Mobile Computers

<p>I'm looking for a carry along similar to an iPad but Windows based. Which would you recommend for regular internet, email, APPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. but also would give easy transfer, storage and display of photos from my camera when I'm traveling?</p>

<p>Unlimited budget? Screen size? I've been happy with Lenovo and Samsung hardware.</p>

<p>Something in the few hundred dollar range. Similar screen size to an iPad. Which Samsung's are recommended and why? Are there certain features I should be looking for?</p>

<p>Oh, one thing I want it to do also. Sync with my Windows Outlook on my home computer. Can it sync with my Verizon Samsung galaxy S4?</p>

<p>At the moment I use a Lenovo T410 notebook which gives me flexibility in making simultaneous backups when I download; but is heavier than I want to deal with on vacation so I have been watching the reviews for the new Microsoft Surface 3 (not the Pro model). I think it would give me almost everything I use now on the notebook, similar to what you described. It comes out early next month.</p>

<p>A really small laptop comes at a premium. A 13" comes at a good price point, and is easily carried. I suggest a name brand, like Lenovo, HP or Apple. You don't need a lot of horsepower, so you can get a suitable, durable laptop with a good keyboard and display (for viewing and editing) for $1000 to $1300. You can pay a lot less, but you take your chances on reliability and color management. You can get by on 4G of RAM, but 8G or more speeds up editing considerably.</p>

<p>Pretty much everything "photographic" is based on USB - card readers, mobile hard drives, and most cameras. Internal optical disc drives have gone the way of the Dodo, but Samsung makes an inexpensive Blu-Ray drive which is self-powered from an USB connection. Memory cards are just too big for DVDs any more.</p>

<p>While you can use the internal drive for storage, photos take a lot of space and quickly fill a small (< 1Tb) internal drive. I'm partial to Western Digital "Passport" USB3 drives, and carry them in semi-rigid zipper cases (e.g., Case Logic) in the camera or computer bag. Once the card is backed up on the hard drive, I burn it to a Blu-Ray disc. Only then do I re-format the memory card.</p>

<p>Once home, I transfer contents from the mobile drive to a Drobo (a kind of RAID) at my workstation. I don't bother erasing or reformatting the mobile drive. A 2Tb drive doesn't cost very much and holds a LOT of images I consider it a consumable item, like a DVD.</p>

Get the lightest notebook you can afford. My 15"

Lenovo is adequate for processing raw files in

Lightroom, with only a 1.6 gigglehurts AMD dual

core APU and 4 GB RAM.

 

But it's just a little too heavy to tote

comfortably in a shoulder bag. Tried it a few

times and never again. I take my tablet instead

for web access and light editing of JPEGs.

 

Even a 13" notebook seems heavier than I'd want.

An 11" model would suit me better. And an SSD

would make a bigger difference in cost effective

speed than a more powerful processor or more RAM.

 

The Surface models are appealing, but a bit more

than I'd want to spend.

<p>If you're not looking to do heavy processing, a non-pro Surface 3 would do the job. Don't get the one with the smallest storage capacity. <br /><br />There's also Lenovo's outlet store - lenovo.com > deals > outlet. It's hit or miss, but at the moment they've got an i5-based Thinkpad S1 Yoga (Refurbished) for under $500, and a few for a hair more. If you keep an eye on it, you're likely to run across something very light that you'd be happy with. You can get a real system, and a pretty lightweight one (3.5 lbs), with a touchscreen for less than the cost of an iPad or a Surface 3 if you hit it on the right day.<br>

They've got a mix of new, refurbished, and scratch & dent merchandise. </p>

<p>I just followed & looked the Surface 3 up but am not really convinced. 600 Euro, a somewhat promising CPU nice screen but barely any internal memory. - Tossing in the mandatory external HDD the weight advantage compared to my elderly 10" webbook is down to 288g. - Yes, I am not fair picking the "weekend trip config" where I should get away with the webbook HDD. Although the general computing experience must be better on the Surface 3, a used webbook gets the job done too, someday... - Recommended usage: Brew coffee while you browse, sleep while you transfer data, schedule lunch for 1st booting after a while (with all those evil Windows etc. updates hogging the machine down). Webbook screens are too tiny / low res for serious editing, but you can run something like Picasa or Irfanview, in case they work for your files.</p>

At this point I think the Surface family, especially the new 3 or Pro 3 are the best looking such devices out there, but

probably too expensive. It's the old adage of "cheap, easy, or fast - pick two". With external USB storage so cheap these

days, and the plethora of cloud storage available, I'm not sure I need a computer/tablet to be the storage medium it once

might have been. Essentially a device needs I think to serve as a conduit between a drive or the Internet or cloud.

Processing power for the sort of editing one might do while traveling is pretty limited really and the capabilities offered by

Picasa, snapseed, lightroom mobile, and the like will probably suffice and will run easily on these platforms with smaller

amounts of RAM and CPU capability.

<p>We just switched from a five-year old Toshiba laptop that I bought for weight (or lack thereof) purposes, to a Surface Pro 3. I can use it for both real work and photography, and I actually went up a level in performance, especially with all the usual Microsoft tools and third-party apps. It has a single USB port that works well so camera connectivity is fine. It appears to be durable, and it has a decent screen. Since these are multi-year investments for us this was worth it, but it is a pricey decision.</p>