Hey,
It’s Pete Matheson with a new issue of Experiments in Progress.
This one's for anyone staring down a long trip and wondering what actually makes the cut.
So below I'm running through the exact 10 things I'd pack: the phone, the watch, the laptop, the battery kit, the earbuds, and the one gadget I genuinely can't make my mind up about.
The 10 Things I'd Pack for a 6-Month Trip
So here's my honest list. The exact kit I'd actually carry:
📱 The phone: Oppo Find X9 Ultra or Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8
The thing I care about most is battery.
The Oppo Find X9 Ultra is the easy pick here:
7,050 mAh battery (one of the biggest you'll find in a flagship)
100W wired charging, so a near-flat phone is usable again in minutes
A genuinely good camera system if you're documenting the trip
But if I wanted one device to rule them all, I'd take the Galaxy Z Fold 8 instead. It's the lightest Fold Samsung has ever made (201g), it's got the new silicon-carbon battery, and unfolding it into a proper 7.6" screen means you can leave the tablet at home entirely.
If you want a battery that just won't quit: Oppo. If you want your phone to double as your laptop-lite: the Fold.
⌚ The watch: Apple Watch Ultra or a Garmin
If you're in the Apple world, the Apple Watch Ultra has the best battery of any Apple Watch, and it just slots into everything else you own.
But if you genuinely want to forget your charger exists?
Garmin is the answer to charging anxiety, full stop.
Something like the Garmin Instinct 3 Solar goes weeks between charges, and with enough sun it's basically unlimited in smartwatch mode. On a six-month trip, that's not a gimmick. That's one less cable and one less daily worry.
🔋 The battery: Anker Nano Power Bank
This is the workhorse. A 10,000 mAh Anker pack that just lives in the bag.
Here's why this specific one:
45W output — enough to top up a laptop in a pinch, not just a phone
Built-in retractable USB-C cable, so there's one less thing to lose
Flight-approved and small enough to forget it's in there
The big Anker pack is for the long-haul days.
A smaller, lighter Anker Nano with a built-in USB-C cable that lives in a pocket. When you're heading out for a day trip and don't want to carry the full 10K brick, this is the just-in-case top-up. Tiny, wired, done.
💻 The laptop: MacBook Air M5
If I'm working on the road, it's the MacBook Air, every time.
It's light. It's fast. And the battery is the real star. The M5 model does up to 18 hours, which means most days you don't even need to find a plug. For carrying around airports, cafés and trains for months, nothing else hits that weight-to-power ratio.
Source: TechRadar
🎧 The earbuds: Powerbeats Pro 2
The Powerbeats Pro 2 aren't the best at any one thing. Not the best sound, not the best noise cancelling, not the longest battery.
But they're the best all-rounder for travel.
Here's the deal:
The ear hooks mean they genuinely stay put on a run or a workout
10 hours a charge, 45 hours with the case
Small, light, and they survive being chucked in a bag
Source: NBC News
🕶️ The smart glasses: Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2)
On one hand, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses are brilliant for travel. Hands-free photos and video of everything around you, and the AI is genuinely useful abroad:
Point them at a foreign menu and ask "is there a burger on here?" and it'll tell you what's on it and how much it costs.
On the other hand… there's a reason a lot of people have gone off them. There's been a whole controversy around people physically drilling out the privacy LED to record others secretly. Meta pushed a mandatory update in July 2026 that disables the camera if the light's tampered with, but the reputation damage is done.
🎒 The bag: GRAMS28 sling
You need one bag that keeps the essentials on your body at all times. For me that's a GRAMS28 sling.
It comfortably swallows the everyday stuff: passport, phone, earbuds, chargers, cables, a small battery pack. It sits across the chest, stays hands-free, and it's small enough that you're not lugging a rucksack for a quick day out.
🧲 The phone case: a MagSafe case
A MagSafe case so the phone snaps securely onto mounts, packs and chargers, instead of sliding around loose in a bag for six months.
It sounds minor. But over a long trip it's the difference between a phone that's protected and secure, and one that's picking up dents and near-misses the whole way.
Source: Woodcessories
📊 What I'd Actually Pack (And Why)
If you want… | Pack this |
|---|---|
A phone that just won't die | Oppo Find X9 Ultra |
One device that does it all | Galaxy Z Fold 8 |
To forget your charger for weeks | Garmin Instinct |
Apple-ecosystem battery king | |
To charge your laptop from your bag | Anker Nano 10K (45W) |
A featherweight work machine | MacBook Air M5 |
Earbuds that stay in on a run | |
To capture the world hands-free | Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) |
To carry the essentials, hands-free | GRAMS28 sling |
Quick top-ups on a day out | Anker Nano (30W) |
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