Looking for a travel work laptop

The Surface devices are great (I actually just bought a SL 7 today because BestBuy put it on an early Black Friday special), but they are great because of their mobility and battery life. If you're just shoving something onto your desk, sacrifice form factor for better value on core components.

Because it's literally the opposite of what I was shopping for, I can't really be of much help on the details, but just something to keep in mind.

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The Surface devices are great (I actually just bought a SL 7 today because BestBuy put it on an early Black Friday special), but they are great because of their mobility and battery life. If you're just shoving something onto your desk, sacrifice form factor for better value on core components. Because it's literally the opposite of what I was shopping for, I can't really be of much help on the details, but just something to keep in mind.

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Portability is huge. This is my travel laptop. I have a beast setup at my desk. This is to use a few weekends a year simply to remote into my powerhouse desktop.

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Portability is huge. This is my travel laptop. I have a beast setup at my desk. This is to use a few weekends a year simply to remote into my powerhouse desktop.

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I'm an idiot; I read your OP completely backwards. Then I've only had it for 24 hours, but so far I very much like the Surface Laptop 7. But for alternatives, check out this thread I posted a couple of months ago:

Favorite Thin and Light Laptop Chassis

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Lenovo has a nice sale on its laptops

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Lenovo is making the best laptops right now. They use to have annoying chargers but now it’s just standard usbc. Thin lightweight great specs. Hard to imagine buying anything else.

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Lenovo is making the best laptops right now. They use to have annoying chargers but now it’s just standard usbc. Thin lightweight great specs. Hard to imagine buying anything else.

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I’ll be curious to see how much longer laptop manufacturers keep insisting on bundling proprietary power solutions. A super basic USB-C cable can handle 100w, which would cover 99% of laptops. And I have to think it’s more cost effective to bundle an appropriately rated wall adapter than to keep using unwieldy cable with integrated PSU. As someone who just bought a Surface Laptop, I’m sure Microsoft is going to hold onto its “but look, it’s magnetic! If you trip on it it will just pop out!” nonsense for a while, but anyone with the old style barrel connector should move on asap.

I’m exactly the same. Wouldn’t have pulled the trigger on the Surface Laptop if I couldn’t charge it via USB-C as well. This year in particular, I’ve tried to really distill my tech traveling habits to a science. This is my current run:

This cable: LINK

With this wall adapter: LINK

And this magnetic wireless battery backup: LINK

That combination can charge every device I have: earbuds, phone, paperwhite, and laptop. When I get to the hotel, I plug in the cable and the battery next to the bed. I use the battery as the equivalent of a MagSafe charger for my phone when not in use (it can charge and be charged simultaneously), use it to top off in airports if needed, and pop it in my bag for the day if I think phone battery will be an issue. Otherwise it just stays by the bed.

It’s worked amazingly well. The only alteration I’m likely to make is to upgrade the wall adapter to at least 40w (Surface Laptop pulls 39w max) once Anker, or someone else, puts out an equally small version in a light color. Anker has roughly what I want (LINK ) but only in black thus far, and I’m currently unwilling to trade the 10w to have to deal with fishing for a tiny black cube in black bags

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I’m currently unwilling to trade the 10w to have to deal with fishing for a tiny black cube in black bags

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i get this. What I actually do to help is before putting it into my bag I plug both ends of my usb-c cable, which is blue, into the brick (has 2 usb-c and a usb-a) and bundle the cable up with the velcro strap. That way I just have to reach into my bag and pretty quickly I either feel the cable or brick and both pull out together. dont even have to look but the blue cable stands out if I do.

edit: oh i see the 45W only has one port so might not work as well. Another thing I like about their 67W - 120W GaN bricks is they have multiple ports so I can charge more than one thing at a time by just adding small short cable to my kit.

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edit: oh i see the 45W only has one port so might not work as well. Another thing I like about their 67W - 120W GaN bricks is they have multiple ports so I can charge more than one thing at a time by just adding small short cable to my kit.

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I prefer the single port because it reduces the size of the adapter and reduces the number of people who want to steal half my charging bandwidth

The earbuds, laptop, and paperwhite all have extremely long battery life. The phone is the only real risk of single day drain. And because I both have the battery pack as well as could theoretically charge the phone with the laptop, multiple ports just aren’t a priority for me, personally.