Advice Needed

Travelling Man

Aiming To Get Lost
Hello guys First real post on Expo portal.
First a little background.
I intend to spend a large portion of this summer and beyond travelling around the UK and Europe and intend to keep a kind of digital diary/Video blog of sorts.

For that i need a laptop, preferably a lightweight model with decent specs that can be used on the road.

Any of you more experienced travellers have an recommendations?


Also probably worth mentioning that this is being conducted on a shoestring budget.

Thanks in advance.
 

calicamper

Expedition Leader
Tablet and a go pro camera with wifi and a cheap portable hard drive and your good. Get a tablet with the ability to use cell phone service packages to connect or just go low budget and hit free wifi hot spots to check email post videos etc. The down side unless you add a simple key board you won't be writing a book on it using the tap screen typing method but the little keyboards work and are pretty nice. Laptops are too heavy and bulky and the really expensive ones are the only light thin options worth carrying when traveling and thats $$$$
 

Travelling Man

Aiming To Get Lost
Thanks for the quick reply, the camera is already sorted And am going with a GoPro and My Digital SLR.

I am a little hesitant in using a tablet as i find they are a bit clunky and don't always do what you want them to do.

Are there any tablets you would recommend.
 

nwoods

Expedition Leader
Make sure you get a laptop with really fast hardware connectivity. USB 3 at a minimum. If you go Apple, the built in SD card reader is very fast. I would suggest something weather durable, so that you can edit on the camp table in various damp conditions. You will want at least a 500GB hard drive. Battery life is a plus, but most of them are pretty good these days.

What operating system and video/photo editing software packages are you familiar with now? What is your budget?
 

Travelling Man

Aiming To Get Lost
Make sure you get a laptop with really fast hardware connectivity. USB 3 at a minimum. If you go Apple, the built in SD card reader is very fast. I would suggest something weather durable, so that you can edit on the camp table in various damp conditions. You will want at least a 500GB hard drive. Battery life is a plus, but most of them are pretty good these days.

What operating system and video/photo editing software packages are you familiar with now? What is your budget?

Have you got any models you would recommend?

Im not overly familiar with any one particular piece of software but i have played about with the basic stuff as well as i think it's called Sony Vegas Pro??
 

AFBronco235

Crew Chief
I also recommend using a tablet over a laptop. I keep a Surface 2 (not the Pro version) and it handles all the jobs I used a laptop before I got it. If you get the keyboard cover with it, it becomes very handy to take and go. Two built in cameras so you can video chat/blog, excellent Bluetooth connectivity and a very durable feel make it my choice of on the go computing. The 32G memory is a little low, but you can offset that with a 128G micro SD card in the hidden SD card slot on the back, under the fold out leg. Pair it with a Bluetooth GPS unit and you can track your journey on MapsPro so other can follow you as you go. USB downloads are not super fast, but fast enough for what you'll be doing.

Its also great for general use as an e-ready, movie viewer, or just surfing the net at a rest stop. Its also fairly cheap at $449 US for just the tablet. Keyboard, screen protector, and 128G Micro SD card raises the cost up to $600, but still cheaper than a full laptop.

How do you intend to be traveling? Walking/hitchhiking, bus, rental car, custom expo vehicle? If your backpacking your way, a tablet is still going to be lighter and more durable than a laptop. I've had mine bouncing around inside my bronco keeping track of the trails I was driving on and it never missed beat or lost signal to the GPS. Now, I wouldn't dunk it in a tank of water, but it handles the damp fine. Just don't leave it sitting in a puddle.
 

AA1PR

Disabled Explorer
aside from all the expensive gear, notebook, tablet, GoPro I just catch myself using my cell phone for everything these days

the image quality has came a long ways in a short time, its like the swiss army knife
 

kojackJKU

Autism Family Travellers!
I sound like a broken record, but I do the exact same thing that you are planning with my Asus vivotab RT LTE model. You can pick them up fairly cheap on ebay. Then, it is goto the AT&T website, unlock it for free and use the sim card of your choice. The other great things about the vivotab is the keyboard is also a battery, its easy to type on, and since its using windows, You can connect a usb hub and plug in everything you need to do anything at the same time. Ipad, nor android tablets have that ease of use. I know because I own all of them. The windows tablet is the best. It won't get you style points at the local starbucks like the apple gear does, but you will actually be doing something productive other than "looking" like you are!

I plug in my 500gb USB drive, card reader, and printer to my vivotab, transfer my photos and videos, edit them, save and print what I want right from my tablet.


Battery life with the vivotab is about 14-16 hrs on the keyboard dock with heavy heavy use. I get two days out of a charge and I use it ALOT.
 
A

AngryRedBird

Guest
Couple of things.. Tablet, Video Camera or iPhone I'm really impress with the iPhones image stabilization.. Get a couple.. (only for video purposes) Place one in the sun visor to video you forward progress.. and one facing you for commentaries.. with some creative editing afterward.. mesh the two together.
 

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