Shopping for a "travel" PC that holds up on the road.

[jcirner]

Hey riders!
I'm currently shopping for a small, lightweight, rugged travel PC that I can take on the road in my side case.  Before you suggest a tablet I have specific needs for specific apps so a tablet is out of the equation.  Here is my short list:
11-12" screen
USB port
HDMI port
SD Card Reader
I run primarily BaseCamp, Google Earth, GMail, Sling TV, GoPro Quik. 
I'm thinking solid state might not be a bad investment.  All constructive input is appreciated.
JC   

[stevegrab]

John,

I'd talk to Woovis he's pretty well versed in this stuff. I recently bought an HP (larger and not solid state drive) for home use and use a tablet for travels.

[Steve]

More importantly, is a good protective sleeve to reduce vibrations from the road and bike.
Steve

[Patmo]

I have a Lenovo that has the ports your looking for.  I’m not sure about the SD card reader though, I don’t think it has that.  I got it primarily to take on bike trips because it can run Basecamp, unlike my IPad or a Chromebook.   It’s lightweight and seems pretty sturdy.  I pack in with my clothes, so it has a lot of cushion around it.  Fits in my side or top boxes easily.  Bought through Amazon for a couple of hundred dollars.

[jcirner]

All good stuff guys.  Thanks.  Looking at the Samsung Chromebook 3 and checking prices.  A beefy travel case will definitely be in order.  Still open to feedback
JC

[Patmo]

I don’t think that basecamp will run on the chrome operating system.

[erniee]

I just returned a Samsung chrome book because I could not get base camp to run on it. My Schuberth headset program would not work ether. Both needed windows to operate.

[NinjaBob]

My Microsoft surface is solid state and runs Basecamp and Mapsource and any other windows program. It seems pretty sturdy. Has a USB port but no HDMI or card reader

[jcirner]

Whoa … pumping the brakes on the Chromebook!  Thanks for saving me the headache!
JC

[stevegrab]

Regarding a card reader, you can get one that works via USB, my brother Richard showed me a cool one he got (forget where, he might remember) that took a micro SD card (slides right into the USB plug).

That should work well for transferring files, less so for regular use (may stick out some).


My ASUS tablet has an SD card reader and I use it frequently to get videos off the GoPro cards. But it did did not have a USB port, does have a micro USB plug (used for power as well) and I bought a cable to plug USB in, mostly used for a USB flash drive (again off loading videos or other files). Since it is not windows it did not work with a USB hard drive (or was taking too long trying to scan it for content).

This tablet also had HDMI (but a mini/micro version, I bought a cable and have used to plug into TV for various uses). It has been a great tool for MC travel and I'll continue to use it. (Don't need/use Basecamp on the road. If I need custom routes I'll create them manually in my GPS.)

One lesson I learned was to do a bit more research, this tablet came recommended by a friend and has been a great tool. But I found after buying it that the version of Chrome cannot be updated. That has not presented any problems in the 5+ years I've been using it, it has the apps I need, I can still get on most websites and such.