iowa guy

For several years I used a Windows laptop during my travels. The laptop needs to be replaced.

I was wondering what everyone thinks about replacing it with another Windows laptop or, instead, with a Chromebook.

What do you use when traveling? Is the a reason I wouldn't want to use a Chromebook or a Windows laptop while traveling the world?

Thank you.

Dovster

I have a small Lenovo Windows laptop that I use when traveling. It weighs no more than a Chromebook and has the major advantage of letting me use it when I am offline and then saving my work to the One Drive cloud when I can get online. This also transfers everything to my larger, home, laptop as soon as I get back and turn it on.

About the only disadvantage to the laptop is that I cannot use it for What's App, but as I always have my cell phone with me, that is not a major problem.

AEM7AC

I use a 10-year-old Lenovo ThinkPad X61. It's good enough for light web browsing, Linux is relatively secure so it reduces risks of infecting the computer on foreign wifi networks, and the laptop is relatively lightweight and has a small footprint so it fits easily in my messenger bag. Most importantly, it's a cheap laptop, and as a backup, it's not the end of the world if anything happens to it. It may be replaced within a year or so, and its replacement will also be a cheap ThinkPad with Linux.

Explorer789

I would recommend Dell XPS 13. Regardless of which tech blog you prefer, it is consistently ranked in the top 1 or 2 positions.

linsj

I have a small Lenovo ThinkPad with Windows that I use for traveling--lighter and smaller than my work laptop. I could never use a Chromebook because I use all kinds of programs that have to be--or I prefer to have--installed. Having programs on my hard drive gives me the flexibility to work when offline, which happens frequently, such as on an airplane.

DenverBrian

For world traveling, I second recommendations for a ThinkPad. T480's are likely on sale now as the new T490s will probably come out in the spring. Dell XPS 13 is a good choice, though I don't consider it to be as rugged/drop resistant as a ThinkPad.

ThinkPad X1 Carbon is amazingly light, but also quite expensive. Costco has these (essentially last year's model).

paperwastage

https://web.whatsapp.com/

you still need to your phone turned on (to forward messages to the web service)



if you want a very portable solution for $700
One Mix 2/2S yoga
GPD Pocket 2, GPD Win 2
Surface Go

iowa guy

I was under the impression that Chromebooks could be used offline nowadays. When you do get online you could save whatever you were working on to the cloud if you wanted.

I will probably go with a laptop though from the overwhelming recommendations in this thread.

TheMadBrewer

I've been using my iPad Pro 11" with the keyboard folio for trips up to a couple of weeks. Obviously it depends on what you need to do while traveling -- I can connect back to my client's with the Citrix app (or a ssh app for those that are really old school). The only thing that I can't do is fix any problems that come up in my apps -- can't run Xcode or Android Studio. That is sort of the reason for the 2 week limit -- beyond that there is a higher chance I might need to fix something.

Then again, I'm not really working when I travel -- an hour or two a day at most when problems come up.

And good for entertainment and the battery life is decent as well. Not cheap, though

sparkswillfly

joshwex90

You can - I got my wife the HP Chromebook x2 and she loves it. Light and portable, and runs Android apps. Anything you want can be run offline (you have Office apps and/or Google apps, such as Docs, Sheets, etc.). You can use Outlook or Gmail apps offline as well. And can sync with OneDrive or Google Drive (which will sync chances once you're online). No different than Windows laptop.

deniah

ultrabooks are so thin and light, theres no reason i see for buying a chromebook. my choice would be from lenovo. or, as much as ive been disappointed by them in the past, dell. the newer ones are good devices

der_saeufer

It depends a lot on what you want to do with it and on your budget... if you're planning on doing a lot of work in MS Office type stuff--or any real work in Photoshop/Illustrator/etc. you're going to want to get a "real" laptop and spend real money on it.

If your travel laptop is just a companion for leisure trips that you use to write e-mail, get information, watch movies and post a few pictures online, a Chromebook will suffice. Chrome OS is much less resource intensive than Windows, so a $200 Chromebook sucks a whole lot less than a $200 Windows laptop.

There are some seriously nice "ultrabook" laptops out there in the $1000 range--I recently replaced an ancient MacBook with a Dell XPS 13 and love it. But on short leisure trips I'm just as likely to toss the $150 Chromebook covered in stickers in my bag--after all, Google Maps is just as usable on the crappy Chromebook screen, and if I drop it or spill beer on it, I'll be a lot less sad.

If you have the money and are willing to cart around $1000+ in hardware, absolutely go with the XPS/Thinkpad/etc. If you don't or aren't, there are perfectly usable Chromebooks that can be had for $200, but the Windows machines at that price point are hot garbage.

skywardhunter

X1 Carbon is the way to go

iowa guy

Is there a way to watch movies on a DVD with a Chromebook?