rmac86

Per title – I need a ‘survival aid’ to endure an almost 12 hour flight LHR to HKG, have checked the High life guide as to what’s on next month and there’s literally nothing that interests me. Similar situation happened last September on a LHR to LAX flight and it was the most uncomfortable 10/11 hours of my life. Although that experience was in Economy so I’m assuming Club World will be somewhat better in terms of selection. So this time I’ve decided to come armed – the question is what do I take?

Up to now my weapon of choice has always been my iPod Classic (128GB) but I need some visual candy. The thought did occur to me that I could just load my movies onto the iPod – the capacity is certainly there although watching movies on a 2 inch screen has about as much appeal as a nosebleed.

The first option is I bring my workhorse Sony Vaio laptop, which I brought new years ago for stupid money, which is already loaded with enough iTunes movies and TV shows to last me well into next year! Second option is to buy an iPad – has to be an iPad due to all my movie content being iTunes, and yes I am aware there is a way of converting these to “standard video” that plays on Android tablets but this is a messy road I’d rather not go down.

The most ideal solution (i.e. to take everything) is to just bring the Vaio, due to it being bulletproof and would negate me buying any other gadgets. Not so concerned about it being damaged (it has survived some nasty falls that have killed other laptops) however I am slightly paranoid about it being stolen, and considering I don’t have anything on it backed up would be a devastating loss. Plus it’s a big beast of a thing – 15.5” screen which isn’t exactly inconspicuous, and has a fair weight to it, which if I am being honest is only really an issue at the baggage search areas, i.e. having to drag out this beasty from my already full backpack and re-pack it afterwards. I’m flying Club World so space on board shouldn’t be an issue (I hope!).

The iPad would be nice to have but if I am being honest I would only really use it when flying, so could be a potential waste of money, as I only plan on travelling for leisure so say 5 or 6 trips per year. I do like the light weight aspect of these things though and they do look fun to use. Although due to the fact I have a lot of movies (somewhere in the region of 10 to 20) it would have to be a higher capacity model (probably 128GB), which obviously puts the cost up (and potential value to thieves) considerably. I suppose a big plus here would be I don’t have to carry around a lot of cables, unlike with a laptop.

Sorry for the long-winded post but I would just like to get an idea of what you guys would do in such a situation. So what say you?



Thanks,

R.