What type of computer do you travel with?

What type of computer do you travel with?

What's the ideal size, type, brand etc. for someone regularly on the road?

I develop software for a living and spend a good few days on the road for conferences/meetings and working out of foreign offices.

If i need to work, and i need the power i travel with a 15" macbook pro retina. It is heavy enough to be annoying for carry on but the screen is lovely. It is a tight fit to use in Y/Y+ but most J seats have a table big enough to fit it these days.

If i don't need the extra power i absolutly *love* my macbook air 13" i have often had to stop to double check it is in my carry on. It is small enough that it can just fit in about most econamy seats (a struggle if the seat in front is reclined). The battery life is the best feature will last with usage for a day. Where as most other laptops i have had ended up lasting for about 4-5 hours.

I also have a thinkpad, but it is large and bulky and the last time i had to travel with it i ended up checking it. 

Let not to open holy war here. I do development on BOTH Windows and Apple. Both have strengths and weaknesses. As developer I tend to like Mac more – no mucking around, just one excellent tool and incredibly limited hardware that makes developer’s life far easier. While as a user I tend to like Windows more – FAR more variety of software, especially freeware and of course plethora of interesting hardware to play with. Speedwise I have 3yo (I think more) HP that has similar specs to your Macbook pro. Just cost twice less. Before it I use to have hi-spec Fujitsu in carbonfibre case. It was lighter then any Mackbook of the time. Retina display is really nice to look at, but….. IMHO fairly useless for anyone except of perhaps photographers. It is definitely useless for developer or office worker – I will trade it for bigger screen with lower resolution in single heartbeat. In fact I use my laptop screen only when I have to – much more prefer big desktop unit. In short there is nothing special about Apple, except perhaps pricetag.

So to OP. If I travel for business I have no choice, but use my 15” workhorse. And I indeed hate to carry it. Having two laptops is not an option – it getting VERY messy from sync point of view. So whenever I can I carry just iPod Mini – plenty enough for getting touch on the road. Working on the plane? I mean really working, not mucking around? Give me a brake! If one fly MEL-SYD and must finish something before meeting with customer, then he cannot manage his time. And on long route if I can get business I will rather battle jet lag and came to that meeting in relatively good shape. In economy it is impossible to work at all. Period.

YMMV though.

An Ultrabook, specifically a Toshiba Z930, which weighs 1.3kg, has a 13" screen and gives me a good 8hrs battery life. Also one of the few Ultrabooks with a proper RJ45 (network) connector - most need adapters.

I will also generally travel with my Nexus7 2013 which has some IFE preloaded

A 13" Sony Vaio Z Series ultraportable.

13" MacBook Pro with retina for me. 8hrs battery life powerful enough for what I want to do with it and still fairly lightweight. 1.5kg. 

13 inch MacBook Air here. I think any of the 'ultrabook' breed are a perfect fit for business travellers: slim, superlight, enough power for day-to-day apps and oodles of battery life.

13"MacBook Pro for me,long battery life and reasonably light.

The Toshiba Portege series are excellent, especially the Z930, or the earlier Z830 (which I have).  The best feature is that it's lightweight at 1.3kg, is thin, yet has an optical drive.  It's available with a 500GB SSD, which I have, and it flies.

Yep, SSD is most important for laptop - not only make it looking twice faster, but also consume bugger off battery. I upgraded mone recently and it the best upgrade so far

13" Macbook Pro (used since Jan 2010) and it's great. Have had the HDD cable burn out 5 times, 1 HDD failure and a Ram Failure (All at the same time) but I got a new Hard Drive and Ram for free when I told them how many times I'd had problems with it. It's fairly light (only 2kg) and small enough to use in enconomy. Macs are also easy to use.

13" MacBook Pro.

13 inch Asus Zenbook here, but thinking of getting whatever the modern equivalent of a transformer is (ie: PC/Tablet)  in a year or so. Another important reason SSD is best for air travel is that HDD heads float on a microscopic cushion of air and in the lower cabin pressure, they float even closer to the platter (Contrary to popular belief, HDDs are not airtight, but they have tiny vents which equalise inside/outside pressure, but are very well filtered). Combine the low air pressure with the vibrations of air travel, unexpected bumps from turbulence and seat neighbours, and head crashes are far more likely than on the ground. SSDs do not have this problem.
That being said, I don't use it on the plane anyway. I watch videos on my tablet and only go near anything work related in the hotel room, lounge or whatever at the other end.

Acer Aspire S7 10.6in, i5, 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1kg, 1920x1080 Multi gesture touch screen, backlit keyboard, second bulky battery. Sexy and functional, I love mine. It's even got enough grunt to run some VMs. This ultrabook is under-rated.