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by faceponder
4558 days ago
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I've been looking into buying a Chromebook for some backpacking I'll be doing in Southeast Asia this summer. The portability and battery life are a big plus, and I like that the devices are cheap enough that I wouldn't have to worry about it getting damaged. However, I've also been considering getting an iPad mini instead. Anyone with experience traveling with these devices care to share some input? Specifically, would a Chromebook still be useful (and worth the weight) if I might only have WiFi a couple times per week? |
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But...
My Samsung charger is a brick. Not sure about Asus. Battery life on ARM is 4-5 hrs, Intel better at 5-7hrs, but still no match against the tablets.
For portability, you may be better off with a smaller tablet: Nexus 7 or iPad mini plus keyboard.
I would give the edge to Android for easy access to the filesystem unless you jailbreak iOS.
My Nexus 7 also runs vim with plugins: https://github.com/momodalo/vimtouch_fullruntime, Firefox and BitTorrent Sync same as the chromebook.
Running vim on a Nexus 7 is a dream; the only hassle is pairing the bluetooth keyboard (another thing to carry with AAA batteries) and a OTG cable dongle if you transfer files to usb flash.
It sends/receives files with NFC, bluetooth, BTSync and USB flash drives via Nexus Media Importer http://nexususb.blogspot.com/2012/08/welcome.html
My iPad can't do that.
It all depends what you want to do with the device.
One thing i like about tablets though is they are quick data capture devices: secondary camera, Swype like virtual keyboard faster that typing and paint/sketching.
Imagine trying to swivel a Chromebook's stanky front facing VGA cam to take a picture if your camera lost power.
If you're travelling that may be a consideration.