I’ve recently tried going cold turkey – traveling for business without a laptop – accompanied with just a smartphone and tablet of the common fruit variety (hint, hint). This left me feeling liberated on one hand from lugging a lot of heavy, bulky and power hungry hardware, but, on the other hand, with a sense that I was missing a lot of functionality. The basics of communication are covered, email, text, social media sites, all play very well in the tablet and smartphone arena. The coolness, newness, hype, call it what you will factor of purely using tablets and smartphones is still present but fading fast. So, essentially, what you’re left is a sinking realization that your laptop is not going away soon after all. I was still reaching for a “ghost” mouse and pulling my hair in frustration while trying to edit what seemed a simple spreadsheet. I found creating a diagram, despite the help from some polished apps, to be simply too laborious.
Conclusion. Traveling for business without your trusty laptop, mouse, and a suite of your favorite desktop software is like arriving at a vacation destination only to learn that the airline lost your luggage. Yes, off course, you will still get through it and have a solid time. But, you will be reminded, constantly, that you’re missing some comfy essentials that you’re just too used to, perhaps even slightly dependent on.