Best Accessories for a Travel Laptop
The accessory bag this post described has mostly collapsed into two items, which is the best news in travel tech since it was written.
What you actually need:
- One high-wattage USB-C charger with folding pins. A single 65W or 100W GaN charger runs a laptop, a phone, headphones and a camera, often two at once. It replaces the laptop brick, the phone plug and the spare cable, and it is the single biggest weight saving available.
- The right plug adapter, not a universal one with a dozen sliders. A couple of small country-specific adapters are lighter, less likely to fall out of a loose socket, and cheaper.
- A power bank that does USB-C Power Delivery, if you work on trains. Note the airline rule: spare batteries travel in the cabin, never in checked luggage, and many carriers now restrict using or charging them in flight.
What is worth adding, situationally: a short flat cable rather than the long stiff one in the box; a sleeve rather than a hard case, because the bag is already the protection; and a small USB-C hub if you need an SD card reader or HDMI.
What to leave at home: the cooling pad, the travel mouse unless you genuinely need one, the lock, and the second charger. All four were in this post and none of them survives a real trip.
One thing that did not exist then and is now the most useful accessory of all: an eSIM. Data on arrival, no queue, no hunting for wifi, bought from your sofa before you fly.
Part of the guide to gadgets and power.