What's in my tech backpack? Manfrotto Closeup.
Tech

What’s in my tech backpack

I’ve seen these ‘What’s in my tech bag‘ videos on YouTube and thought it’d make a good write up for this blog. A blog format is easier as you can just read it! You don’t have to keep rewinding to pause on a bit of tech, you can just look at the photos!

So what do you think is in my tech backpack?

I’ll stop you right there. It definitely doesn’t contain £1000’s of pounds worth of tech that weighs 15kg and makes you a prime target for a mugging. That’s all I normally see on YouTube. The idea of my ‘What’s in my tech backpack’ blog is to give an overview of an actual day to day functional tech backpack that serves a purpose.

I’ll give an explanation on why I carry each item and I’ll add links to the products on Amazon.

What’s in my tech bag 2020

Since it’s now 2020 and my daily tech needs have changed slightly, I’ve updated my tech bag article. New additions include:

  • CAT6 Ethernet Cable
  • Anker Fast Charge Plug
  • USB to Ethernet Adapter
  • Micro USB to USB Cable
  • 3.5mm Mic & Headphone Splitter

Check it out below.

First up – The Tech Bag

The backpack I’ve chosen is the Manfrotto street backpack. I had my eye on it for ages, I was being a cheapskate and waiting for it to come down in price. It took me a while to buy as I thought it was quite expensive for a bag, I didn’t have to worry thought as it’s extremely high quality, so worth it in my opinion. I’ve previously bought cheap backpacks and they tend to tear or have the seams come open after a year.

The backpack is mainly used by Photographers but I like it because of how many pockets and sections it has. I don’t tend to carry a camera with me so I have more space for other things such as then ethernet cables and dongles.

The build quality is exceptional and it feels like it’ll last me years. There is a large laptop sleeve at the back and it can fit my 13 inch laptop in with loads of room to spare.

What's in my tech backpack? Manfrotto Closeup.
What’s in my tech backpack? Manfrotto Closeup.

Ideal Laptop for a Tech Bag?

My laptop of choice is the i5 8GB Microsoft Surface Laptop. I wish I’d have chosen the one with a larger SSD now as I have quite a few large Visual Studio projects. I’m making do with a large external memory stick at the minute. When it’s time to upgrade I’ll go for the largest hard drive I can afford.

At my day job I use a developer workstation and a HP Elitebook 850.

The surface is for my freelance client work. I chose it because I wanted it to be powerful with a small form factor. I only really use Visual Studio Code as my IDE on this machine so didn’t need anything as powerful as one of the Razer machines.

The surface is a great laptop, the display is fantastic as is the battery life and an added bonus is that the built in speakers are high quality.

Phone

My current phone is the iPhone X from 2017.

The reason I chose this model is that I had the iPhone 7 before it, which I broke! So it was time to upgrade, this had just been released. I had a conversation with somebody recently and we came to the conclusion that we both wouldn’t be upgrading anytime soon as we felt that the phone has all the features we need and unless they come up with something drastically different or technologically advanced we’d give it a miss for a few years.

Price Paid: £999
Buy on Amazon

iPhone Charging Cable

I carry an Anker lightning cable to charge my phone. Anker make some incredible tech and their cables are great. I got 4 of them in a deal on Amazon as I thought I’d need spares! Turns out I was wrong. They are really really tough and the ends haven’t failed like genuine Apple products tend to do.

What's in my tech backpack?
Tech that goes inside my tech backpack.

Sounds & Audio

My headphones of choice are the Apple Airpods. They are the first generation ones. I was really surprised at just how good they are. When I first bought them I didn’t try them out, it was more of a blind buy. The battery life is insane and they charge really quickly. I mainly use them for music but they also connect to my laptop via Bluetooth so I can use them for Skype calls.

Another pair of headphones have recently been added to my tech bag, the Edifier TWS1’s are a great budget alternative to the AirPods.

I also carry some Apple 3.5mm headphones. These are used to plug into my work laptop as that doesn’t have Bluetooth connectivity.

Airpods

Fantastic wireless earbuds by Apple. I use these most days and the battery life is really really good.

Pen and Paper

This pretty much explains it’s self. My notepad is a A5 Black n’ Red. I can’t really say much else apart from that it’s great quality paper. I normally use it to write notes about what I need to do in the day. It’s also used for meetings and for jotting down ideas.

Memory and Storage

I carry two Kingston USB memory sticks in my backpack. They contain projects that I’m currently working on. They are both 32GB and USB3.0. The drives are metal, hard wearing and have brilliant reviews on Amazon. There isn’t much more to say about these. There are more expensive thumb drives available but these are a great example of cost vs performance as I think I paid £6 each for them in a sale.

Kingston is a really good USB stick brand. Perfect to carry in your tech backpack.
Kingston is a really good USB stick brand. Perfect to carry in your tech backpack.

Let me know what you keep in your tech backpack. I’m always interested to hear what other people carry.

Tech Backpack Video Review

Disclosure:

If you use any of the Amazon links in this article they are affiliate links. This means that if you go onto buy something from Amazon I may get a small commission. It won’t cost you anything extra but it helps me to pay for the running costs of the blog and allows me to bring you great content! Thank you so much for your support.

CodeWithMike is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.co.uk.

2 Comments

  1. Good review, I did think about buying the manfrotto street tech backpack. However as you’ve mentioned it is slightly expensive.

    Is it definitley worth it lol?

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