Re: My evil hauwai phone...
I have a 17" laptop, it fits snuggly into a basic thin rucksack (I have an old one someone gave me years ago that's made specifically for laptops, but the kids all have them nowadays for their Chromebooks, etc.).
Previously have taken a 17" laptop with me every day to work for about 10 years, but I bought my own since and that stays away from work, but it comes with me on the airplane as a carry-on with a ton of food shoved in the main pocket whenever I go on holiday, it comes with me to relative's houses (when not in lockdown), I take it camping, I take it on games nights etc.
17" is *not* a huge laptop. It's not heavy.
And, like the OP, I tether mine to my phone, which cost a fraction of this junk, has dual-SIM and an unlimited-4g-data SIM in it (£18 a month). I could also use the little Huawei 4G Wifi box I have in the laptop bag with a similar SIM, but I'm using my 2nd SIM to run my entire house Internet for the last three years.
This stuff is just over-priced junk. In a small rucksack, literally the kind of thing you could give a kid to take to school and nowhere near heavy, or bulky, or awkward, and a mid-range Samsung phone I basically can do anything from game online to work remotely to watch hours of movies on a plane.
Hell, when going abroad, I often shove my phone in the rucksack so that I can pass security and it stays in there offering out a private Wifi while I use the laptop to pass the time in the airport.
It's 2021. Phones that "do everything" are commodity. 17" laptops are the default. Gaming laptops can kick most people's PC's backsides.
Hell, apart from a couple of Raspberry Pi's offering services like TV NVR, I don't use any other PCs in my own home. Same laptop, same phone. The only difference is that at home I have a 4G SIM running the house wifi, but the phone is capable of the same (the reason I have two is that the phone is then able to connect back to my home wherever I am, and pick up my home TV recordings, movies, CCTV, etc.)
As the OP says, mid-range phone and a laptop, and you basically have everything you need.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
