My Travel Gear

I am constantly evolving my travel gear setup. To be clear, I optimize for weight and volume. Heck, my recent decision to move from an old 13" MacBook Air to a 15" model was a slog. I stood in the Apple Store for an hour weighing (literally) the options. So just know that travel gear always involves compromise, and I will always optimize for weight and volume… and the 15" laptop was a massive departure because I just can’t live without the screen real estate.

Please, drop a comment if you’ve found something that works better for you!

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Laptop

As mentioned, I’m on an Apple MacBook Air 15" M2. I dig the new design, and this lack of optimization for weight and volume was entirely due to the screen size. I spent a long time opening the apps I use, a couple of which don’t optimize well on a 13" screen (e.g., sidebars don’t work correctly, main content area is too narrow, etc). I do like the new design’s addition of a MagSafe port, leaving me with 2 USB-C ports at all times.

Bag

A Tumi Alpha Bravo Academy Brief in Navy. I won’t even pretend this wasn’t a splurge, because Tumi, but it was my major Christmas gift last year after I saw it in an airport store and firmly decided it was more than I’d spend on a bag. I love it for the two quick-access zipper pockets on the front and the slip-your-phone-in-as-you-go-through-PreCheck pocket on the front-middle. It holds the laptop, a Kindle, and my little kit of charger and cable very nicely, and I love the shape and color. It’s designed to slip over a wheel-aboard suitcase handle, which simplifies traversing the airport.

Chargers

OK, this is where I really go down a rabbit hole, and I get that.

First, my “main” charger is this ESR 3-in-one. It’s very compromise-y, in that the Apple Watch bit is actually a standalone USB-C charging puck that plugs into it, but it folds very flat and does my iPhone (sideways, in Nightstand mode), AirPods, and Apple Watch. It runs on USB-C itself, which is nice, and it charges at full Qi speed, which is “nice” but not a huge deal, because I’m always charging overnight anyway.

That gets powered by the Apple Dual USB-C charger that came with my laptop. That said, my spouse just got the same charger without a laptop, because it’s (A) small, and (B) doesn’t fall out of wall sockets like some other dual chargers do—it hugs the wall a bit more, so it supports itself a bit better. And it’s obviously super-reliable. I’ve tried other GaN chargers, and they’re fine, but this one’s profile makes me like it.

In addition to my MagSafe-USB-C cable, I also carry this guy. This is not optimal, but it powers the ESR charger via USB-C, and gives me a Lightning Plug for my MagSafe battery, because Apple is in a very awkward plug transition phase. Also my AirPods Max if I’m on a long trip and have taken those for use on the plane, which is also very conflicting because they’re huge (they were a gift; I can’t say I love them more than the Bose QCs I used to the point of death).

I am in the midst of deciding if I can drop the MagSafe cable, actually. In theory, I could charge the laptop via the same USB-C extensible cable, and then use a very short USB-C cable from the laptop’s other port to the ESR charger, but I need to test that out. It’d mean dropping one not-huge piece of kit.

Batteries

On some trips, I lug along this massive chunk of battery, because it’ll power my laptop, but holy heck does it weigh a lot. Otherwise, I’ve been using an Apple MagSafe Battery, which “meh.” It’s fine, and I use it a lot if I’ve been watching videos on the plane, but it’s Lightning, which is why I have the whole bulky connector cable situation above.

I need to get with it and look for a similarly-sized option that has USB-C instead, and ideally has a kickstand, because right now I can’t use my Belkin MagSafe kickstand at the same time. Also, I think I’ve run like a zillion cycles on the MagSafe battery over a couple of phones and it’s starting to show it. Would love suggestions, but it needs to support decent charging rates so it can “keep up” with the power drain of watching movies on the plane.

And… yes, I could just rely on my Giant Battery Brick and a cable, but… I’d rather not. As I board, Itend to get all my movie-watching stuff in a pants pocket so I don’t have to fumble with anything on the plane, and a phone and a battery and a cable is a lot. And I won’t rely on airplane power plugs, because what a craps shoot that is.