I JUST CAN’T DO IT! My own post over in the M2 MacBook Air thread this evening about selling my MBP14 was a real gut punch, and I explained that over there…
So I’m leaning back…maybe everybody should just block my posts from your view…
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Lean back, go on vacation, do some mental gymnastics, and buy a FOURTH device! :vb-grin:
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No way! We all struggle with this. (At least until someone makes a true macpad–and then I will probably complain that actually two separate devices was actually better!!!)
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No! No way! Not going to happen! Wait, did someone say they saw the Surface Neo again… 
This is 100% a certainty in my case - although I’m reading that iPadOS 16 and on are the closest Apple will EVER COME to a MacPad - a semi-neutered windowing and file environment…
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I don’t think a “MacPad” will ever exist, if that means being able to run Mac software and get a “Finder”. The iPad is its own thing, a different paradigm, and though it will continue to become more capable, perhaps one day even replacing Macs in the lineup, it’ll still do things its own way.
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Oh I agree with you and @dstrauss. I don’t think it will ever exist. So the struggle will continue…
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Actually the device that comes closest to being the “only one” is something that several on this board already are using which is the SLS. very solid as a laptop and productivity device and usable albeit bulky and heavy as a tablet. Just sayin…
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Hello Fellow Tribes-people:
I want to apologize for all the confusion I caused yesterday. As you all know, I have a bad habit of letting whatever comes into my pea brain spill out in print. I initially wrote that flippant sale post (selling MBP14 for M2 MBA-like price but so much better device) then in taking that back, made it looked like I had dumped on the SP8 (which I am writing this post with). Here’s the horns of my dilemma, which as of this writing IS NOT SETTLED:
-
I love all the intangibles about the MBP14 + iPP11 combination
…design, look & feel (down to system fonts onscreen),
…combined functionality (sidecar, continuity, universal control)
…Apple services (Messages, FaceTime, AppleTV, News+ magazines) -
The SP8 can do all my productivity needs plus 70% of my tablet experiences (save the Apple services) in one device - no juggling of two OS’s so long as I do my "Apple services things” on my iPhone Pro 13
The crux of the debate is the struggle between my Apple wants and my Windows needs, and the pure fact that I could make do with an SP8 only on a full time basis, but not in the walled garden without having both (because I legitimately need touch and pen)…
Thanks, but in the comparison between SP8 and SLS the SP8 wins hands down for my use case.
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You actually are making my point, indirectly. which is that for most of us here, much as we might want it, there is no “one” device
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This is the never ending struggle for us “one-device” dreamers. Find something that can do it all: powerful when needed, transforming into a lightweight and easy to handle tablet when wanted. Maybe instead of a foldable I need a tearable: would love to be able to tear off half of the SLS screen and use it as a lightweight tablet/reader. 
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It is about compromises. Trouble in the tech world is that the mega-vendors playing defend market share games tend to leave us with compromises that are often the “least worst choice” (barely better than the “no win scenario” @dstrauss) instead of an 80% upside win (see, e.g. Ronald Reagan - “The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally - not a 20 percent traitor.”)
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Being serious for a moment, when I was in China before the pandemic we saw a prototype from one of the big white box PC makers of a dual screen large NEO like device. One display was a conventional 12.5 inch LCD coupled with an 11 inch e-ink display.
Each “half” also had it’s own battery and thus could stand alone, and when together, either display could switch to a keyboard and trackpad. Running Windows of course, thought they told us Linux would be an option too, if appropriate drivers were written.
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What a great post - and so on point… 
I may have an 85% single device ally in the SP8 (assuming my estimates of 100% of productivity/business and 70% tablet are correct - I KNOW the first figure is correct), but have to have both MBP14 and iPP11 at all times to get there.
One thing I don’t think I’ve touched on is the iPad 11" vs 12.9" question. My 11 is fine with the new external display support or pretty much single screen on the device alone, but when juggling a couple of windows or more, it was really pretty cramped compared to the 12.9 - and thus the dilemma - even with iPadOS 16, the iPad 12.9 is still not near as good of a productivity and window management computer as the SP8 - save for my “iPaddy things” (FaceTime, Messages, Photos, News+ magazines)…
That’s the heart of the problem, we want a large screen but also a small screen. Maybe the most realistic device would be a Surface Book type device, where the “clipboard” holds an M1 level SoC and a foldable OLED screen. When the user undocks the “clipboard” it could fold in two, with the screen facing outward, and turning one half off to conserve battery. Voila, a semi lightweight iPad Pro 11 type device. Sounds almost doable!
Here I stand today -
left is MacBook Pro 14 + iPad Pro 11
center is Surface Pro 8
right is iPad Pro 11 or iPad Pro 12.9
The right hand trail is a difficult path today (and possibly for the foreseeable future because of the path Apple is taking with iPadOS 16). I can’t see even the 12.9 being a good full time solution for my business use.
The left hand trail will clearly work IF I give up my one device mantra - the MBP14 is not “complete” without an iPad in my workflow.
The center trail has the advantage of @Bishop’s 80/20 rule, but relegates all my “iPad specific uses” to my iPhone 13 Pro, not particularly satisfying for magazine reading (I have found no workable alternative to News+ for that use case).
"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
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So nothing has happened in more than two years?
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Chip shortage 
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Seems like the choice is MBP14+iPP11 vs SP8+iPP11. The latter ia better for your business use, the former has better integration and a miniLED screen. Tough choice!
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“Big white box maker” don’t get prioritized?
:cough: none of those choices match the topic title :cough: nevermind, I need glasses or a new brain 