[wharvle]

Wireless keyboard and mouse, MacBook, 12.9" iPad, adjustable folding stands for both to put them around eye level. Gets you dual monitors (plus the iPad's better for use in an economy seat on an airplane, than a laptop). External keyboard and mouse, no craning your neck down at the laptop. All that can fit in a normal laptop backpack or even a not-that-big satchel bag, with room to spare for chargers and cables and miscellaneous carry-on stuff (even a Switch or Steam Deck, to round out your electronic-junk needs all in one bag). iPad doubles as a drawing pad if you've got a Pencil, plus does the other stuff an iPad's good at, isn't just an extra monitor, can do more to justify its weight and bulk.

A big monitor rather than a pair of laptop-sized (but pretty good!) monitors? Yeah, that's tough. And no solution for the chair.

[tayo42]

didnt know that about ipads, i only use apple stuff for work for the last few years. ill look into that!

[wharvle]

There’ve been apps to use them as a second monitor to a Mac for some time, but as of a few years back, it’s a built-in feature.

Last I checked it does require the iPad to be signed in to the same iCloud account as the user on the Mac, which may present a problem if, say, you want to use a personal iPad this way with a work MacBook, or if you use separate accounts for different clients on your MacBook and don’t have them all signed in to a single iCloud account. But, if that’s not an issue, should be fine. Some of those other apps may still exist, too, and I don’t think they have that restriction (I think Apple’s is that way because it’s more tightly integrated with hand-off features and such)