Calculator Wars at your School

[Benjer]

Attended high school '99-'03.

Virtually everyone had a TI. Most had the TI-30X IIS, some had the TI-30X (battery- or solar-powered).

The better-off students had the relatively new TI-83 Plus and a select few had the TI-89, considered something of a holy grail. I had a TI-86 that I had saved up for and I think I was the only person in school who did. A small handful of students had Casios. A friend of mine had one that could graph in 3 colors. Nobody knew HP as anything other than the company that makes printers.

I didn't return for college until 2017 (took me a while, hehe). To my amazement the TI-83 Plus was still commonplace although the TI-84 CE was perhaps more common by that point. The TI-Nspire was considered the top of the line. I met only a few people who knew HP made calculators. Their reputation as a printer company was still going strong.