What is in the bag?

Michael White published the third release of his “What is in the bag” blog post. In reference to this, I would like to share the content of my bag.

I used a RIMOWA Salsa business trolley for several years. Unfortunately, it broke in June 2017 and a repair was refused by RIMOWA. I was very disappointed of the product quality and the customer service experience with RIMOWA.

I decided to switch to a backpack, which felt much more comfortable than carrying or pulling the RIMOWA trolley.

Since November 2017, I’m using an Eastpak Floid Ash Blend2. It is a small backpack, with just enough space for my equipment. The whole backpack, with all its content, weighs about 4 kg.

When I’m on the road, a Lenovo ThinkPad T480s is my primary working device. It has a 14" WQHD display, 16 GB RAM, and a 512 GB nVME SSD. It is running Windows 10 and the 3 cell battery with 57 Wh capacity allows me to work 8 to 12 hours without a power supply.

I really take care of my devices. Because of this, my ThinkPad is stored in a CAISON 14 inch sleeve, when it is no used.

I also use an Lenovo ThinkPad X250 as fallback or during projects, when I need a more smaller device (e.g. doing networking stuff at a datacenter). But this laptop isn’t in my backpack. :)

My X250 is also carried in a sleeve, if it is no used.

Of course, I carry a few accessories around with me. They are safely stored in a BUBM bag.

First, there are a lot of small things in it:

• 2x Trancend 64 GB USB 3 Sticks
• Patriot 8 GB USB Stick
• Intenso 8 GB USB Stick
• 16 GB MicroSD Card
• DELL 10W AC Adapter with USB Outlet
• 2m CAT 6 Cable
• 0,5m CAT 6 Cable
• Lightning to USB Cable
• Micro-USB to USB Cable
• Apple EarPods with 3.5 mm Headphone Plug

In addition to that:

An external HDD for software and backups. I use a Transcend StoreJet M3S 1 TB USB 3 HDD drive. It has a USB 3.1 Gen 1 interface and it is Military-grade shock resistant. This makes it a perfect fit for me. It stores all the software I possibly need during my work (several releases of VMware vSphere vCenter, ESXi, Windows Server, Veeam Backup & Replication, HPE Support Pack for ProLiant etc), as well as my Veeam Agent backups. Of course, the hard drive is encrypted. :)

Both laptops have an Ethernet port. Nevertheless I’m a WiFi fan. The MikroTik hAP ac² is primarily used as a WiFi-to-Ethernet bridge. If necessary, I can hook devices to the additional four switch ports (10/ 100/ 1000 Mbit). The switch can do much more, but in my case, it is primarily… a bridge. A very nice feature is the PoE-In capability. I have the power supply with me, but most times I power it with PoE.

The MikroTik hAP² offers PoE-In, but only passive PoE. So I need a 802.3af to passive PoE converter. I use this 802.3af PoE converter from Ubiquiti.

The ThinkPad trackpad is good, but sometimes a wireless mouse is better. I use a Logitech M185 wireless mouse. Pretty solid, nothing much to say about it. :)

Another Logitech device is my Logitech R400 Laser presentation remote. I had it multiple times the situation, that such a device was not available during presentations, so I decided to buy my own remote.

Another important device for customer presentations: My Lenovo USB-C Travel Hub. It offers, beside a USB 3 and a GbE RJ45 port, two ports for external display connection (VGA and HDMI). The travel hub is connected with USB Type-C to my ThinkPad.

My ThinkPad T480s was delivered with a 60W USB-C AC adapter, but I decided to buy a smaller Lenovo USB-C 45W AC Adapter.

For notes and sketches, I use a simple notebook and two LAMY pencils, a LAMY logo (brushed) pencil, and a LAMY logo ballpoint pen.

That’s it. That is everything a have in my bag.

What is in your laptop bag?