RPN. I read in other reviews that it is selectable with the 10BII, but after reading the entire manual, I can say that the calculator regular input only (after all, it has no Enter key).

Beyond the lack of RPN, (which I suppose I could get used to) I was not particularly impressed with the available functions, so I started looking at the BAII Plus Pro.

In the end, I ordered one of them too, and did a side-by-side comparison. After reading both manuals and running through the practice exercises, it isn't much of a comparison.

First, the physical characteristics. The HP is a bit thinner, lighter, and narrower, though still feels solid. The screens are equally good (though the HP does allow you to adjust the contrast). The HP looks like a calculator while the TI looks more like a remote control, but I suppose that is a matter of taste.

The reviews for the non-pro BAII Plus mention mushy keys and missed keystrokes. I can't speak to that, but that has certainly been fixed on the Pro. The keys have a very solid click to them (kind of like an HP).

There are four more keys on the TI than on the HP, and the HP keys are larger and further apart, so that may be of benefit to some (though the TI does sport a jumbo-size "equals" key, which is helpful).

In the features contest, the TI simply does handsprings around the HP. The HP offers TVM, Cash Flow, Amortization, IRR, Markup, interest rate conversions and several statistical functions.

However, the TI includes all of those plus adds in Bond calculations, Depreciation, Breakeven, Date calculations, and Profit Margin. It so happens that we're covering Bonds and Depreciation in the course I'm taking, so the HP is of much less utility.

The TI uses prompted worksheets for its functions and has arrow keys to scroll through the inputs. No such feature on the HP. For example, in a situation where you want to go back and review a series of cash flows you've entered, the HP requires a lot of keystrokes. Pressing RCL + CFj + Number will show you a single flow. To see the frequency, you then have to press RCL + Shift + Nj. Each flow has to be accessed individually with this series of keystrokes. You can change the amount of the flow or the frequency, but if you need to delete or insert a flow, you have to clear all entries and start over.

On the TI, you press CF and you are instantly in the cash flow worksheet and you can scroll through the entries with the arrow keys. The flow will be shown first, followed by the frequency and there is a label telling you what you're looking at. The values can be updated as you go and flows can be inserted or deleted as needed.

That is how it is with all the worksheets. Entering and reviewing inputs is much easier on the TI. That goes for the memory locations too. The calculators have the same number of locations and both have direct access via STO and RCL keys, but the TI also allows you to scroll through them in a list and do independent calculations with each. The TI also has a "last result" key which is handy.

On the speed front, I found the HP and TI to be pretty much neck-and-neck but a very narrow victory goes to the HP when doing IRR problems.

A few odds and ends: The HP has a limit of 14 cash flows with 99 occurrences while the TI goes up to 32 flows with 9,999 occurrences (though I've not seen problems that ever go beyond a handful of flows). This win is offset by the TI limit of 50 data pairs in statistical data while the HP claims to have "no limit". Either way, I can't imagine trying to knock out a problem that would tax either of these capacities on a calculator anyway.

HP has come up significantly short in this segment of the financial calculator market. There isn't a single reason to pick HP's product when the choice includes the BAII Plus Pro. Even the price was not a huge difference, the TI was more, but worth every nickel. For that matter, the non-pro is priced even closer to the HP and has practically the same functionality.Get more detail about Texas Instruments BA II Plus Professional Financial Calculator.