Best Laptop for Going Around the World? 479
mitbeaver writes "I'm planning a round-the-world trip. 6+ months in developing countries, including Everest base camps 1 & 2, the deserts of Namibia and lots of places in between. I want to bring something to write (blogs or the Great American Novel) and burn DVD photo backups to mail home. I don't really need much in the way of power, but I do need it to survive the altitude, dust, moisture of tropical locations, and being hauled around non-stop for the better part of a year. I will be carrying my life in my backpack, so every pound counts. It looks like some 'semi-rugged' ultraportables exist, but the truly 'rugged' are all pretty heavy. These are pricey, and the risk of theft is non trivial. A smaller laptop is easier to keep on my person more often, which is safer (in most countries) than leaving it in the hostel/hotel. Still, the rugged guys are 2x the price — almost worth buying a cheap one and planning an on the road replacement purchase. I know we've talked about gadgets to carry around the world before, but any advice would be greatly appreciated." We also discussed laptop travel cases a little more than a year ago.
hard drives die at high altitude (Score:5, Informative)
If you read about computers used there, the hard drives fail very quickly due to low air pressure.
Hard drives are not rated to work at 18,000 feet.
PowerBooks and MacBooks are very solid (Score:3, Informative)
You're asking (partially) the wrong question (Score:5, Informative)
Don't get a laptop bag. Wrap it in a shirt or something and put it in a canvas backpack. If the machine doesn't look like it'll take that abuse, you're asking for trouble on one front or another.
Whatever you get, immediately try to make it look like crap.
I chose the wrong bag when I was in Madagascar, and KNEW it after about a day or so, there. I did pick the right laptop, though -- a cheapo dell. I put stuff on usb memory sticks, so that my data was always both on the laptop and in my room.
Re:PowerBooks and MacBooks are very solid (Score:3, Informative)
It is just going to be stolen... (Score:3, Informative)
Buy a bunch of Compact Flash cards and mail your pics home. Assuming they dont get your camera too.
Re:Instead of sending DVDs home (Score:5, Informative)
I agree the EEEpc is by far the cheapest and most portable solution. You can buy a bigger SSD drive to stick in an EEEPC to survive riding in a jeep in Africa/Mt Everest etc., buy a bunch of 4-8-16 GB SDHC cards for additional storage/redundancy, and do offline backups when you have internet access (which you'll have if you're blogging).
Personally, I have a pimped out toshiba subnotebook that I upgraded to an SSD. I can get 10 hours of battery life.
Re:Instead of sending DVDs home (Score:3, Informative)
Not if you include the price of postage, the dvd burner (moving part, probably will have to replace it, and the size of a spindle in your backpack. IF you want to send large amounts of HD video back, dvd-R might be the right way, but for the occasional video+ docs small (256 MB) SD cards are just a few euro, (5 euro for a 1 GB now) and are very hard to damage in post. You can have carry many around, they are light and they are rugged. And they are not lost, the receiver can return them for reuse, or use him himself.
THis allows you to go for a subnotebook, as noted, far easier to carry around.
Re:Moleskine (Score:3, Informative)
Also: LCD displays freeze and break. (Score:3, Informative)
You may not need a laptop (Score:2, Informative)
Prior to this, I did a "test trip" and went to Bolivia and Peru. While I did initially consider bringing a laptop with me, my test trip told me that a notepad, internet cafes to burn DVDs and the local post office were more than enough. In particular, the notepad has an extra advantage, which is that you can stick things in it, from bus tickets to flowers, next to your impressions of the day. Believe me, it's those little details that you're going to remember.
As to the picture problem, I had one of these 2.5" portable hard drive with a memory card slot, and it let me store as many pictures as I wanted until I could find an internet cafe (which can be very difficult to find, say, when you're in the middle of a week-long trek). It did work quite well in the salt desert in Bolivia, which happens to be rather high (4000m), and can be very cold (-10C or below). If in doubt, just bring a bunch of memory cards.
Don't forget that there are internet cafes everywhere (the less developped the country, the more internet cafes, except in case of special political difficulties, like Burma), and yes, I did blog.
Think Toughbook, but be smart (Score:2, Informative)
Dont worry too much about Everest (Score:3, Informative)
I designed a wireless network and configured a number of HP rugged laptops and tablet PCs as part of the Egan/University research expedition a few years back. The idea was for the laptops to be used by the researchers and to relay data back to the universities. By the end of a couple days at base camp, everyone was mostly too oxygen-starved to use the machines to a degree that would have justified all the extra stuff. I think up there a simple digital camera with large capacity and simple controls is a good idea. And a pad of paper.
For the record, we had HP rugged notebooks - and the heated hard disk units survived. I also had a backup USB drive loaded with PuppyLinux, but they never needed it, the drives survived the trip. Actually, the only major faults were cables being destroyed by Yaks or windstorms. Bring extra cables. A thuraya phone works well there too.
Re:hard drives die at high altitude (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Small, cheap and light: EeePC or XO. (Score:3, Informative)
Would be a fine recommendation -- if one could actually GET any OLPC hardware!
The "Give One, Get One" promotion ended more than a month ago, and there's something like 5,000 of us who paid for our laptops in late 2007 and still won't be receiving them until perhaps March or April, due to the OLPC Foundation's disastrous mishandling of our orders.
So unless you're willing to pay 80% markup on eBay, are an Australian Linux Users' Group member, or are a child in a third-world nation, good luck getting an OLPC laptop.
Re:I'll also recommend a used 12" iBook G4 (Score:3, Informative)
Why else do you think the MBP looks more or less like a 700mhz powerbook, ditto the Mac Pro, but the Macbook is an all new design? If you google around you'll see it's a design flaw and fairly well documented in various (non Apple-moderated) user forums.
BTW I now have a 15" Santa Rosa MacBook Pro, and can't recommend it highly enough. It's solid as a rock, and thin and light for a laptop with this much power.
Eee PC (Score:2, Informative)
no moving parts besides the fan
SSD should prove more resiliant than a harddrive
small, light
seems pretty hardy. not 'rugged' but definatly not flimsy like larger 15" and above laptops
I own one and like it alot. I opened up a reply intending to unbiasedly suggest *features* I think are important, but I realized that the Eee is basically all of them. A few more things; sneakernet seems like a good answer for your situation, but I personally think DVD's are the wrong way to go about it. SD cards are a whole lot lighter, and less prone to breaking in the mail. Also you'll find small laptops make a lot of sacrifices when they decide to have a DVD drive
Lastly, as for durability, I just wanted to comment that the Eee is all 1 piece inside. There is a screen and a fan and a keyboard, but everything else is all on one motherboard. Because of this I think it will stand up to abuse quite well, short of penetrating/splitting/cracking the whole thing.
SSD, small form factor, and hopefully no DVD drive seems to be the way to go (Maybe a slim USB dvd drive?)
Small, Light Fully-Rugged (Score:2, Informative)
There are mount points on the laptop, and you can just connect a strap between opposite corners and wear it around with you. This is comfortable and can make it such that you don't leave your laptop anywhere.
They are expensive, but also shiny. And it's already possible to find them used for reasonable prices if you look enough on Craig's List. Mine cost $1000 and I've seen a few postings for $1500.
Re:Small, cheap and light: EeePC or XO. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:You probably don't need a laptop (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I'll also recommend a used 12" iBook G4 (Score:3, Informative)
I do know that Apple had many more problems with easily-dented aluminum causing motherboard problems on 15" Powerbooks. This repair survey [macintouch.com] does show both of the 12" models as among the most reliable.