Laptop Gadgets for a Round the World Trip

What gadgets would you take on a Round the World trip? My wife and I recently compiled a listing for our round-the-world trip we leave on tomorrow morning.

To start with, we both blog and knew we needed a laptop. We wanted the Dell m1330 but apparently you have to order the “world’s thinnest laptop” months in advance as we ordered the laptop on 7/3 and delivery was set for 8/24! We opted for an HP Pavilion laptop. The laptop has a 13.3″ swivel screen. While it’s not a touchscreen, the swivel would allow us close the laptop with the screen outwards so we can watch movies in less space. The laptop weighs only 4 pounds with an optical drive in the laptop which both were requirements of ours. Of course bluetooth, wireless and wired networking, USB, etc… are included.

Since my wife doesn’t like touchpads, we purchased a Kensington Ci75m Wireless mouse. We opted for this mouse because it can be wireless or wired. While one use for this functionality is to recover from batteries dying, changing the mouse to wired is also necessary on our 15 hour flight to Tokyo because USB wireless/bluetooth devices are not approved for airplane use.

We also purchased an Auto/Air/AC adapter for the laptop since we’ll encounter AC power and Empower on the international flights as well as AC power in the hotels we’ll stay in. I found out the information about the power in the airplane from SeatGuru. This site is great for finding the best seats on any flight.

While traveling with a laptop, one of the most important “gadgets” you need is the proper laptop bag. Since I love my old laptop bag but I’ve really worn it out, I decided to bring along a Kensington Contour Cargo Notebook Case. They have backpacks but I prefer the Messenger style notebook cases. Even though the case looks smaller than my older larger bag, I believe I was able to pack more into it!

Since it’s only the first night of the three week trip I’m not ready to pass judgment yet.