Tech on tour - bring a netbook or no?

[FlightRisk]

So this touring thing - fuck it, imma do it!

Now do I bring a laptop or not? I have a cheap one it wouldn't crush me to lose or break but I can't charge it on the bike and to be honest I don't really want to bring one. I wouldn't mind leaving all that kind of thing behind and don't want to have to worry about looking after 'valueables'.
I'm already thinking: "Camera? Groan... do I have to?"
So don't you say?

Yeah maybe but is it practical to get by with just a phone? For potentially booking ferries, finding campsites, AirBnBs, and all that stuff you mind find yourself doing?
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Honda CB500S

[zico]

I guess it depends on what phone you have, the phone could also be used as a camera. I'd happily set off with just my iPhone as my only gadget.
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Suzuki SV650S

[Lupo]

For stuff like that a phone is more than enough, when I travel I carry a tablet for entertainment, few books, movies a couple of games on it, I also use it to browse the internet with the phone as a wifi hotspot. For charging it I carry something similar to this:

https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/our-offers-2491.htm?action=showDetail&id=33667&ar=1
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A por ellos, que son pocos y cobardes.

[BTTD]

Taking a tablet or laptop would be useful for checking weather, planning routes, email, checking events that are on in towns, opening times of places, finding hotels or campsites for the next day, changing ferry bookings etc.
You can do 90% of this on a decent phone.

Reasons not to take it come down to packing space, weight, and whether you're going to use it much. I've never bothered, but I don't back up loads of video of my travels or write a blog about my amazing life.

[G]

Many phones have very respectable cameras; just limited in telephoto ability. I took a netbook for watching films, writing and reading ebooks. I'd consider either a windows 10 tablet with keyboard (got one for £100 recently) or an android tablet with separate keyboard if you want to do lots of writing. Or consider getting one of the big android phones as a half way house if you're not sure.

[pepperami]

I`ve never taken a internet capable phone or tablet or laptop on any of my little jaunts.
I managed to come back in one piece .

What I did do was pre-book and plan before I started my tour, it worked for me.
The only tech that goes with me are my £9.99 supermarket phone and my sat-nav.
Both take up very little space and the sat-nav has always got me to my destination eventualy .

I think it is a case of where are you going and for how long?
Me, I spend my time in Blighty, oop North, and Scotishland and as such am never too far from civilisation.

If you`re not bothered about taking pictures to show others, why take a camera, less to worry about and less to carry.

EDIT : as for low tech, I always take an A5 size A-to-Z book of Great Britain with me on every trip.
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I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[JoeDaStudd]

A decent smartphone will do what your after.

If you want to do real browsing, ebooks or watching videos then a tablet will be a more practical choice without you really need a physical keyboard.

[G]

Something to have a copy of the service manuals on also useful.

[chickenstrip]

[pepperami]

[-Matt-]

Old samsung s3 has done me okay so far for everything.

Camera (although not the best quality).
Satnav app.
PDF manual.
Internet etc.

3 network has been quite good with it too as lots of countries now use the same data-package you would back home so you don't get massive roaming charges with them.

Also like that it has removable batteries; have about 6 that cost less than a tenner so even if I can't charge the phone for a few days its constantly got power, although I guess power-packs/wiring it to the bike would stop that being an issue for other phones if needed.

[G]

I wired up a power system to charge the laptop, phone, cameras etc while riding - and to power the pump as needed.

[almostthere]

an android tablet is what you need it's not much fun watching porn on a smartphone
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Beer, It's the reason I get up every afternoon
www.mfairco.uk

[Enduro Numpty]

I take a small netbook on holiday when we go abroad. Use it to find accommodation and do routes for sat nav. Could do the accommodation by smart phone but prefer a decent sized screen and the phone is useless (or maybe I'm useless with it) for the routes I want to do.

[FlightRisk]

[-Matt-]

I use Navmii which is free; although I haven't used it that much in Europe to give a review on the quality of the maps - runs off openstreetmap.

All the map packs were free when I downloaded it (think there was a 30 day free-downloads and pay for future updates sort of offer).

Some of them are quite large files though so it might not suit all phones - I think France was around 800mb for example.

[G]

You can get 19v laptop adaptors to run from 12v vehicle systems - I used just such a one to keep the netbook I was using charged.

[doggone]

A netbook would be useful if you had a lot of photos and/or video to backup or download.
You could do this to a tablet if it had SD slot I guess.
I'd probably buy additional SD cards now they are cheap and manage with a phone or tablet.
There will be free wifi in plenty of places other than hotels, apart from mentioned phone hotspot.

[G]

Yes - plenty of phones will take 128gb cards.
Also you can get 'on the go' USB sticks in big sizes for not too much.

[Dave V4]

i have always taken a laptop of some sort with me, used to be a note book tpe thing but that was way to slow, now i just take a cheap 14"jobby i bought 2nd hand but it has a pretty good processor. i use it for map updates(using Tyre To Travel) to transfer to satnav and to upload camera footage from the day, I will usualy put a few movies on there aswell before i leave home.

[c-m]

For booking ferries a laptop is much better than a phone.

For hotels through booking.com, airbnb etc.. then a phone is fine.

For doing anything with photos, or blogging a laptop wins.

Watching movies when stuck inside on shitty day or waiting for ferries, then a tablet or laptop wins.

If using basecamp for planning your route and whatnot, then you'll need a laptop for that too. That's more applicable on long trips though compared to 2 weeks across the channel.

[TCFA]

I got by with the iPhone for booking hotels, changing chunnel times, dicking around on Facebook and planning routes. Not saying a tablet wouldn't have been easier, but I got by just fine. and I felt less obvious when sitting in the restaurant / bar in the evening planning the next day's destination.

And then a decent compact camera
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Then: Kawasaki ZZR250 > Suzuki Across 250 > Suzuki SV650 > Honda CB750
Now: Honda CBR600F and Triumph Tiger 800 XRT

[spnorm]

I have an iPhone 6 Plus as its screen is just big enough to surf the net, play games or watch a film and it takes surprisingly good photos.

I still take my iPad when travelling as it's much easier to type and easier on the eyes, but I don't take it out to restaurants or bars anymore as my iPhone is fine for short periods. The iPad is great for viewing and downloading photos on tour though.

The surprising thing about Apple is their worldwide warranty. My iPad died in my tank bag on tour in the States (probably vibration and 45C temperatures) and an Apple Store in San Francisco exchanged it for a new one