Other advantages over the TI-80 are the TI-73's standard sized screen (as opposed to the TI-80's smaller screen), the addition of a link port, 25 KB of RAM (as compared to the TI-80's 7 KB of RAM), and a faster 6 MHz Zilog Z80 processor (as compared with the TI-80's 980 kHz proprietary processor).

Due to lack of demand in middle schools, the TI-73 and TI-73 Explorer have not been huge sellers for TI and are not carried by most retail stores.

Most American upper-level middle school algebra courses generally tend to use the TI-83 or TI-84 families instead of the TI-73 or TI-73 Explorer, while most basic middle school math courses generally do not use graphing calculators, instead opting for scientific calculators such as the TI-30 or TI-34 families.

Released in late 2008, the Windows utility Chameleon allows a user to load the TI-73 Explorer with a slightly modified TI-83+ firmware, giving it nearly equivalent functionality.

The hardware and software remained unchanged and is identical to an older unit wearing the TI-83 plus style casing.