Need some traveling advice.

[Gibson88]

Hey all, I'm having a bit of a tech dilemma and was wondering if yous could offer some advice.

I'm off traveling in November for a year to Australia and Canada, it's a living out of a backpack kind of trip so I need to pack light. That's quite hard when your a geek.

My set up for years has been a MacBook and a iPhone. Currently a 2015 13" MacBook Pro and a iPhone 6. I have owned iPads but I kept going back to just having these two devices.

Now I think even the 13" MacBook Pro is too big and heavy to carry round for a year. So I thought I'd sell it and make use of the back to school offer and get an 11" air for a great deal. My MacBook only gets turned on a few times a week I use my phone most of the time. So last night I bought one and it's great, but I'm still thinking it's quite big and also if I take my computer I'll end up taking my external hard drive etc. This has lead me to another thought.

I'm tempted to return the Air and buy a iPad, and only have a tablet and a phone with me for a year. At first I thought I couldn't live without a computer but then as I thought about it more the only reason I would plug my iPad into my Mac is for my music. Everything else especially with Photos being released a few month ago is stored in the cloud. And with Apple Music, whilst not ideal I could just use for a year and save everything offline without the need for iTunes. But I'm still wondering if for a full year I could do without any kind of computer. Taking just an iPad is so much lighter and it's one less charger to carry also. The other smal added bonus is I could buy AppleCare+ for it and not have to worry too much about it getting damaged either.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or could offer their opinion?

 

[cynics]

As a backpacker I would prioritize weight and two iOS devices is too redundant. The iPad is still a big iPhone.

If it were me I'd consider an iPhone 6+ only. Or and iPhone 5S/6 with a new MacBook for the functionality.

What is your pack weight?

 

[MacDarcy]

I backpack internationally a lot, and I love my iPad mini. I use it in conjunction with my iPhone(which I use as my travel camera). The iPad is great for editing my pics & travel blog. It's a great light weight solution for lugging around a full laptop.

Having said that, I am sometimes desiring the ability to do more heavy video editing while traveling. You can do light video editing on the iPad for sure. But for real heavy duty video editing, it can be limited. I checked out the MacBook Pro, but felt like you that it was too heavy. I also checked out the new lightweight MacBook, but felt it was too limited and underpowered to justify the cost. I think the MacBook Air is the perfect compromise. Even tho it doesn't have a retina display yet, it is lightweight & powerful enough to edit HD video while on the road.

I'm gonna wait to see what the iPad pro is all about tho before I make a decision. Also, the MacBook airs will be getting an update soon with new processors and possibly retina(?).

In the meantime, I am making due with my iPad/iPhone setup. I think it's the perfect solution if you don't plan to do heavy video editing. It handles everything else I need to do.

 

[silverblack]

OP, you need to think about the past, and list all the occasions when your iPhone wasn't good enough and you had to go to your computer. Then ask yourself if those tasks could be handled by an iPad, or you could live without bring anything another than your phone.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Really depends on what you want to do with it. I have travelled around the world with an iBook G3 12". Long time ago. I used it as well for backups. Public wifi is not always great and sometimes awful slow. Do you just take phone pictures? I suggest a proper camera and an 11" Air I think is quite perfect.

 

[sracer]

The size/performance ratio of the 11" MBA vs. iPad is no contest IMO. An 11" MBA and a couple of high capacity thumb drives will provide pretty much the most portable and versatile solution. As was mentioned before, having 2 iOS devices seems redundant.

Frankly, if you could manage a year in two different countries with only an iPad and iPhone, then it should be possible to do it with only an iPhone.... get a bluetooth keyboard and that's about as good as it gets.

As much as I enjoy my iPad and use it for productivity as well as media consumption I couldn't use it as my primary device for a year.

 

[The Samurai]

Hey all, I'm having a bit of a tech dilemma and was wondering if yous could offer some advice.

I'm off traveling in November for a year to Australia and Canada, it's a living out of a backpack kind of trip so I need to pack light. That's quite hard when your a geek.

My set up for years has been a MacBook and a iPhone. Currently a 2015 13" MacBook Pro and a iPhone 6. I have owned iPads but I kept going back to just having these two devices.

Now I think even the 13" MacBook Pro is too big and heavy to carry round for a year. So I thought I'd sell it and make use of the back to school offer and get an 11" air for a great deal. My MacBook only gets turned on a few times a week I use my phone most of the time. So last night I bought one and it's great, but I'm still thinking it's quite big and also if I take my computer I'll end up taking my external hard drive etc. This has lead me to another thought.

I'm tempted to return the Air and buy a iPad, and only have a tablet and a phone with me for a year. At first I thought I couldn't live without a computer but then as I thought about it more the only reason I would plug my iPad into my Mac is for my music. Everything else especially with Photos being released a few month ago is stored in the cloud. And with Apple Music, whilst not ideal I could just use for a year and save everything offline without the need for iTunes. But I'm still wondering if for a full year I could do without any kind of computer. Taking just an iPad is so much lighter and it's one less charger to carry also. The other smal added bonus is I could buy AppleCare+ for it and not have to worry too much about it getting damaged either.

Has anyone been in a similar situation or could offer their opinion?

 

[The Samurai]

Backpacking eh

Have you considered the rMB? Expensive BUT very effective in your case.

 

[zhenya]

I would also suggest considering the new 12" Macbook if you are on the fence as to whether an iPad will cut it. The iPad is still undoubtedly lighter and more portable, but the Macbook closes the gap considerably; even when compared to the 11" Air. One additional weight advantage it has over the Air is the ability of its charger to also charge your iPhone - you will need the usb-c adapter, but you will probably want one anyhow and you can just store it connected to the lightning cable and that's one less power brick you need to carry.