{"id":648,"date":"2016-05-02T15:10:43","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T15:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/?p=648"},"modified":"2017-07-19T13:49:46","modified_gmt":"2017-07-19T19:49:46","slug":"best-laptop-for-travel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/best-laptop-for-travel\/","title":{"rendered":"Picking the 5 Best Laptops for Travel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \"What I can only wish you’re not yet packing your bags while searching for the best laptop for travel. These laptops are not easy to pick as they demand hard compromises between performance and portability<\/strong>. And as any laptop owner knows, with great power comes no battery life. But if you’re in search for both, strap in, I’ve researched this subtle topic so you don’t have to.\n<\/p>\n

\n In this post, I’ll cover the major and minor requirements<\/strong> for the best laptop for travel and how to measure them. And at the end, I’ll list out my top 5 picks<\/strong> that you can simply grab and take on a trip without any regrets. And even if you won’t find my suggestions matching your taste, you’ll at least know how to find them on your own.\n<\/p>\n

What we are looking for in a best laptop for travel?<\/h2>\n

Major requirements for a laptop for travel<\/h3>\n

Major requirement<\/span> Light<\/h4>\n

\n Of course, you better off having a light laptop than a heavy one. That couldn’t be truer when working on the go and packing your luggage.\n<\/p>\n

\n Despite the fact that there is some variation in weight within the laptops of the same size, a 15″ laptop will (almost) always be heavier than a 13-inch one. In the past years, heavy and bulky laptops have gone off market apart from some workstations and desktop-replacement gaming models.\n<\/p>\n

\n First of all, I recommend not looking above 15-inch<\/strong> (15.6″ more precisely) notebooks. They are a great pick if you need a laptop with a lot of horsepower. That would be the case if you’re travelling and working with very demanding software – audio, video editing, 3D modeling or programming.\n<\/p>\n

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\n 14-inch laptops are hard to find but for some they might be just in the sweet spot. They can offer more performance than 13″ models while still being noticeably smaller than 15.6″ models.\n<\/p>\n

\n 13-inch laptops are a safe bet for regular travellers<\/strong> if you’re not going to work with software like AutoCAD, Pro Tools, Premier, After Effects. It’s enough if you’re just using it for daily tasks or vlogging<\/a>. It’s also an easy choice if you’re travelling without check-in baggage. These laptops can easily fit into backpacks.\n<\/p>\n

\n Finally, 11-to-12 inch laptops can fit into handbags and are as portable as a laptop can get. Such a small laptop is a lot easier to use on a train or a bus. Lately, after all, the rave around netbooks died out, these smallest laptops are dominated by 2-in-1 hybrids and Chromebooks.\n<\/p>\n

\n While I’m on the topic of 2-in-1 hybrids, getting one might be particularly appealing if you’ve used to carry a laptop and a tablet with you and you’d prefer to combine these devices into one. At the same time, there’re not many convertibles (if any) that can honestly claim to be a good tablet and a good laptop. But if a budget limit is not a problem for you – there’s a few very exciting options in this area.\n<\/p>\n

Major requirement<\/span> Battery Life<\/h4>\n

\n To bridge the gap between laptop’s portability and the ability to use it on the road, you’ll definitely need a good battery.\n<\/p>\n

\n A good place to start would be 6 hours of battery runtime while browsing on Wi-Fi<\/strong>. Almost always manufacturers advertise their longest possible battery life, which means dimming the screen down to a minimum and turning off every piece of software which never happens in any real-life scenario. To find Wi-Fi runtimes, I’ll be checking external 3rd party reviews. As a general rule of thumb, most of the time the battery runtime while browsing via Wi-Fi is ~1\/3 less than the advertised battery life. Meanwhile, some of latest ultrabooks sometimes can stay powered on up to 2 or 3 times as long as they can stay on Wi-Fi.\n<\/p>\n

\n Finding a laptop with 8 hours or more would be best. But these are hard to come by and they usually come high in the budget ladder.\n<\/p>\n

Major requirement<\/span> Spacious SSD<\/h4>\n

\n There’re a hundred reasons to get an SSD storage over an older HDD. To begin with, a good SSD is an ingredient to every other requirement for a travel laptop. They are faster, lighter, less power-hungry and they are a lot less prone to damage<\/strong>. And of course, a laptop without one needs at least a minute to start up, which should be avoided when moving from place to place.\n<\/p>\n

\n I recommend getting at least 250 GB<\/strong> for the lightest models and there’re plenty of reasons to go upwards to 500 GB. This will come especially handy if you’ll need that space to store a lot of images and videos.\n<\/p>\n

\n Worth mentioning, it’s not too important if a laptop for traveling has an SSD over M.2 port (usually indicating a speedy PCI-Express connection). Travel laptops will not be able to use the speeds PCIe supports so the only reasons to get one with M.2 is that they’re a bit lighter and easier to replace.\n<\/p>\n

Minor requirements for a laptop when travelling<\/h3>\n

Minor requirement<\/span> Bright and vivid screen<\/h4>\n

\n When shopping for the best laptop for travel, you need to take into consideration how and where you’ll be using it. In contrast to the most office-type laptops, which are used at 2-3 static locations most of the time, a travel laptop will need a lot more flexibility. And that doesn’t only mean a lightweight frame and a battery packing a lot of juice. It also means having a bright and vivid screen that doesn’t force you to squint for hours to see anything on a sunny day.\n<\/p>\n

\n A screen can be broken down in 3 key metrics:\n<\/p>\n