what kind of laptop to take on trip

[waddyjune]

I'm taking a 14 day trip to Hawaii and want to get a small, light weight laptop to store photos. I don't want to do any kind of major editing but would like it powerful enough to use Lightroom 3. I really need to travel as light as possible. Any suggestions?

[Kamal M]

If its in budget, a Macbook Air would be pretty good.

[vsa]

I'd say go for any new netbook/minipc with enough disk space you think you'll need (most are 160gb or above.. the new ones at least) and save the editing till you get back home. Most affordable ones start around 250$ or so.

Macbook Air is hella expensive and you could get a rather good full size laptop or desktop with that kind of money. Lightroom specs say that minimum requirement is 2GB of RAM which Air just covers. And if this is just for a trip I'd rather not spend 1000+ dollars on a laptop. Don't get me wrong, Macbook Air is a good laptop. I just wouldn't get one for a trip or even as a photo editing machine.

But if you really really want to use the Lightroom during the trip you could get a netbook that has 2GB of RAM for half the amount Macbook Air costs.

[Quo Fan]

I'm currently in Hawaii, just north of Hale'iwa, and I brought my Toshiba 17" laptop. I also have my Colorspace photo backup device that I'm dumping my cards to.

[waddyjune]

Thanks for the input. I will check out the net book/ sounds perfect. I don't want to spend lots of cash on a laptop. I would much prefer putting it into a new lens.

[sk66]

What's your backup plan while away? I copied files to the HD and backed up to a portable drive. If you are relying heavily on the laptop I would recommend a SSD.. And keep the copies separate while traveling!

[NightEyes]

I normally bring with me my netbook too, small, light & compact.

[ill_noize]

A great site for deals on anything "nerdy" is techbargains.com Check them out. I would definitely choose something a bit bigger than a network. I would say a laptop maybe 12 to 13 inches. Compact, but not too small to work on.

[vsa]

Originally Posted by ill_noize

A great site for deals on anything "nerdy" is techbargains.com Check them out. I would definitely choose something a bit bigger than a network. I would say a laptop maybe 12 to 13 inches. Compact, but not too small to work on.

Depends on what you use the photos for but I'd say that 12/13" is still too small to work with. Maybe I'm just accustomed to larger resolutions but when working with photos you need at least 19" monitor. Just my opinion, maybe someone can work with a small laptop screen. I can't.