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You're not the target audience when it comes to travelers. Most of us either use the apps on the hotel room TV's, or like others above, I carry an Apple TV 4K with me. Attach it to the Wi-Fi or my hotspot, plug it into the HDMI port on the TV and off I go. I would hate to have to download a bunch of stuff to a tablet before leaving, then not having anything "new" while traveling. Not to mention it takes up a ton of space.
Most tablet users aren't carrying around the dongles to connect them to a TV - not only that, a number of tablet screens aren't 16:9 anymore, so you're going to letterbox somewhere. Nor are most people plugging them into TV's in the first place.
iPads can do it - and speaking from experience with corporate travelers and presenters, very few people in that world are plugging their iPad direct into a screen. I've done it as a pilot with my M2 Pro just to see if I can "use" it as a computer...but I'd never watch movies that way. Best I can say I've done over HDMI is use it to play music in a conference room!
Pretty much this. If I am travelling and need to bring a laptop for whatever reason, I'd be fine with that instead of bringing another single-purpose piece of electronics with all the accessories.
Agree with both of you, of course. But OP seems pretty insistent that he must do it this way. And those accessories will work to accomplish that.
Folks, I am surprised you find my practice unusual. You are all talking about business travelers. Well, when I travel for business, of course I'd just bring the laptop with PowerPoint, etc.
The question is whether there is a viable alternative to lugging that laptop on a long foreign vacation, as I've been doing. Having the two of us staring at the 10" screen for hours is not much of an option (perhaps only on the plane). So what do you do in the evening after a tiring day -- watch live TV in French? Netflix?
I posted this thread in Tablets forum, so of course I get the responses from tablets enthusiasts. I suspect I'll end up buying another 14" HP laptop for $349, when it goes on sale in Costco next week. That would be a heavier option but cost less than half of the comparable tablets. If it's stolen or broken, no big deal.
Folks, I am surprised you find my practice unusual. You are all talking about business travelers. Well, when I travel for business, of course I'd just bring the laptop with PowerPoint, etc.
The question is whether there is a viable alternative to lugging that laptop on a long foreign vacation, as I've been doing. Having the two of us staring at the 10" screen for hours is not much of an option (perhaps only on the plane). So what do you do in the evening after a tiring day -- watch live TV in French? Netflix?
I posted this thread in Tablets forum, so of course I get the responses from tablets enthusiasts. I suspect I'll end up buying another 14" HP laptop for $349, when it goes on sale in Costco next week. That would be a heavier option but cost less than half of the comparable tablets. If it's stolen or broken, no big deal.
I use my Apple TV and plug it into the screen through regular old HDMI. It's tiny, weighs next to nothing, has a remote and costs $150. Toss it in the bag and go. As long as you're not staying at a hotel with garbage Wi-Fi, works great. Or I just use my hotspot.
I'm not setting up my tablet, plugging in dongles and leaving it by the TV so I have to get up and scroll through the screen for content or pick a movie.
Folks, I am surprised you find my practice unusual. You are all talking about business travelers. Well, when I travel for business, of course I'd just bring the laptop with PowerPoint, etc.
The question is whether there is a viable alternative to lugging that laptop on a long foreign vacation, as I've been doing. Having the two of us staring at the 10" screen for hours is not much of an option (perhaps only on the plane). So what do you do in the evening after a tiring day -- watch live TV in French? Netflix?
I posted this thread in Tablets forum, so of course I get the responses from tablets enthusiasts. I suspect I'll end up buying another 14" HP laptop for $349, when it goes on sale in Costco next week. That would be a heavier option but cost less than half of the comparable tablets. If it's stolen or broken, no big deal.
Why not just get a fire stick (or other streaming device) and call it a day? This will connect to whatever HDMI tv you encounter and play whatever you want.
The one thig you haven't considered is *IF* your tablet will play content on TV via HDMI (regardless of how its connected, port, dongle, whatever). My ipad pro blocks video in some apps (hbo max, maybe hulu i dont recall).
The reason you haven't gotten an answer is because there are better, cheaper, lighter and faster solutions.
It'd be nice if more hotels had smart TVs where you could just cast wirelessly from your phone. That's what people actually want imo. If you want to carry a bunch of stuff though a cheap USB C dock and an HDMI cable and you're good to go.
So if you both plan to watch, why the headphone requirement?
Again, one use for the device is to watch the downloaded movies on a plane. None of the options mentioned in the answers allows that for two people. A laptop would.
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