Laptops- worth the hassle?
 

Given how cheap internet cafes are, and the high cost of accessing an ISP from a European hotel, I'm wondering if laptops are worth bringing. They're heavy, take up a ton of room in your carry-on, and will leave you TSOL if they're lost or stolen. I'm thinking a floppy disk with key .doc and .xls files is the way to go (if TSA x-rays don't fry it)

Problem with that for me is that I most often need internet when there is no Internet Cafe or public internet available anywhere (or where I can get to in time).

With my laptop with me, I can plug into a hotel or pay phone, use my Cell Phone, or even Wi-Fi if available. And all my work and files are on the laptop ready to go.

Fortunately, my laptop's not that much of a pain to carry. And I can watch my own selection of movies on the plane with it as well.

I wish my entire work could be stored securely upon a few key .doc and .xls files!

Most people work better in quiet hotel rooms than in a noisy internet cafe somewhere. Productivity is much better with a laptop.

I have a medium sized bag (and small Dell) and that's my office. I can work anywhere, anytime. The only thing that gets me is having to take it out of the bag at the x-ray machine.

Also I can sit in a Hotel room, with a drink, (half) naked, and work or surf. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...um/biggrin.gif Not sure you can do that in an Internet Cafe.

This thing is like the American Express Card, never leave home without it.

Have you considered an ultralight?

I must be missing something blatantly obvious.

If I were to use an Internet cafe instead of bringing my laptop with me on a business trip, why the hell would I bother? I can stay at home and do the same thing in more comfort, less cost and more productivity.

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"It's as easy as 1, 2, C" -- Kelly, Married With Children

For work I find a laptop indispensable as I need access to a large number of files when I travel. I can load up my laptop with them all (this is now automatic everything I save on my netwrok drive in the office gets copied accross to my laptop and vica versa).

Personel travel then the laptop stays at home, if I want to access e-mail then I go to an internet cafe.

It depends on what you need the laptop for! I'm led to believe you live on the Continent - I spent 10 days traveling through Europe with my wife last winter, where I simply needed occasional daily access to a few Microsoft programs and company / personal e-mails - and I had no problems at all getting around without a laptop.

Don't try this if you live in the US, however; there simply isn't the required saturation of internet cafes and the like to survive.

This is starting to drift towards Travel Technology, but if you're really worried about bulk and weight concerns ...

Get a Fujitsu P-series. They've got all the bells and whistles you need on a typical laptop, but start at as little as 1.0 kilos in weight.

Oh, and they perform splendid double duty as a portable DVD player, thanks to their widescreen aspect ratio. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

Best of all, you can carry it ... computer, cables, and all ... in a case the approximate size of a laboratory journal.

I'll be trading up to a P-5000 from my current S-series as soon as the budget allows. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/smile.gif

Mook

I take a lot of digital photos. First, the laptop good for downloading them as I go.

Second, I feel very productive (and make the flight pass faster) to review/edit the photos on the laptop on the way home. Then, I can come home and upload them to the internet ASAP.

Which means I'm done with it before I arrive home. Otherwise, it can take up a lot of productive time and put me farther behind.

Plus, my husband uses it for work sometimes.

When we were in Curacao our studio apartment had neither TV nor radio. So our laptop played the couple of DVDs we brought and the CDs for some music.

If you just send a few emails home and check thing on the internet, then it's great if you can just find a local internet cafe.

Have you considered getting a PocketPC and carrying that with you instead of a laptop?

My laptop goes (well, laptops-- yes, I usually am stupid enough to take 2) with me on all business trips, but I generally find that it (they) stays home on personal trips. For those, I just take my PocketPC. With that, I can:

- Edit Word files (using TextMaker Pro)
- Edit Excel files
- Connect to the Internet using my built-in WiFi or bluetooth w/ my cell phone (check email, surf the web, etc.)
- Play games (I highly recommend SimCity 2000 for the PocketPC)

If need be, I can jump onto one of my servers with the built-in Terminal Services Client application and have full control over a PC.

There are plenty of other things that you can do with it that I haven't mentioned here either-- like watch movies, play MP3s, etc. This has truly been a lifesaver on occasion, and something that I don't leave home without no matter what.

It depends on what you'd use it for. If you just want to access e-mail and the occasional Web site, don't bring it. For me, my laptop is an essential tool in a bazillion ways. Knowing I can read e-mail at an I-cafe after I touch down doesn't help me work on a report in flight.

The real question for me is whether having a separate desktop machine is worth the hassle.

I too am now carrying a PDA when possible, though that 12-inch Powerbook from Apple sure looks tempting.

With my Palm, I have a keayboard for writing, and I carry a USB jump-drive with which I can transefer files to and from the SD card (stick the jump-drive into any web-connected computer) which my Palm reads.

Documants to Go is a key piece of PDA software that I use.

When I had major surgery last year I wasn't allowed to carry more than 5lbs total for a while & laptop plus paperwork etc was over that, so for some short trips I just took a disc of necessary doc & xls files & used the hotel biz center or local i-cafe. It wasn't expensive & I didn't have to lug.

That was actually kind of nice, so now when I'm on short biz trips I don't bother & just use the hotel ctr or i.c. If I'm on a trip of a longer duration or know there's stuff I absolutely need to access, then I'll schlep it.

And on personal trips - never. I used to check even when on the road for personal trips until I went on a river cruise in Russia last year. The freedom of no email access was almost as great as seeing Russia - and I discovered the biz world kept on going & did not fall apart. I'm starting to get into the UK/Euro mindframe - a holiday is a holiday.

I used to do work on flights but no longer. That's my time when no one can get to me so unless I'm really on deadline, I just read non-biz magazines, novels & watch movies.

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Sharon

Some very good points have been made here. The recommendation on the Fujitsu sounds especially appealing. As for bringing along a laptop to be able to download .jpegs from my digital camera, get a bigger SD card!

Can you please drive down to Orange County and slap me around? In May I went on vacation to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. I "happened" to look at the dial up directory and had a number in BKK and Phomn Penh. So of course I had to dial in and download/upload my inbox, not to mention doing it again for the trip back. But I have a Digital Camera so that was a good reason to bring my laptop. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...m/rolleyes.gif

Originally, I was going to get a notebook PC to edit my manuscripts in Microsoft Word while listening to MP3 backups of my music on CD, or, watch DVDs. Before DVDs, I was going to get the oldest notebook computer that could run a version of Word compatible with my document files because I disliked the fact that for years, notebooks have been routinely twice as expensive as ordinary computers and hardly as upgradable.

Lately, the prices have been coming down a bit and after locating a notebook by Compaq that can use American Airlines' powerport "cigarette lighter"-style DC electrical outlets because it uses not more than 75amps, I started to consider getting a new one. But then a thread came up here on flyertalk about how reclining seatbacks can actually snap off the tops of notebooks. At first I didn't believe it but I later saw how this could actually happen.

The solution of course would be to get insurance. However, if I'm getting a $700 notebook in the interest of not spending more than $1,000, getting the insurance would probably jack up how much I'm paying right back up to what it is I was hoping to save. Plus, I've watched too many laptops hit the floor thanks to the TSA to want to deal with the potential data loss. I know they have CD writers in the newer drives but it might not be in the multitude of things I have to do at the airport to burn backups of stuff I write.

So, I ended up just getting a portable DVD player for around $200.

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Best regards,
Dairenn Lombard
Los Angeles, CA

the laptop never stay home unless it's a trip to Bora-Bora, gotta draw the line somwhere.
The 17" Apple is of all trips, I couldn't fathom leaving it behind.

All my work is on there. With a VPN connection, I can be sitting anywhere and be as productive as in an office.

Add the DVD player/burner, iTunes, iDisk, what more do I need?

So yes, the laptop travels.

As far as what to get, you'd be making a mistake to buy anything but an Apple, particularly if you're starting up.

[This message has been edited by Droneklax (edited Dec 06, 2003).]

Mine usually goes. I'm off in a few hours for an overnight in Atlanta and I originally thought I wouldn't bother. If I really, really need to get email I can do it with a browser pretty much anywhere. (I can't send however, with my weirdo mail handling.) And anybody important has the phone number. But I decided to bring it because I want to show off some stuff to my friends, and maybe do a little work along the way.

I've been in the process of setting up a very old, very tiny "laptop" (Toshiba Libretto) because it's about the size of a paperback book. I guess now you could consider it a pda-wannabe, in it's day it was pretty impressive. It's running FreeBSD and Debian. I've got some work yet to have it be fully operational, but it will end up being entirely suitable if all I need to do is handle email and websurfing.

My theory is that it's small enough that it looks like a DVD player and won't upset the screeners. From two attempts, it sorta works. One went with no comment, and the other was pulled for swabbing. I'm pretty sure it was the pile of extra batteries that did it, because I usually carry tons of cables and other electronic widgets.

The biggest reason I don't want to carry the TiBook is having to pull it out all the time. I carry it around nearly everywhere anyway, so that's not a big deal. I have a good-sized laptop backpack that I also use as a carry-on so when I fly it's always stuffed with clothes and whatnot. (Today it's my only bag.)

Not everybody has the perfect little machine sitting around waiting for them, so if you can find one that handles your minimal functions I'd recommend a decent PDA. There are some that will run Linux if you are so inclined, although you will want to do any serious work on it from a remote terminal to avoid having to use the command-line with the stylus.

I almost always carry a notebook. When I dont I have an IPAQ. Currently Im carrying an Apple 12 inch Powerbook which is incredibly full featured in a small package. Ive looked at a few others and might switch at some time in the not too distant future. Problem with cafes is that I do most of my work offline. I might process one or two hundred email messages while on a flight. I then sync when I get to a place with WiFi or I use my cell phone and GPRS. Everything runs through a VPN client (Mac, PC notebook, IPAQ, TREO whatever) and syncs to my desktop machine and Exchange server. Plus I have drive partitions on my desktop I can access through the VPN I just couldnt get that level of functionality out of an internet cafe. As people here have, said, it really isnt any different than being in my office. Plus I can watch movies and such. In addition, services like Earthlink will provide you with European local access numbers. It is an added service but I thought quite reasonble in price.

[This message has been edited by GadgetFreak (edited Dec 06, 2003).]

I carried a notebook around with me all the time before I learned how to use the tools I'd been given properly. Now, for a lot of trips, my Palm Device (with keyboard) or Nokia Communicator generally does the trick. I do all my writing in marked up text and use a VBA tool I've written to convert the text into word styles. This is how I normally work anyway since writing is a lot faster in Textpad (or even vi) than it is in Word.

I carry my 12 inch powerbook everywhere not because I need it but in case. When I am on vacation I need to enter expenses and such or I just dont feel together. I need to see what is going on.

I also like the fact that I can play music or something when i need it and can add people's contacts. The powerbook is necessary actually for those of us with digital cameras and such. The TSA wiped out my SD card on my digital camera I was upset but at least I had a backup on my hd.

Leisure trip - NO, excepting the following limited circumstance: (1) you are staying in the same hotel/condo for 1+ week (2) the hotel/condo has a high speed connection (3) there are no convenient netcafes.

Business trip - NO, unless you are gone for at least 2 nights and have high speed access from your room.

Following this advice in practice during my recent leisure trip to London, I found free high speed internet at my first hotel, and a cheap netcafe across the street from my second hotel. So I was very happy not to lug my laptop overseas with the attendent risk of theft, breakage, etc. not to mention power conversion issues and exhorbitant access charges.