[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.)