Recommend me a portable computing device

Our company was acquired last fall. Yesterday was my day to get my new company laptop. It is MUCH more locked down than my previous device, and MUCH more heavily scrutinized for activities. Knowing that, I am going to bite the bullet and buy a personal portable computing device. I travel for work quite a bit, so I will be carrying my company laptop (a decent Lenovo Ultrabook) and whatever I buy, so the latter needs to be fairly light and thin.

I will be doing web surfing, internet email, video streaming, e-reading, etc. A physical keyboard would be nice but not required. I am more of a Windows person than Apple person. Recommendations for a decent machine that won't break my bank?

I'd go with a netbook. It takes a little while to get used to the small format keyboard, but they are perfect for hauling around and cheap. My Asus set me back $200 a couple of years ago.

I got an ASUS chromebook for less than 2 bills. It does all that you mentioned, and added bonus-no antivirus needed. Good for lots of stuff, and has a keyboard.

wheelsmithy wrote: I got an ASUS chromebook for less than 2 bills. It does all that you mentioned, and added bonus-no antivirus needed. Good for lots of stuff, and has a keyboard.

Chromebooks FTW. Cheap, always up-to-date, instant booting, real keyboard, and cheap.

I got a good HP laptop, nice processor, Win10, big hard drive. I rarely use it. I might start using it more once we get a shared cloud, but right now most of what we do is emailing files, so its frustrating. I download a file on the laptop at home and have to re-do everything once I get to work unless I email it to myself on the office desktop.

My android is not quite powerful enough to do all I want to do, but it suffices in a pinch. I wish I had something in the middle, so this thread is intriguing to me.

I'd get a tablet personally. I like my iPads. The Android devices I've used haven't impressed me, but they can be found cheap and be customized to do nearly anything you want.

Choose your poison, but the Amazon Fire and Samsungs are pretty highly rated and can be found for a reasonable price.

I know you're a Windows guy, but their tablets aren't terribly good compared to the other options on the market and they won't run your existing windows apps, just their own proprietary versions of apps.

Anymore, other devices are perfectly capable of reason and editing Office and PDF files, so they don't offer much on the market except access to corporate solutions like domains or internal management solutions.

Using an iPad to type this right now. I got it a couple of years ago along with a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard. It has served as my sole portable computing device since then. I like that I can sync it to my iPhone and basically always have the Internet. I also like that it's pretty, feels good to hold, and light. I can just throw it in my bag without a second thought. I dislike that it doesn't have an HDMI or USB slot and that I'm always dealing with the mobile version of software which is frequently glitchy.

I am reading that you will already be traveling with a great laptop but you want to keep your social hands off it as much as possible.

What you then need is something for social/personal while on the road in a hotel room.
I would suggest a tablet.

On occasion, like when writing a long GRM reply/dissertation, you may miss a genuine keyboard.
On those occasions, it may still be okay to use the work property since those occasions will be rare.

Get a tablet of at least 8“. I have a Samsung 9.6“ that works really well. I tend to use it most from the sofa or the bed.

For tablet specs look for a min of 1.5 gb of ram and processor of at least 1.2 Ghz. Assure that the tablet can take a micro SD card so you can expand the storage. Most Androids will meet these specs.

I would not recommend an Android tablet as your sole device but for supplemental computing they are hard to beat.

Stefan wrote: I know you're a Windows guy, but their tablets aren't terribly good compared to the other options on the market and they won't run your existing windows apps, just their own proprietary versions of apps.

Are you thinking of Windows RT tablets from like 5 years ago? That was only for ARM based tablets, which they stopped selling a few years back. Current stuff like the MS Surface are basically a laptop.

What's the budget? I'm typing this on a iPad but I still prefer laptops.

Even though my work laptop isn't locked down much, I ended buying a used Lenovo T240 for personal stuff. I'd look for one of those or a used X1 carbon.

Budget is everything.

Chromebooks are freaking amazing at $250 SurfacePro Tablets that run Win10 with a Keyboard at $1000

Chromebooks will do everything 99% of people actually use a computer for.
Another pro for the chromebook, is that all models released this year will support the google playstore.

That is the ideal scenario for an iPad.

What are the best Chromebooks on the market?

Tablet... doesn't need to be a big one either.

Love my 8" Samsung Galaxy TAB S2, which I use for everything in day to day use, including writing this right now. Have a Lenovo laptop which is mainly used for my home headphone rig and heavy photo editing.

The TAB S2 does everything a laptop does and more. Screen is absolutely gorgeous on it (plasma TV quality) great for watching HD videos/movies or light photo editing (my camera can wirelessly transfer to my tablet via the Olympus Image Share app.)

Hi-fi car audio is also extremely easy with it; outputting FLAC media through USB Audio Player Pro to Audioquest Dagonfly Red USB DAC/amp into Auxilary input on stock head unit. Stock audio systems have never sounded better, great for long road trips.

I got a Google Chromebook a few years ago and have had nothing but good experiences with it. It was a couple bills at Best Buy (don't remember exact price). I just use it for basic stuff and nothing major. It works for watching shows online and chromecasting things. Mrs. DX has an Asus notebook of some kind and has no issues with it.

This might sound left field but if you are considering something along the lines of a tablet, how about a Nook that has internet access? Looks like you could pick one up sub $50 on the Bay.

I have a Chromebook with a touchscreen and solid state drive - E36 M3 is so cash.

Also relevant to my interests. Sounds like a Chromebook would work better for my needs than an e-reader.

This is a Good deal on a very good tablet

Samsung Tab 10.1 model
Full, new price $299. This factory refurb'ed unit for $199. One 3rd off the price (and 1/3 of the warranty at 90 days vs 1 yr)
A great unit, a good price. Maybe not a great price but clearly a good price.

Have the same problem. I work for the gubmint so our laptops are extremely locked down. Can't even connect to some hotel internets and have to use a MiFi. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 10.1. Works great for traveling and I travel regularly for work. Can use a micro SD card for extra storage or movies. I chose the larger one for the bigger screen to watch movies. External keyboard is available although I prefer not to use one. Has apps that are Windows compatible for work docs. The Note uses a stylus for detail but touch screen. Same Android operating system as my Samsung Galaxy S5 phone and apps swap over. Some apps when you download onto one automatically goes to both.
Wife has an iPad. She likes it because when you change language with Apple products it all changes completely, other don't completely change. Hers is set on Korean and I can't read anything on it. Daughter has an iPad she lost to her 4yo son and is looking for another tablet now. She's thinking Android so her sons will leave it alone. At least for a while.
My mom has Surface and a Kindle Fire. She uses the Kindle more as it is easier for her to figure out. She's 80yo so she likes things simple and easy. She mainly uses it as a eReader anyway. Has a laptop for email and serious internet, shopping of course.

I always suggest chromebooks for this kind of stuff. I bought mine years ago and am using it right now. Mine is a HP 14 (with the free 200MB Tmobile 4g for life that they used to offer). We buy a lot of them at work. The recent hotness is the Acer Chromebook 14 with the aluminum body. If you go this route, get as much RAM as you can afford because it will make it last longer. The HP 14s like mine that only had 2GB of RAM are a little long in the tooth these days, but mine with 4GB is chugging along. If you like a touch screen, the Asus chrombook flip is pretty cool.

With all of that said my dad and his wife LOVE their Samsung 10" android tablets. I don't get it personally, but I never get a complaint.

On the Apple front, I used to think the iPad was too expensive. It is currently right around $300 if you shop around. If you're into that sort of thing, they are fantastic. I would avoid the mini though as its just too much money to compete with the Kindle 7". I have both a mini through work and a kindle fire at home. The ipad never gets used; the kindle fire gets used daily (books!).

I haven't played with the windows tablets much, but I hear they are nice. Cost has been my deterrent on those, and do I really want to wait for windows updates on my tablet? No.

I have a Samsung Nook tablet. Half the storage is used up by operating system. Fine for Web surfing, and watching youtube or Netflix, but the qwerty keypad has issues. Near the end of its use for me. Unless you're just gonna read things get some thing else.

this one seems to fit the bill (Windows, Light and thin, not crazy expensive): caveat, i am lightly biased, there are now two of them in my household. Great for everything you stated you need it for. (and battery life is legitimately 8h)

http://www.microcenter.com/product/461565/VivoBook_E403SA-US21_14_Laptop_Computer_-_Metallic_Gray

John Welsh wrote: This is a Good deal on a very good tablet Samsung Tab 10.1 model Full, new price $299. This factory refurb'ed unit for $199. One 3rd off the price (and 1/3 of the warranty at 90 days vs 1 yr) A great unit, a good price. Maybe not a great price but clearly a good price.

Or he could spend $30 more on a Chromebook that will have a touchpad AND a keyboard, will be able to run android apps as well as the Chrome/Google ecosystem, and will blow that tablet out of the water in terms of performance.

Autolex wrote: this one seems to fit the bill (Windows, Light and thin, not crazy expensive): caveat, i am lightly biased, there are now two of them in my household. Great for everything you stated you need it for. (and battery life is legitimately 8h) http://www.microcenter.com/product/461565/VivoBook_E403SA-US21_14_Laptop_Computer_-_Metallic_Gray

Wow, that's exactly what I've been looking for. Don't need an Core i-series processor on my personal machine, that's way overkill - but 4GB of RAM, an SSD, and a 1920x1080 screen is pretty much perfect.

I've had a series of Android tablets (because i keep breaking them ) over the last few years for general web surfing duties. Had a couple of Samsungs, then a Lenovo, now an RCA piece of crap I just bought. The Samsungs were definitely the nicest, nearly as nice as an iPad but about 75% of the cost when I bought mine. The Lenovo was maybe 90% as good as the Samsung, but seemed to have more little glitches and quirks to it. On the flip side, it had the best screen, speakers, and battery life. The RCA is like half the cost of a Samsung and, well, you get what you pay for. It feels cheap, the screen sucks, battery life is optimistically less than half that of the Lenovo, seems slower, but on the plus side it has USB and HDMI ports (none of the others did) and I think 64 gigs of storage vs 16. And I won't cry when (not if) it breaks.