Tech for backpackers

I am bringing my iPhone 5 with me to use WiFi but I'm worried it wont be good enough or easy to contact people back at home.</i>

where are you going?

what do you need your "tech device" for? i.e....calling home, Skype, photos, video, music, internet......?

A simple £60 android tablet off ebay would be sufficiant to do the things you are looking for.....My advice is to get a portable hardrive (I got mine off amazon for £42 a 500gb Samsung portable drive that runs on USB power) to store photos and videos etc and then I take a tablet with me which I use with the wifi to call home on skype, go on facebook, email etc etc all for under £100 you have pretty much all the kit you need! I would never take my laptop travelling with me again solely because it's a waste of space when most hostels and hotels have computers, internet cafes are in abundance and with the rise of the tablet pretty much anything can be watched on the go........Even if you got yourself an extra 16gb mini sd card to go in the tablet that still gives you plenty of space for photos and videos etc

I agree, much as I like the ipad, it is too expensive and temping a target for theives. A $100 7" tablet with an sd card is all you need providing you don't intend to rewrite War and Peace.

For the last three years I travelled 2-3 months at a time in Asia with only an iphone 3gs, which served as camera, eticket holder, wifi web/skype/Viber (you know about Viber, right?) interface, etc and would buy a local SIM card when I arrived in a new country if I was staying for more than a couple days. Two years ago, I added a Kindle to the mix, just to get rid of the weight of books. So it can be done with smartphone alone.

Next trip I'll bring an ipad mini along but I can't tell yet whether I've solved a problem (which for me at least, didn't exist) or created one.

Curious why you don't believe you'll be able to contact people? Are you backpacking through a remote part of the world? If you are going to be going through Europe or America you should be totally fine with just an iphone.

In the USA, I travelled with just an ipod touch and it was very easy to keep in contact with family via skype and email.

Depends ... if you wanna book other flights and accom etc .. research it's pretty hard on a 4" phone. Maybe internet cafe for tha long holiday away shouldn't be an issue right, you may not be rushing around like another's 5 day holiday. Photo edit, real software, real typing I would get a thin full size laptop like a Macbook Air. Netbooks harder to type but maybe ok for non typists.

For me short holidays, 4" phone, no need to do bookings. All I do is Skype, the few IM apps, On a personal level, hardly use emails now. I can read the news, FB, check the weather etc. Maps. Incl offline with the right app. Not as much features thou.

IPhone will do the job. Unlocked if possible to be able to buy local prepaid SIM cards.

Leaves you with the problem what to do with pictures wwt shoot along the trip- if you bring a camera.
Buy additioaj SD cards? Want to back-up those pictures? In internet cafes or using a cheap tablet as suggested above?

Yeah I guess im paranoid about going overseas by myself for the first time, I will just take my iPhone