The Best Travel Laptop
| August 12, 2008 | Posted by Rach under packing, Technology |
I am currently on the verge of buying the laptop I’ll be taking with me on my travels. I currently work from a shuttle desktop pc which, compact as it is, is obviously not suitable for taking backpacking. I also have an old battered ibook which I dropped and broke the hinges on – it’s not in a fit state to take out of the house, let alone on a round the world trip. So this brings me to the task of choosing a laptop with travel-friendly attributes.
These include:
Light - possibly the most important factor in your decision-making. You really don’t want to be carting around a lead weight. Once you’ve had a backpack on your back for a couple of hours you’ll be glad of every possible ounce of weight you can save. It’s now possible to get fully-functional laptops that weigh under 1kg. Remember to add in the weight of power adapters and accessories. The lightest laptop around is purported to be the Toshiba Portégé R500, weighing in at 779g and there are several more around the 1kg mark, including the new breed of ultra portable notebooks – the Asus Eee pc
Photo by Novecentino
Cheap – expensive equipment will up your travel insurance and you’ll be constantly worrying about it being stolen or broken. Spend as little as you can to get the technology you require. Luckily laptops are constantly coming down in price and it’s easy to get a decent spec machine for under £300 ($600 or probably less in the US). Go second-hand if you can and you’ll be less paranoid about scratching it or dropping it.
Tough – changes are you’ll be throwing your laptop around in your bag a lot, operating it in extreme temperatures or humid conditions, getting sand and insects in it, using it as a pillow, bashing it off the table when you can’t get wireless to work etc etc… Some of the new thin and light laptops look sexy but I doubt their durability. You’re much better off getting something ugly and tough. Panasonic’s ToughBook
Long battery-life - you’ll probably be separated from a power source at many points during your travels. There’s nothing more frustrating than carrying round the dead weight of a powerless laptop that you can’t use. Look at battery life when you’re comparing different models and weigh this up against the cost and weight factors mentioned above. Probably a good idea to bring along a spare battery too.
As I’m leaning towards one of the new linux-based ultra-portables, I thought it would be useful to draw up a comparison chart of the higher spec versions of the 3 main contenders:
| Eee PC 901 |
Acer Aspire One |
MSI Wind |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Screen resolution | 1024 x 600 | 1024 x 600 | 1024 x 600 |
| Weight | 1140g | 995g | 1100g |
| Size | 226 × 22.9 × 175.3 mm | 249 x 29 x 170 mm | 260 x 19 x 180 mm |
| Storage | 20 GB | 120 GB | 80 GB |
| Battery life | 4.2 – 7.8 hours | 3 hours | 3 hours |
| Price (dependent on RAM and other specs) | £300 | £250 | £330 |
To me, it’s looking like the Acer Aspire One
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