BootsnAll Travel Community

I'm still debating if I want to take a laptop with me on my travels. I don't own one now, which means I'd need to buy one. So...what should I be looking for in a laptop? What features should it have? Any input would be helpful. I'd mostly be using it for the basics...blogging, email, photos, music, maybe some movies, perhaps Skype.

Thanks!

If you are going to use it while traveling I would definitely value portability - i.e. small screen and lightweight.
I have been traveling on and off during the last couple of years and my laptop - the Asus s5200A (aka the S5A)- has come in very handy.
It is more than suitable for all the activities you mentioned, has a 12 inch screen and weighs like less than 1,5kg..

If you will be keeping a diary on your laptop for instance I recommend you to use an online backup solution, so that you can have an instant online backup of your important (text) files. I use Mamut Teamwork, which is free for 250mb online storage.
For music, use itunes.
For movies, use VLC
For browsing, use Firefox
For antivirus, use nod32

Thanks for the input. Any thoughts on processor type/speed, hard drive size, amount of memory, DVD/CD player or anything else?

I just took a sony on a business trip with me. I don't know what the guts were like but at 2.5 pounds it was a joy to carry around.

I won't be taking a laptop on my rtw. I would want something like the above mentioned Sony but I'm not willing to sink $2k of my travel fund into it.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item...=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=017

I'm getting that for my RTW. It's cheap, small and has enough oomph for what I want to do with it. Which is basically what you have listed. The only thing I'm changing is the hard drive, because I want more room for media and for photos and videos I take on the road.

Also, if that one gets broken or stolen, I won't be too concerned about it.

quote:

Originally posted by EMH:
Thanks for the input. Any thoughts on processor type/speed, hard drive size, amount of memory, DVD/CD player or anything else?

It really depends on how nice a laptop you want or can afford. The laptop I recommended - the same one I am currently writing this on - will work great for all the activities you mentioned in your first post. It also comes with wifi and a small external dvd-rw drive. Also has a card reader built in, but wouldn´t care as a card reader really is a non-issue - you could easily buy one separately should you need one. It has a
My laptop come with 60gb HD, I now use a 120gb internal HD instead.I googled the name and found this page

I should add that mention that generally, for activities like word processing, browsing, listening to music, even watching movies - you do not need a fancy computer.

Bottom line, if a laptop is fast enough and nice enough compared to how much you´re willing to spend - I would focus on the lightness and portability when choosing a laptop for traveling with. I would also look for wifi capability.
If you have the money to spend, you can get a laptop that is both really nice, fast, lightweight and portable. Or you could buy a cheap one that works for your stated needs, but isn´t great. Up to you

Forget the laptop. Get an iPhone or a iTouch. You can take photos, send them to people by email (and upload them straight to places like Flickr), blog, email, etc anywhere you have a WiFi spot! It's small and a heck of a lot lighter and easy to pack than a laptop, plus it doubles as your music and/or video holder too.

Thanks again for all the input! After doing some research, I've decided that IF I get a laptop, I'm going to buy an IBM Thinkpad T40. The specs are the same as the Dell Latitude that Mikkel linked to but the reviews are slightly better. And the prices on Ebay are similar.