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I travel frequently and always seem to have to lug a laptop to and fro through airports. I wen to a table but can’t see all my data and I don’t have the same access as with a laptop. I decided to go minimal but still be able to look at my spreadsheets and documents on something other than a phone or tablet.
I got a Rasberry Pi, a couple of cables and a remote keyboard. I hook the RPi up to the hotel computer with a thumb drive of all my work and sit back and enjoy the big screen computer. I also have a WiFi chip so I can access the hotel internet.
The computer case is 3x2x1 and the keyboard is 6x4x1 and there is a HDMI and power cable to connect the computer to the TV. It all fits in the outer pocket of my carryon and goes through TSA with no problem.
Oh, the RPi and case and cables came in at less than $100 and the keyboard was less than $20.There are also computers on a stick now. Intel sells a few, Google has a couple as well. Even simpler than a Pi but a bit more money generally.
I have an Android micro computer. About 60 bucks. Seems like a good cheap way to turn an unused tv or monitor into something that can do alittle of everything. Email, Web browsing, simple games, not too bad.
I install the Intel Compute Stick which is around $100 usually and is a complete machine including Memory,Storage,USB,BT HDMI and is really ready to go aside from KB and Mouse.
I use a $30 Logitech combined KB and Trackpad and plugged into a TV you are ready to go.
The thing is about the size of 4 or 6 USB sticks and comes with either Linux,8.1 or 10 out of the box.So far they have been crazy reliable in Windows? and are a great way to make any TV “Smarter” and also ideal for this application too.
I carry a Mac 11″ Air when on the road but also one of these now just in case I need a windows machine too.
Mine has a 128g Micro memory card in it and can pretty much do anything any win machine does easily.I hate Windows in general but these are a pretty impressive little piece of hardware.
I use a Zotac ZBOX running Windows 10. I spent about 2 years trying to track down a nano pc that I could travel with for work as I don’t like laptops when I have to do a significant amount of work remotely. Most everywhere I go I have access to a TV, so it works great. It has wifi, ethernet, 3 usb, quad core intel cpu, 2gb RAM, 32GB flash disk, and hdmi out.. I also carry a 2 TB usb drive that I use for all my data.
I went through a number of other models and found that when I was hammering them with multiple programs open (Outlook, Excel, Visio, Putty to name a few) or was playing digital media off of the USB drive, the CPUs were getting crazy hot. This model gets warm, but never enough to make me worry that it’s going to burn itself out after 30 minutes of usage. I just snapped this pic as I am using my ZBOX at home now too, it replaced my main desktop which has been turned into an VMware host since it was sitting around unused.
I have a chromebook that I installed linux on. Works really good and is very portable.
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Some of us have big paws and tiny keyboards were never our friends.. 😉
With that said, if you use MS Office on a Mac with an office full of folks who use MS Office on Windows you will quickly find out how many features are not supported or very different with Office on a Mac vs. PC, and it causes more hassles than not.. A prime example is editing communal spreadsheets that are heavy with custom formulas, links to other spreadsheets, and formatting. I actually have better luck using Libre Office to edit these communal spreadsheets than with the Mac version of Office. MS Sucks.
Macbook Air have full sized keyboards really and you can also run Windows on them and standard Office too!
I find that Macbook Air keyboards are about 3/8″ narrower actually and while that’s not much, it’s enough when you have fat fingers/big hands. I actually returned a 13″ 2015 Macbook Air at work because I couldn’t type on it very well and went with a full size HP running Ubuntu because of the issues I had with compatibility with my coworkers. I am in no way a Mac hater (25 year Unix/Linux admin), however, I am a good steward with my money and the company’s money. The Macbook Air cost around $1500 with Office on it and the HP I got cost $645 with no additional costs for an Office version that I could use with my coworkers. In the scenario I outlined (and frankly the one the OP outlined), the Mac provides no additional value for the significant added expense. After 25 years of IT, I realized it’s less about the OS you are running and more about what you have running on your machine that matters. While I prefer Linux over Windows and Mac OS, I can do my job on any of them just as effectively.
I will also say that after 25 years of IT, I still don’t need glasses, while my coworkers who prefer to stare at their tiny laptop screens have all had glasses for over 10 years.. I will tell you a secret.. Large screen, lower resolution, larger font.. then get up every hour for about 10 minutes so that your eyes don’t get stuck at the same focal point all day..
Obviously we are all lucky enough to have choices and if you want a Macbook Air, by all means. 🙂
while i would usually suggest a macbook air or pro, if you need more windows stuff than mac, go with a surface pro 4. it can be used like a tablet when needed and like a laptop when needed. plus they’re pretty stout when it comes to hardware specs as you can get them with up to 16 gb of ram and a 1 tb hard drive
I was going to suggest the Raspberry Pi myself. Mine runs headless as my server and syncs everything between my big laptop, little laptop, tablet and phone. Openoffice and AndrOpenoffice so I can view/edit all my data across any of them.
Yep, gotta love having to run parallels because MS won’t release a proper version of office on the mac.
Oh and as to the op, i take either (or both) an intel nuc or mac mini, when travelling (along with my macbook). Sometimes it’s very handy to have a couple of screens and the extra cpu power (over an atom or pi) is handy for me.
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