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Need a long battery life 'writing system' for outside ... suggestions?

M

Maverick2002

Diamond Member
With summer coming soon, I'm going to be doing a lot of writing outside on my patio/by the pool. I have a laptop, but it's not that great in daylight (too dim even when plugged in), especially when I'm wearing sunglasses. Not to mention battery life is insufficient.

I literally just need something that has basic word processing and USB file transfer onto PC. If I could have wifi on it, even better, but not required. I have a Kindle touch that I love and its screen 'brightness' is perfect, so I'm looking for something with competitive clarity.

Price range: lower the better since I don't require much.

I'm guessing I'm looking at a netbook with good battery life and a bright screen?

This is a bit of a long shot, but hopefully someone has a suggestion or 2.

TIA
 
Pad of paper + scanner?

The e-ink Kindles have an image based on light reflecting off of it, just like real ink and paper. That works much better in bright light than the LCD screens for laptops and tablets which use projected light.
 
Maybe just get a very long extension cord + an IPS based laptop?

The probelm is that brightness kills battery time.
 
Buy a used truck battery and an inverter and charger, power your laptop for days.

Then you just need some sort of parasol to keep the direct sunlight off your screen.
 
I bought a Samsung series 3 Chromebook for this kind of thing. It's not for those who are oblivious of or terrified by the chrome ecosystem, but if you can cope with that they have a fantastic keyboard, ~8hr battery life, light weight, and run extremely cool/quiet (fanless) to make lap-work comfortable. The matte screen won't be confused with an X230 IPS, but I have no trouble using it outside in the sunlight.
 
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[thread=2308014]I just got[/thread] an ASUS Transformer. The keyboard's not great IMHO - though I haven't bought a laptop in almost 8 years so maybe they all have undersized chiclet keyboards now? Anyway the good part is the battery life: 15 hours with tablet and keyboard together! And the brightness seems quite sufficient: I have mine at 30% and it's brighter than the desktop monitor I'm using now.
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far. I thought about paper & scanner, but my handwriting is so bad (and SO slow, I've spent more time in my life typing than writing) that I don't think any program could accurately transcribe what I jot.

I have given some thought to a Chromebook and they're only what like $250? The brightness thing (think poolside with sunglasses on) is going to be the big deal maker/breaker.
 
Transformer Prime/TF300 (whichever is on sale) plus dock, or Samsung Chromebook.

Fanless ARM is the only way to go.
 
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