What's in my Tech Bag ?

dhruvtalksstech
Mar 11, 2023
6 min read

Updated: Mar 13, 2023

I grew up watching prominent tech YouTubers doing this. It is very symbolic and customary so I'll try to make it feel special. These types of blogs generally come out at the end of the year so I am quite late by that standard but I wanted to wait around to buy and test some of the products. I don't have a tech bag that I carry around with me all the time because

a) I am not a full-time tech blogger

b) Unlike YouTubers, I don't need to carry so much equipment such as cameras, mics, go pros, lighting and all

So, I am mainly going to be talking about the tech that I use on an everyday basis. You may already know some of the stuff from the past 1.5 years of blogging but this one's an updated compilation of that.

I carry a run-of-the-mill Puma bag when I travel and it mostly consists of my tech gadgets and some miscellaneous stuff such as hand wipes, water bottles, travel documents, and refreshments. I have the HP Pavilion X360 1TB hard drive, 256GB SSD, i3 10th gen version.

I only carry it where I need to. Most adventure and traveling trips don't require me to be constantly filming, editing, and uploading. I can do some of that from a phone itself. I take it with me when it's gonna be a long flight and I could get some work done - studies, blogs, and a combination of both. I am pretty happy with it. It is almost 2.5 years old but feels as good as new. I am not considering upgrading it anytime soon but will surely do that if my studies and major demand more from my laptop. I may even consider crossing the aisle to join the Mac world if that suits my use case scenario better. I will update you when that happens.

I love to listen to music on the go and when I can spare the time for it out of my studies and other commitments. I have 2 sets of earphones - AirPods Pro and Mivi DuoPods F30. They are on the polar sides of the spectrum in terms of price but that's the reason I have both. I like their pocketability; they fit in my jeans pocket very easily even alongside my phone. I don't carry any over-ear headphones because I have never liked those. They are big and bulky and are painful to handle in tight spaces. I keep the AirPods Pro in my pocket when I have to travel by airplane because the noise cancellation comes in handy. The Mivi DuoPods are mainly for situations when I know I am gonna be handling them in a rough environment. For example, when it's raining or if I am in a crowd navigating through streets but have to take an important call simultaneously.

I carry an Ambrane 27000 mAh power bank with me. I know that's a lot and is the most you can carry on an airplane but it's worthwhile. I don't use it as often as I thought I would when I ordered it on Amazon but it is crucial and is a lifesaver. It does come in handy during those long hauls while traveling and also generally on days when you are in the city itself but don't have access to a charging point but still need to get a lot done. I would concede that it is bulky and awkward to carry around and takes more than 20 hours to get fully charged from dead but it lasts long and I mean LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. It has two USB-A and one USB-C output port so it checks the versatility department.

Now the one you have all been waiting for. The phones I carry. So, I keep 2 phones with me. An Android and an iPhone. Not for the same reason as other tech YouTubers do as you will discover. I have a Samsung Galaxy A50 and an iPhone 13 Pro Max. I can bet you haven't seen a combination like this before and I promise you never would. I bought the iPhone 13 Pro Max last year sometime in December. It was given to me as a gift from my parents after I achieved a pretty substantial academic achievement that also won me laurels from my school. I got the iPhone from India and I bought the Alpine Green model. I got the phone for around 100,000 (1175$) . I got a steal deal as it was Christmas time and the model was one year old. I considered going for the 14 Pro Max but couldn't find it anywhere. It is my daily driver and I love it. I like big, powerful phones with strong batteries.

As you can imagine, the 13 Pro Max is a pretty big upgrade from the Samsung Galaxy A50. The retail price of the Pro Max is 6.5 times that of the A50. I knew it was going to be a lot to adjust to but the switch wasn't as drastic as I thought it would be because everyone else in my family had always had an iPhone. I have been pretty familiar with iPhones for a long time. Contrary to what you would think, I don't carry around the A50 in my pocket very often. It is sort of a backup and entertainment device. I mainly use it for GPS tracking using Find my phone from Google, a navigation device, and listening to music in the shower. It is sort of like the Mivi DuoPods. I use it in rough-tough situations and ones that are generally for tasks that drain the battery unnecessarily. I wouldn't dare to take my 13 Pro Max in the shower to listen to music. The A50 is not IP rated but is fairly resistant to water sprinkles and splashes. My cars have Apple CarPlay but one of them does not have wireless Apple CarPlay. For that car, I connect the 13 Pro Max using Bluetooth to play music and take calls and use the A50 for navigation using a car mount.

That particular car is also not smart. So, I leave the A50 under the seat in parking lots and that lets me see its real-time location without being worried about theft. These tasks generally degrade the battery a lot and cause a lot of physical damage. That's why I prefer the A50 for such tasks as it is cheap. You can also say that I am reducing E-waste in the process and am making good use of old tech. I sometimes take a few calls on the A50 using the DuoPods. The cheap tech works well with cheap tech.

I like wearing smartwatches and I wear the Apple Watch Series SE 44 mm which I bought along with the 13 Pro Max. I got it for around 250$ from Walmart. I had never owned a smartwatch before; so, wearing one was a novel experience. I have the aluminum casing Midnight model. I enjoy wearing it and primarily use it for reminders, alarms, tracking cycling activity, and the versatility it offers in terms of showing different time zones and a lot of information at once.

I have to carry a lot of cables since I have devices from all ecosystems. A lightning cable, Apple Watch charging hub, two USB-C cables, an HP laptop charger, and the old Android charging cable to charge the PS4 controller. I have 3 5W charging bricks as I have to charge at least 3 devices at the end of the day (2 phones and an Apple Watch). I don't use fast chargers as one might expect a tech blogger to do but you would know why I don't if you have read my past blogs on fast charging. I don't have any tablets as of now as I have never felt the need for one but may buy one in the future if my education requires me to. I will probably buy an iPad only when I need to since that works well in the whole Apple Ecosystem.