Best device while travelling?

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17 Jan 2014
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I'm off travelling for a few months and I need to take a device for web browsing, emailing, and updating my CV while looking for work. What would be the best solution?
 
get yourself a cheap tablet. easy to carry and use and you won't be that bothered if something happens to it (i left one in a hotel i never got back). Put it in a plastic waterproof sealed bag and your all set even throwing it into a backpack
 
full desktop setup in the back of a van, of course. :p
With 2 monitors of course. ;)

Ok, so it looks like either a smartphone or tablet. I've been researching 10-11" netbooks too, but it seems like they're being replaced with tablets.

How practical are both for creating a CV and basic documents, and for transferring files onto and off of them? Currently I create my CV in Illustrator and export/email as a .pdf. Though Word (.doc) would be fine.
 
I'd suggest a laptop for this. As much as tablets are nice if you need to edit your CV and upload it to application sites it can be quite a faff on a mobile device.
 
I can only speak for my experience with an iPad, but as an example theres no way of saving documents easily so when you hit the "browse" button to upload your CV to an application site you would have no where to go. The vast majority of jobs I've ever applied for all need CV's to be in .doc or .docx format so you need to be able to edit / save / upload these on the go. Even just simply things like not having a full keyboard make it more of a faff on a tablet. This is before you get into the more specific issues like how utterly appaling some companies website are when it comes to handling different borwsers, let alone the mobile browsers on tablets.

The situation might be better on Android, but I would just want to avoid the situation of coming across the perfect job that you cant apply for as the website only works in IE. With that in mind I'd never consider going for anything but a laptop. If you were just travelling I'd say a tablet, but its the handling CV's / applications side of it that means you really need Windows, Internet Explorer, and an Office suite.

Unfortunately I can't link to the type of laptop I would suggest as Overclockers dont stock any below the £700 mark and I cant link to competitors. Something like the Asus X200CA would be my choice. 11.6" screen, dual core celeron, 4GB of RAM and 500Gb HDD should be plenty powerful enough.
 
Thanks. I was concerned about not being able to save files to the device, but I wasn't sure if it was true. Can you not save files to the internal hard-drive then?

I don't mind using a Microsoft Word alternative for creating CVs. I'll seriously consider a laptop, but can anyone help with Android or other tablets?
 
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