Leaving the laptop at home

I presently use a HP Omen laptop that I got from Thing 2 when she moved onto the Apple ecosystem.  It's quite a capable laptop but also quite heavy, especially since I use it mainly to process pictures while on the road.  Weight: 5.56 lbs!

Martha and I are leaving in a couple of weeks for a long trip overseas, more on that next month.  Logistics dictate of course that the less weight one has to schlep around, the better!

At first, I was going to share the use of Martha's IPad Air tablet.  Nice hardware but the Apple ecosystem's UI and I do not get along and trials proved it to be still true.  Very frustrating for me to use their "intuitive" interface!  

So, I thought I'd get my own tablet, a Samsung Tab perhaps.  Nice reviews but slightly pricey, not horrendous but being the cheap bastard that I am....it gave me pause.

Then, I thought, why not just an external monitor and keyboard?  After all, that's all I was trying for, a larger display than the one on my Samsung S24+ phone to process pictures on.

A little research, some shopping on Amazon and I got these for the trip and possibly for future camping trips as well.

First, a 15.6" external monitor which can be powered via a USB C cable from the phone or its own USB power cube.  It's not a touchscreen since I didn't have that functionality with the laptop and yes, I'm cheap.

I believe I can connect to it wirelessly as well but haven't explored that function yet, it would save the power drain on the smartphone I suppose.  Update: no, I can't connect wirelessly, however, you can use the power USB-C port for the power cube, connect the smartphone to the other USB-C port and it'll charge the phone at same time.  Good deal.

It proved larger than I thought but still fits in the laptop bag, and comes with its own cover to protect the screen while traveling; and serve as a stand when being used.  It weighs 1.36 lbs, a saving of 4.2 lbs.  Not bad.

The second thing was a foldable external keyboard with a track pad so I don't have to worry about using a mouse.  Note: it appears I could have used the smart phone's trackpad function somehow as well but that's for future exploration. (This turns out less useful than previously thought, in my case)

The keyboard connects via Bluetooth and so far, seems to be working fine.  I'm typing this post on it as you might be assuming.  It's something new to me to use the trackpad on the right side but I'm sure I'll get used to it.  It weighs 7.3 oz.

So both items come to just over 2 lbs.  Cost was almost $95 but using credit card points got it all for about $31.  Not bad and it warms the cockles of a cheap bastard's heart.

There's a learning curve here as well with these devices and the Android ecosystem but nothing frustrating so far.  The cat is playing with all the cables and packing materials so I'll end this post here.