Please also be mindful that the older color systems with z80 hardware were not full color; hardware sprites or tiles could only have a few colors at a time.

That adds to nostalgia feelings
I remember playing pokemon crystal with my friend on a GBC and we were totally stunned on the graphics  :')

(by the way we need a emoticon on that)

Please also be mindful that the older color systems with z80 hardware were not full color; hardware sprites or tiles could only have a few colors at a time.  This artifact can be easily seen in "attribute clashing" of the ZX Spectrum graphics.  In the Sega MasterSystem/GameGear and MSX, Texas Instruments' TMS9918 IC made these artifacts less apparent with the use of movable sprites. 

[I lied.  The TMS9918 does in fact have a rarely used mode that would map a single color to each pixel, but it had drawbacks in resolution.]

I assume from the picture that TI is not using a tiling method to display color on their screen.  Mapping one color per pixel is much more CPU intensive.

EDIT: Maybe not too intensive if they use a good DMA.

This reminds me of the 1995/96 Casio graphing calcs that had a color screen. The contrast settings were basically replaced with 3 color settings that were still labelled as contrast. But in fact from the lowest to highest contrast, it went from blank->yellow->orange->red->brown->purple->blue->green and there were 3 color settings. So basically, you kinda had a palette of 3 colors at a time, add to that a 4th color for the LCD background (which could range from yellow-ish to slightly orange-ish color and that could alter the 3 other colors as well). If those calcs ever had the possibility to run ASM without flashing the ROM chip, then imagine if a program could modify each contrast settings as it wishes: You could basically have games like on the NES where colors are stored in a palette, but with 4 colors at once instead of 3 and one of them which is limited to two colors.

I'm betting it will use a rechargeable battery (li-on) like the Nspire Touchpad and  CX models. I think they last a few hours and gets charged completely in a few hours as well (except the first time which can take like 5-6)

I'm betting it will use a rechargeable battery (li-on) like the Nspire Touchpad and  CX models. I think they last a few hours and gets charged completely in a few hours as well (except the first time which can take like 5-6)

It says it has 100 hours of battery life, and two weeks under normal usage, although I never seem to get 100 hours out of it, and since I might use my calculator 10 hours a day instead of the normal half hour, it doesn’t last me too long either.

That can’t be right, that would be 4 days of battery life, which is not 2 weeks.

Plus I am sure they heard a lot about people who hate having to spend $2-10 every month on new batteries.

What I hate is that the rechargeable batteries cant be removed.

PRIZM batteries last 1-2 months with ~2-4hr. of usage... for me at least. Do TI calc use more battery?

Its strange, but sometimes I find myself having to charge it every 1-2 days, other times I find myself recharging it every 1-2 weeks, even with near identical amounts of usage.

When shut down, the TI-Nspire enters standby mode for a day or two before shutting off for real (in which case, restarting it brings up the booting screen), so even when  not in use, it still uses some power, which isn't the case with the PRIZM.

Also I think the battery on the Nspire can be removed, but you need a screwdriver and buy the battery online.

On my PRIZM, when I used the batteries that came with the calc, they lasted one entire year before I had to change them. With cheap batteries bought at Dollarama, they last a month or two.

The Nspire CX is kinda like mobile phones in the way that even when not used (especially the iPhone), you still lose power, while with the PRIZM and older calcs, you only lose power if you use cheap batteries and stop using the calc with the batteries in for a month or so.

Yeah when you plug it on the computer, it gets recharged (or in OS 2.0.0 case, the calc can break), so that could be why.