[mgmueller]

I've been on a trip from Friday til Wednesday.
Albeit a brief trip, I took quite a few gadgets with me:
- Kindle Paperwhite 3G - I love the free 3G. Not worrying about roaming and such and still being able to download/buy books globally.
- iPad mini. By far my favorite iPad. In general, I just wanted to bring a tablet with me, to have alternatives to Kindle: Nook and Kobo apps for example. I could have taken Google Nexus 7 or Kobo Arc for example. But as a pure gadget, I still really like iPad.
- Surface Pro. Some harsh criticism about it in some reviews, but still one of my alltime favorite tablets.
- Google Chromebook Pixel. Of course I had to bring my newest gadget with me.
- MacBook Air 11". My business machine, I take it with me all the time.

To my own surprise, I've used them quite differently:
- Kindle Paperwhite 3G = every single day for ca. 15 hours in total. Reading in bed for a few hours. Relying on sheer endless battery life. Not getting stung by some insects, due to the unobtrusive light.
- Google Chromebook Pixel = twice in those 6 days for ca. 5 hours in total. I really like it. But it's simply not that mobile, you don't take it out of the bag for 2 minutes of reading or surfing the web.
- iPad mini and Surface Pro = not even once turned them on. I really like them both. But there simply was no need. For reading, Kindle Paperwhite is absolutely brilliant. For "professional stuff" I've had my MacBook Air with me.
- MacBook Air = every single day for ca. 20 hours in total. It's not "cool" at all anymore, it's become a mere tool in the almost 2 years that I have it. But I can do almost everything on it and it's about as mobile as my tablets of ca. 10".

Meaning:
Personally, I have to admit, tablets mainly are some kind of "hype" for me.
I absolutely enjoy them.
But if I'm honest to myself, I'm not making much use of the touch screen.
The touch screen is comfortable and still cool, but I don't really need it that often.
Basically, a combo of eBook reader (in my case clearly Kindle Paperwhite 3G) and compact notebook (obviously, in my case MacBook Air, but it could be a Windows notebook as well) leaves nothing to wish for:
Perfect reading conditions with sheer endless battery duration.
Efficient business environment with only minor limitations.

If I'd have to choose a single unit, it probably would be Surface Pro.
But why choose? If I can take Surface Pro, I can take MacBook Air as well. And in addition, Kindle Paperwhite really doesn't take up much space.

I guess, I have to think about notebooks/ultrabooks a bit more...