What's your ideal travel computer?

[serfty]

A small 10" netbook costing less than $300 works well for me ...

 

[prozac]

Well thank you everyone for your ideas and telling us what you travel with. I pulled the pin today on a 14" Lenovo T460 i7(6600u) w. 512gbSSD, and 2 battery setup providing 16+hrs unconnected.
It was already well discounted (though overpriced to begin with imo) but on calling Lenovo they dropped the price another $165. Sure this is no featherweight at 1.97kg but the battery life really makes up for it.

 

[JessicaTam]

Well thank you everyone for your ideas and telling us what you travel with. I pulled the pin today on a 14" Lenovo T460 i7(6600u) w. 512gbSSD, and 2 battery setup providing 16+hrs unconnected.
It was already well discounted (though overpriced to begin with imo) but on calling Lenovo they dropped the price another $165. Sure this is no featherweight at 1.97kg but the battery life really makes up for it.

I hope it does what you need. Let us know what you think of it after some time 'on the road'.

 

[prozac]

I hope it does what you need. Let us know what you think of it after some time 'on the road'.

I will thanks. It is pretty much same size/weight as my current Asus which I am very happy to travel with, but it should be a lot punchier given the more modern specs and higher resolution screen (1920x1080). Today is the "last" day Lenovo are offering these deals (I saved $700), pm me if you'd like the details of salesman I ordered through...he trimmed a little more fat.

 

[ComeFlyWithMe]

I still like my MacBook Air but am trialling the HP Elite x2 1012, tablet hybrid. It's a great piece of kit for travel.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I still like my MacBook Air but am trialling the HP Elite x2 1012, tablet hybrid. It's a great piece of kit for travel.

I'd love to hear a comparison of your observations between the two if you get a chance.

My Spectre is turning out to be fabulous. I love the size (I've previously had a notepad and full laptop and this seems to be the perfect midrange) and the screen is magnificent. The colour, contrast and resolution is very good and now when I look at my Toshiba, it's a very poor experience! I think the Elite is better than the Spectre by processor speed only, so I'm guessing you'll be pretty happy. I've never tried the MacBook Air though, so if you do get a chance, I'd be all ears!

BTW, the Spectre only has USB C (I think the Elite also has USB 3) so I bought this MacBook Air adapter and it's excellent ... almost like it was designed for the HP and I can stick the GoPro micro SD straight into it as well as charge the phone, headphones and wireless hard drive.

PS ... On Amex connect, there is a $100 credit offering for a HP spend of $500 or more by the 23/10.

 

[teaHSRn]

The Dell outlet store has some XPS laptops for sale today and pretty excellent prices. Normally these models don't come up on the outlet store, so if your in the market for a compact laptop I'd advise getting in quick, as in now.

They have XPS 13 and 15 inch models from $1500 or so, and also some models with Intel's latest 'Kaby Lake' chips (chip numbers starting with a 7, ie i7-7200u) I'd avoid the '2-in-1" versions, and also bear in mind that they QHD screens use lots of battery. Models with a discreet graphics card are going to heavier, and it's not needed unless you like to game a bit when you travel.


If anyone needs some assistance understanding specifications, feel free to PM me.

 

[Gnaroots]

I just use a small lightweight ASUS notebook

 

[Tiki]

My Surface Pro 1.0 running Windows 8.1 died. I'm looking for a small 2 in 1 laptop/tablet and undecided between Windows 10 & Android systems. I'm worried about the apparent forced updating on Windows 10 that you can't turn off (to do later at a more convenient time). I had Windows 8.1 set to notify my an update was available but I had to manually download and install it. The kind of places I stay in are remote and have limited wifi sometimes with dodgy connections such as safari lodges and sometimes it's only in the reception area. Has anyone had problems with these automatic updates?

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Has anyone had problems with these automatic updates?

Yes. I hate it as it always seems to happen when I urgently need to do something and it locks me out whilst it reboots (which seems to take forever). I often only have limited windows of satellite availability.

 

[Cossie]

I'm going to reinstall win 8 on my acer (of which, I'll never buy another one of their products, but that is neither here nor there), the automatic updates on win 10 are extremely objectionable. I was in the lounge in Doha a couple ago, logged on to check my email, didn't think to make my connection a "metered" one, before I knew it my laptop was downloading a major update, it only finished as I was walking to the departure gate, fortunately we had been in the lounge for several hours, so it was able to complete sucessfully.

Macrocrap are extremely arrogant in thinking that they should decide when we download updates. Yes I know it's buried in the terms and conditions, but you would think "common sense" would prevail sometimes.

However, as per many conversations out there in the internet thingy, ms don't seem to care how they inconvenience us, by which of course I mean "us" as in the "end user", so we just don't count as being important, got to think about the share market price, the only thing of importance!

Just like "big brother", they know it all and we shall "do as they say and download".

Whatever laptop I buy to replace this one will run linux.

 

[anat0l]

My Surface Pro 1.0 running Windows 8.1 died. I'm looking for a small 2 in 1 laptop/tablet and undecided between Windows 10 & Android systems. I'm worried about the apparent forced updating on Windows 10 that you can't turn off (to do later at a more convenient time). I had Windows 8.1 set to notify my an update was available but I had to manually download and install it. The kind of places I stay in are remote and have limited wifi sometimes with dodgy connections such as safari lodges and sometimes it's only in the reception area. Has anyone had problems with these automatic updates?

You can set the connection as metered in Windows. That will suspend auto downloading of updates. You need to do this for each network connection (though once you set it for a network, it will remain that way until you disable it).

Having a metered connection can have some effect on other applications, e.g. with Outlook, it will work in offline mode if you are on a metered connection until you go into the program and click "Connect Anyway" to force it to work.

Note that LAN connections and any tethering through a cable (which is treated by Windows as an Ethernet equivalent connection) cannot be set as metered.

The choice between Windows and Android systems will depend on what you need to achieve with your device. Keep in mind that Microsoft Office can be downloaded in app form for Android, as well as used as cloud-based apps these days, so except for the loss of some high fidelity features (which you may not use anyway), being bound to Windows due to Office is almost irrelevant.

 

[franjelley]

still loving my dell xps. (btw i always buy two of everything, one for significant other who is rough on tech, and dell is rough enough, tough enough, to suit that person)

 

[RooFlyer]

I ended up recently buying a Lenovo Carbon X1, 1.2kg, with Win7, i5 processor, 4G, 14" WQHD screen and a 512GB SDD transplanted in. Only major drawback is not having a SD card reader.

I could have bought a Toshiba Portege, much like my existing laptop, but Toshiba are getting out of that end of the business and, incredibly, the latest versions don't have a replicator port on the base to go with to my existing docking station. :evil: This made the decision to go to Lenovo Carbon, suggested by two different computer shops I deal with (including one that is a Toshiba dealer!), so much easer in spite of the fact that I'll need to buy a Lenovo port replicator.

Also decided to get the shop to do some software setting up and detailing (such as setting up NAS box synching), rather than doing it myself.

 

[BAM1748]

None ! if I can get away with it, although an iPad is usually enough for both work and personal.

Matt

 

[Simo]

I just purchased a MBP 13 inch with 1tb SSD...

The only thing I have against it is no USB ports but I have an adapter now so all sorted

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I just purchased a MBP 13 inch with 1tb SSD...

The only thing I have against it is no USB ports but I have an adapter now so all sorted

USB "C" is supposedly a superior connector, but I'd beg to differ. Mine only has 2 x USB "C" and is the only thing I can really complain about with the HP Spectre (oh, apart from the fact it died last week). The USB "C" adaptor tends to get very hot and the mated connection does not seem as robust as a normal USB "A" type. When mine comes back from warranty, I think I'll invest in cables that I need rather than an adaptor.

 

[Simo]

I have a 3 Port USB Adapter and yes it does get hot but my time machine is plugged into it and it gets hot when the back up is running and then cools down again... I also run my phone and keyboard thru it as well and also on the USB c adapter I run my network card... My new MBP will not run on my work wi fi connection

 

[JessicaTam]

USB "C" is supposedly a superior connector, but I'd beg to differ. Mine only has 2 x USB "C" and is the only thing I can really complain about with the HP Spectre (oh, apart from the fact it died last week). The USB "C" adaptor tends to get very hot and the mated connection does not seem as robust as a normal USB "A" type. When mine comes back from warranty, I think I'll invest in cables that I need rather than an adaptor.

I have a MB (not Pro) with the single USB-C and haven't found that. I usually run power and a HDD through the adapter.