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Travelling Europe for 3 weeks - Buy MacBook or MBA? Surf with iPhone?

themanfromvlad

themanfromvlad

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 11, 2006
262
1
Montreal
I'm going to be traveling around Europe for three weeks, and there's no way I want to lug my 15" PowerBook around with me that whole time. So here's what I'm considering:

-Buy a 1.6 Ghz MBA from the refurb store ($1649 CDN).
-Buy a MacBook 2.1-2.2Ghz from the refurb store ($1000-1100 CDN, depending on colour).
-Not buy a laptop, try and "rough it" by using my iPhone to surf using WiFi.

Have any big travelers found it annoying that the MBA doesn't come with an ethernet jacK?
 
well there is no point in buying an iphone now as the new iphone 3g has just been announced and that wont be coming out until july 11 which im guessing is after you have left for europe. And also a phone is a phone in the end im shore that you already have a perfectly capable phone.

If i was you I would just get a macbook and put away the left over money to get an iphone when you get back or just get a macbook air (Easy companion to travel with) and then save up a bit of money when you get back and buy an iphone 3g. There only $199 not that expensive at all.
 
Why don't you just enjoy the time here (come to the Netherlands!!) and forget about computers for 3 weeks? :)

In Europe it's quite common to have Internet café's which are cheap and can
do anything you want, like uploading photo's, checking email. I did it like that in China, which was a bit harder, but really much better travelling in the end.

If you really want to buy something, I suggest you spend some of the money on a camera (photo (D40,$400 / video, Panasonic DV, $500 and a good bag, $100) and the rest on drinks, food and entertainment!
Just my €0.02...
Anyway, enjoy our continent!
 
netherfred said:
Why don't you just enjoy the time here (come to the Netherlands!!) and forget about computers for 3 weeks? :)

In Europe it's quite common to have Internet café's which are cheap and can
do anything you want, like uploading photo's, checking email. I did it like that in China, which was a bit harder, but really much better travelling in the end.

If you really want to buy something, I suggest you spend some of the money on a camera (photo (D40,$400 / video, Panasonic DV, $500 and a good bag, $100) and the rest on drinks, food and entertainment!
Just my €0.02...
Anyway, enjoy our continent!
Click to expand...


or just get high lol
 
I've got a similar kind of problem as the OP, I think. We're going to Thailand for a month and travelling around. I'm not sure what the electricity situation will be. I don't really mind carrying around the MacBook I have (although its battery only gives me an hour now, if I'm lucky).

I think our biggest problem is that we've got three cameras: a compact, a DSLR, and an HD camcorder. In other words, we've got a lot of data to shift around. This is the main reason I'm taking the laptop - to offload all the data on to.

Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing? (Travelling in a relatively remote place with large amounts of footage to archive?). I'm considering an image tank, but I need one that extract HD video footage from the memory cards (not just pictures) and it seems that image tanks are more for people who don't want to carry a laptop (this doesn't bother me, however).
 
craigp said:
Does anyone have any experience of this sort of thing? (Travelling in a relatively remote place with large amounts of footage to archive?). I'm considering an image tank, but I need one that extract HD video footage from the memory cards (not just pictures) and it seems that image tanks are more for people who don't want to carry a laptop (this doesn't bother me, however).
Click to expand...

That's one of the reasons I've got a DV cam: tapes are small, light and cheap. As for the rest of the camera's: just buy enough memory cards and a 1.8" harddrive (20-30Gb) and download whenever you see a computer nearby. Store the rest in the cards. Calculate up front how much space you would need and then buy 1.5 - 2 times more. For me this was quite easy, since my D70 only takes ~1Mb shots, so on 2Gb cards you can store 2500 photo's, more than enough I guess for a one month trip? Do get the best quality cards, so either Sandisk Extreme III (or up) or even better Lexar Pro cards (forgot the proper name).
For the HD recorder I saw Sony now sells a portable DVD burner (not sure if this is Thailand-proof though), so that would still be smaller than a laptop but certainly bigger than an mini external harddrive.
Last remarks: prepare well and you won't have to spend rediculous amounts of money (for example for poor memory cards) on the road.

Edit: In Europe Sony sells a DVD burner as Sony VRD-MC5, about €220 and JVC a CU-VD40 for €250 with HDMI interface
 
From one traveller to another: leave your laptop at home (you'll only get stressed about it getting stolen or damaged) and use internet cafes.


EDIT: To craigp: There are lots of digital photo shops around Thailand (throughout SE Asia, for that matter) that will burn your memory cards onto DVD's for you for a very low price. Trust me when I tell you not to worry about storage and to just enjoy a beautiful country! :)
 
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I'm going to Europe in august, and plan to take just my iPhone. I don't want to worry about my MacBook getting lost or stolen.
 
try and take the least amount of technology as possible with you. less can get stolen, less can get broken, less messing around with security. also you will enjoy the holiday a bit more. just take a good quality digital SLR and thats it, no mobiles, no computers, just you the camera (that sounds strange) and great scenery - just take in the sights of where ever you go (although make sure you have enough memory card space):
a holiday is meant to be about relaxing, aren't they...
DSC_6088.JPG
 
get an Asus eee. The price makes it a worthwhile purchase for a trip. If not, go for the Macbook air, as its portability makes it a better choice than the macbook, and also bigger screen than an iphone, Although spending that much on a notebook for a trip isn't worth it imho. Might as well spend that money on the trip itself! So i vote the eee
 
I brought a 14-inch iBook G4 to Europe last summer. I needed to keep up with my blogs when I was gone so it was important to me to do it. It was a load to lug around though; I wish the MBA was around back then!

Internet cafes are okay, but the computers are often quite minimalist and have weird keyboards. Also, it can get expensive -- tourists don't know where the cheap places are like locals do.

One disadvantage of the MBA is that not all hotels have wifi -- some just have ethernet, so if you get the MBA, make sure to get the ethernet adapter.

It's also nice to have a computer just to manage your photos while you're there. Let's face it, it's exhausting touristing all day, so it can be relaxing to head back to your hotel and go through all the pictures you took.
 
Ok, so you've managed to nix my laptop plans. And you all make perfect sense. However, I will have my iPhone (using with European SIM) for calling. How is free WiFi coverage in London, Paris, Amsterdam?
 
themanfromvlad said:
Ok, so you've managed to nix my laptop plans. And you all make perfect sense. However, I will have my iPhone (using with European SIM) for calling. How is free WiFi coverage in London, Paris, Amsterdam?
Click to expand...

for wifi in london there isnt any, you can only get it in a few shops and restaurants. for london city coverage you will not find, although they do have city wide wifi coverage in other cities in the Uk, dont know why not london
 
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