[ubermonkey]

For a really long time, I never left town without my laptop, even if it was a pleasure trip. I have lots of stuff there I might want on a personal level, plus for the last 14 years I've been in a broad role in a small software company that kind of requires it. (I mean, it doesn't, and I'm not griping, but it's easier for everyone else if I limit the amount of time I'm truly unreachable, so I pick and choose.)

The incredible growth in on-device capabilities from my iPad + a keyboard went a long way towards making that unnecessary; adding a remote desktop client (for access to the back-end Windows server things I might want) closes the loop.

Unless I'm dead sure I'll NEED a full computer on a trip, I don't take one now. The default has become "nope." Even -- especially! -- as a photo management platform, because my iPad has ample storage and I'm a Creative Cloud user. I used to have to carry the laptop to dump and process photos during the trip (to avoid dealing with 2,000 all at once when we got home). Now I can go day by day, sync to Adobe, cull and do some processing, and just take the final pass once I'm home.

That's great.

(Ironically, this same era has seen me become increasingly deep into Orgmode, which is annoying, because as great as it is on a desktop there's still no truly great way to work with it from mobile short of setting up sync to a Linux box and using mosh/ssh.)

[aikinai]

I’m curious why you prefer the iPad and keyboard over a laptop since adding the keyboard typically makes the iPad both bigger and more unwieldy than a laptop.

I ask because I also like the vague idea of not taking a laptop, but I’m not going to do any serious typing on a screen keyboard and adding an external keyboard makes the iPad less portable than a laptop (plus you probably need a stand and mouse as well to reach the physical usability of a laptop).

[post_break]

I'm the same way. My iPad is smaller, lighter, has cellular so I can get in generally everywhere. The battery (before my M1 Macbook Pro) lasted much longer, and didn't put out heat. It also had my movies for the plane. So it was killing two birds with one stone.

[ubermonkey]

I dunno what laptop you use, but my iPad Pro + keyboard is materially smaller and lighter than my full-sized 15" laptop.

"plus you probably need a stand and mouse as well to reach the physical usability of a laptop"

Apple was first, but there are now SEVERAL keyboard cases that function more or less like Apple's fancy & expensive "Magic Keyboard." Like Apple's, they usually include a touchpad.

My iPad Pro in my Magic Keyboard folio is not much bigger than the iPad itself, but opens up into a very very usable and stable configuration. The hinge holds the iPad above the keyboard, so it's at a more comfortable heigh. I can easily use it on my lap, for example, which is typically a use case that tablet-keyboard combinations fail at.

(The only downside of this style of keyboard case is that you can't fold it all the way around; to work with the iPad in portrait mode, you take it off the keyboard -- which is also simple, since it's just magnets.)

IOW, the "physical usability of the laptop" threshold is absolutely reachable with a single accessory.

Also, even though I have a fancy iPad and fancy keyboard case, my iPad solution is materially less expensive than my laptop, so taking it places represents less of a risk. And obviously it almost never needs to be plugged in. (This gap is narrowed for M1 hardware, but I'm still on Intel.)