Which Laptop for Bicycle Touring ... ?

vja4Him

10 mW
Joined
Nov 6, 2008
Messages
24
Location
Modesto, California
Which laptop would you recommend for bicycle touring ? Earlier this year I got the Dell Inspiron 5770 17", which is a very nice laptop, BUT definitely NOT any good for traveling !!! I'm lucky to get 60-90 minutes max, when I'm working on typing, editing images and videos, which is what I would be doing while touring. So, this really nice, high-end laptop is useless for touring !!!

I need a laptop with maximum battery life, and at least one USB port, and a reasonably nice keyboard. I'm thinking of maybe 10-12-inch screen size. Don't really need all the bells and whistles that my Dell laptop has (almost everything !!!). Would be nice to have an SSD drive though …..

I will be going online to upload images and videos while traveling, and may need to tether to my T-Mobile service through my cell phone ….. I can do some editing with my Note 8 to save on laptop battery.

Price is really not a big deal. I'm thinking of spending around $500-900.00 (US) … ?
 
I'd consider something like this:
https://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/hp-spectre-laptop-13t-1zx32av-1

My wife has either this or the 15" version and she's very happy with it. Though she doesn't bike tour with it.

I'd also consider a tablet and a bluetooth keyboard depending on what specifically you intend to do with it.
 
First: why not power the laptop from the same source as whatever you're using to recharge your ebike batteries? Assuming you're stopped and doing that anyway, whenever using the laptop.


Whichever one you get, if it's windows10, if you go here:
http://www.blackviper.com/service-configurations/black-vipers-windows-10-service-configurations/
and disable the list of services they show you don't need for your particular usage needs, it'll decrease your power usage, possibly enough to significantly extend battery life. It will probably also significantly speed up the computer as a whole.

(I did the "gaming" configuration, IIRC, and AFAICT it more than doubled the responsiveness of the system to my input. However, I don't see a list of different configurations there anymore, so you might have to figure it out on your own. However, here:
https://github.com/madbomb122/BlackViperScript
you can create/restore your own configurations or use theirs; I have not tried this tool).


Running the screen at lower brightness can also make big difference, even if it's LED vs CCFL backlight.

Disabling the camera hardware can save power; may have to go into the BIOS to do that.

If you don't use BT disable that, too, and same with wifi.
 
parajared said:
How's you eyesight, a fold-out keyboard for your smart phone maybe? That's what I would use.

... to edit video and images? Really?
 
vja4Him said:
Which laptop would you recommend for bicycle touring ?

Dell XPS13. Very light/small, solid state drive, great display. Available with a range of drive sizes/screen resolutions.
 
I'd look at Android tablets too. Much lighter than a laptop, some really good video and photo editing software available for them, and power usage that will embarrass any Windows computer. Bring along a bluetooth mouse and/or keyboard for use when required.

They haven't really made any technological leaps in the past couple of years, neither have Windows PCs for that matter, and you can get a really good deal on these things used. Generally very lightly used.
 
The new Surface Go looks to be about the right form factor. https://www.wired.com/story/surface-go-microsofts-big-bet-on-a-tiny-computer-future/
 
billvon said:
vja4Him said:
Which laptop would you recommend for bicycle touring ?

Dell XPS13. Very light/small, solid state drive, great display. Available with a range of drive sizes/screen resolutions.

I second this, it is very nice, battery life is excellent, runs Linux perfectly. But, if I were bike packing I'd take an Ipad and a bluetooth keyboard, especially if you are planning on camping. Android tablets are for masochists.
 
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