Texas Instruments BA II Plus Professional Financial Calculator
by Texas Instruments
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List Price: Our Price: $42.99 You Save: $7.00 (14%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $30.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Texas Instruments BA II Plus Professional Financial Calculator
Customer Review: Best on the block
Summary: 5 Stars
By far the best financial calculator in the market. The quality, sturdiness, design, & the layout, more specifically the firm-touch keypad and the no-slide rubber feet, are excellent. No longer is it necessary to cradle it in your left hand while you punch the figures in with your right; the keys are adequately sized to allow a one-hand job and the calculator will not slide around the desk while being used. Having used some of the other brands and other TI models, I was very impressed with its calculation speed as well. So far I've noticed the NPV and IRR to take the longest and that was at approximately 1.5-2 seconds. FAST!! It comes with a fairly comprehensive booklet which came in very handy. I highly recommend going over it at least once.. shouldn't take more than half an hour and it really is very informative... There are multiple ways to input data so a quick read of the booklet will very likely increase your efficiency.
Yes there are 2 cons (minor at best). One is the battery; its those sometimes hard-to-find round disc batteries. Second is the case which is flimsy at best. ONLY thing it will protect the calculator from, if that, is minor scratches. I have no idea why they would settle on such an inferior case but they did. Overall, an excellent product!
Customer Review: TI BAII Plus Professional
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the best calculator I have owned, bar none. I have always used TI calculators, with the exception of a Casio scientific graphing calculator and an HP business model. I purchased this item in May 2006 for $32.88 (that's what Amazon was charging at the time), and have carried it into every finance and economics exam. It has never let me down. Key strokes are easily registered, albeit a little stiff and the machine is fast, taking no more than a second or two for FV and PV calculations. If you are into finance, real estate, economics, this is the machine for you; it can even handle some statistics.
Pros:
Fast
Keys provide the right amount of feedback
Keys are slanted
Expansive memory
CFA certified
Intuitive design
Very useful manual
Nice heft to it, does not feel like it's cheap plastic
Cons:
Crappy case
Summary
This is a well designed product that will provide years of service. I believe that the $13 increase in price on Amazon in the past 11 months since I have owned mine reflects the value of this machine! Spend a little extra on this from the BAII. You will not be disappointed with the additional abilities and design of this calculator.
Customer Review: Really solid calculator; satisfied with the purchase
Summary: 5 Stars
I'd been using the TI-83 in my finance course and was just finding the TI-83 too cumbersome (thought not impossible) when calculating cash flows, NPV, IRR, amortization, and the like. One of my buddies that is a pretty sophisticated financial analyst purchased this and recommended I get it as well. After having used it for a bit I'm really happy with the purchase and can't believe I'd been using the TI-83 for longer than I needed to.
Calculations are intuitive or at least easily learned. You can see the display at any angle. The build feels solid enough, and is a lot less bulky then the picture would lead one to believe. I'm happy that the battery can be easily changed as I'd seen that some other financial calculators were troublesome. The leather(ish) case is fine, and the manual, also available in pdf, is helpful. I've been going through some tutorials on [...] and feel like I'm getting the feel for this quickly.
The only problem I've had so far has been well documented by other reviewers. The keys sometimes don't enter properly when you go fast. I figure that it will only be a matter of time until I'm in sync with the speed I should use with this calculator so I'll over look it.
Highly recommended
Customer Review: Nice calculator
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this since I have an engineering background and am not used to the Postfix notation used in the HP 12C that I have also tried. I have always used Casio scientific calculators, so it is nice that it's more like a "normal" calculator, and that makes it faster to use at least for me. I haven't used any other financial calculators.
This is a nice calculator. The construction of the HP is better however, from a "key feel" standpoint, but it was also made in the early nineties. You know what they say, "they just don't make them like they used to". Even so, there's nothing wrong with the way this one is built.
I haven't used it for Bond math yet, but at least for annuities, it's easier to switch back and forth from END to BEGIN mode in the HP. So that's a minor drawback. Other financial functions seem to take the same number of keystrokes. But basic CF functions compute faster in this one, especially the IRR and the NPV functions.
Another thing that's nice in discounted cash flow calculations is that the display says what the variable is, so for example it says, "N = ..." or "I/Y = ...". Helps you keep track of your inputs when you're in a rush.
Customer Review: Excellent for the CFA exam
Summary: 5 Stars
I recently used this one for the CFA level 1 exam, and it worked very well. I have tried the older BA II Plus (not professional) and its almost got the same functionality and smoother buttons. But I like this one too, and this one looks lot better. If they can introduce smoother buttons during their next upgrade, that would be super.
Only problem is, now AMAZON has raised the price to $42 or so. I bought it in late 2008 for $30 or so. I guess they sold way too many or just raised the price because they are the best.
Either way, make sure you carry two of these of the exam. Don't buy another, just borrow from a friend for the exam. But always carry two for the exam.
If you just want to keep it handy for your mortgage or car payment or leases (trickier), or just for personal finance, or even as a basic calculator, it does not hurt to have this one instead.
You have to learn the operations, but if you have some patience, you can learn the operations quickly. Its very user-friendly calculator.
It beats me why HP is more expensive.