Julie’s gadget diary – Thinking about buying a new laptop (or tablet) for my next trip

I had to take Jeanne to the hospital this morning for surgery to have her gallbladder removed. I went back and forth last night trying to decide if I wanted to lug my 13″ MacBook Pro with me, my Samsung Galaxy S Tab 10.5 or just my phone which is currently the LG G6 which I'm reviewing.

But I knew that I wanted to do a little Gadgeteer writing while I was waiting for her surgery to finish, so I didn't want to just rely on my phone. So the internal struggle was really just about the full sized MBP laptop and the Android tablet.

I ended up leaving the MBP at home and took the Galaxy S Tab. I really enjoy the S Tab, but that's only when I'm playing on it. By "playing", I mean a few games of Words with Friends, catching up on my Feedly RSS feeds, Instagram, and stuff like that.

When I tired of those tasks and decided that I wanted to dig into some email reading and writing, and Gadgeteer writing, I started getting a little frustrated with the tablet's lack of a physical keyboard. I even complained in real time about it with Dave Rees via Google Hangouts.

If you read the chat transcript above (click for a bigger view), you can see that I had a few typos. That's because tablet touch style keyboards are a  big pain in the… fingers! I'm a really good touch typist, but only on a physical keyboard.

It's great to be able to share the same first world problems over and over again with Dave. Let's just say that after years of being friends, he just gets me when it comes to gadgets. Probably because he keeps dealing with the same issues as far as the best devices for travel.

See this:   Julie's gadget diary - Using the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 (Day 1-3)

My problem is that I really want to make a tablet work for me and just can't seem to let go of that dream. I continue to revisit this same question every year about this time. What's so special about this time of year? It's a few weeks before our first vacation which we always take in May. Vacations require planning. Jeanne plans where we'll go and planning for me involves the gear that I plan to take with me.

I've tried the iPad Pro, a Windows Surface Pro, and a Samsung Galaxy S Tab. It's time to FINALLY find an ultra light weight laptop with a full sized keyboard that lets me use the laptop on my lap and not just on a table.

Although I'm not a huge fan of Windows 10, I can deal with it if the solution is a better buy than Dave's suggestion of a used 12″ MacBook.

It's time to start researching options before I run out of time before the trip. Wish me luck!

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