It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard. I think I went through every keyboard on Amazon and found only one. If you use a USB wireless keyboard, well, there goes one of the two USB slots on the laptop.
It's not just the monitor being big, I want lots and lots of pixels. I'm currently running 3840*2160, and have a second monitor attached set up in portrait mode (so I can display a manual page while I work on the other one).
Of course, I'd get an even bigger monitor with more pixels if they didn't cost so dang much :-) How big, you ask? A wall size retina display! I've wanted one for 40 years.
This is the dream setup. When you’ve got lots of USB-C devices, plugging in one cable and connecting to everything feels great.
I’ve got a USB-C dock hooked up to my TV too with a wireless KB/mouse combo connected into that, if I want to plug my laptop in on the couch.
Even works with your phone, if you've got one that supports it. Recent flagship Samsung phones with DeX do, but I'm really holding out for more external monitor support in Phosh so I can plug in a Librem 5 like this.
I really wanted to do this, but then got screwed over by HP every step of the way. My laptop has a full-sized HDMI port and I figured it wouldn't be able to work alongside the one over Type-C, but as it turns out, it doesn't work over Type-C at all! It also, despite supposedly supporting Thunderbolt, which includes charging in the spec, does not charge over Type-C (despite many of their other models supporting both fast charging over barrel jack and standard charging over Type-C).
If you are on Windows, some USB-C hub allow to have two external display (and not mirror ones, for three different display). Not compatible with OSX though.
2 monitors are easy if your laptop has Display Port and you use daisy chaining, you can have 4 full HD monitors from a single DP 1.2 port. I did that with the previous laptop, the new one has HDMI and USB-C with extended mode supporting DP, so I can link probably 5 FHD monitors in total.
> It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard.
Microsoft make at least two, the Surface Keyboard [1] and the Ergonomic version [2]. I own several of the standard ones, and they're the best-made keyboards I've ever owned (and the only ones my joints can currently cope with), but the fact that they're Bluetooth instead of USB drives me insane. I'd pay extra for a wired version that just instantly sends the keystroke every time instead of going to sleep after a while (while it's awake it's instant, it just wants to save battery after being idle).
I've use the Surface Ergonomic keyboard as my daily driver, and agree it is great. My only complaint is the indicator lights on Caps and Fn are not bright enough.
If you really want a dongle the previous Sculpt Ergonomic has a dongle but the Num Pad is separate :-/ It doesn't have the delay you talk about, and has much better battery life than the Surface version (had it for three years and have't changed them yet).
I don't see a lack of USB ports as a complete dealbreaker for using a laptop. USB hubs work fine to attach large numbers of lower-speed USB devices to a laptop.
I think it just comes down to how important you find the convenience of using the same machine when you're at your desk and when you're not.
I used an external monitor, keyboard and mouse when at the desk, even when I only owned a laptop. But I also use the laptop a lot on the couch, not just for traveling - so I wondered if I would find it annoying to have a separate desktop machine.
So far it's been well worth it. The desktop performance is much better (especially for gaming) and Dropbox, git, Chrome sync and VS Code sync make having multiple machines relatively painless.
Edit: I see in previous comments you were looking for a full sized bluetooth keyboard. I recently got a Logitech G915 [0] and I'm pretty happy with it. Expensive though.
I cannot type unless I'm sitting in a chair at my desk. Trying to type on the sofa or in bed means my hands are at all the wrong angles and touch typing completely fails me. (I wrote this not looking at the keyboard at all.)
The couch is fine for reading a tablet.
For me the trick when moving back and forth between the office and home was to have an external drive with everything on it and carry it back and forth. A better approach is probably remote desktop or remote login.
I travel with a cheap laptop loaded with only what I anticipate needing on the trip. It eases my mind to not worry too much about having it stolen, lost, or smashed.
I've gotten used to the convenience of a laptop, but I'm never happy with them. Now that I'm working remotely, the lappy just doesn't cut it. But I want to veg on the couch with my laptop once and a while. My solution is to use my older laptop as a thin client for my desktop.
Well... tbh I'm still working on the build. But I don't do windows and I don't play FPS or anything where latency would be super important. I use VNC across town to my office and that's generally good enough... but we'll see. I had small hopes that "laptop as linux thin client" would have an easy PNP solution by now, but my research indicates that this still isn't the case. Definitely open to suggestions.
It's been a bit since I had a second device to try it with, but my experienced with Windows Remote Desktop have been less of a "this would be hard to game with" lag and more a "the delay in my mouse movement is making my head hurt" lag.
My laptop is festooned with a hub. It covers power, peripherals, HDMI and networking. And that’s all I need. So really not very different to a desktop, except I can also pick it up and take it with me if I want.
I have a few USB devices (a colour calibrator springs to mind right now) that insist on being in a directly attached USB port, and won't work even with a powered hub, or, in the case of my Surface laptop, a dock.
Just use a usb hub. I have all my accessories on the hub and then when I finish work I move the hub usb to my desktop so my kb/mouse/mic are all switched over.
> It's hard to find a full size bluetooth keyboard.
not only is that hard, it's hard to find a bluetooth keyboard that isn't laggy as heck and doesn't occasionally freeze for a second or five. Or just give up until you re-pair it.
Maybe one of the next 20 that I try...
> How big, you ask? A wall size retina display! I've wanted one for 40 years.
I have always thought, since Digital Research GEM, that the "desktop" in GUIs should be your desk's top. We're nearly there...
This has been my experience, too. The full size Apple Magic Keyboard Works great with my MacBook Pro, no lag, no delays waking up, charge lasts weeks, plug it in with a lightning cable, and it charges while it works like as an USB HID keyboard, even works with my Raspberry Pi. The only challenge is that after about 5 years of daily use, a few of the keycaps are wearing down.
Connected to my 15" laptop, I have directly connected a 34", 24" and a portrait 24". Four displays total; two via DisplayPort, one via HDMI. Plus external BT mouse and keyboard. Then I have a powered Anker dock with eight external drives connected (photo and video for editing work).
At home, I have a similar setup but with a 27" colour-calibrated screen in place of the 34" curved.
When travelling, I use an unpowered four port dock which means I can connect five external drives without needing the powered dock and its power brick. The unpowered dock only struggles if I have more than a couple of platter drives (instead of SSD) connected.
Matias' laptop pro ticked all the boxes for me (tenkeyless, full travel, damped ALPS-clone key switches, macOS layout/markings, clunky retro-inspired design, long battery life) and it really was fantastic (though the keys do have a tiny bit of play) but then one of the brightness keys stopped working. :( I'm still using it though.
Prior to that I used Apple keyboards which work fine but have low-travel chiclet-style keys which aren't as nice to type on (they are much quieter for office environments though.)
I have the Logitech MX Master Keys, although I use a receiver with it instead of Bluetooth which is also connected to my Logitech mouse. The keyboard is good for people who like the shallow press laptop like keyboards instead of a long travel mechanical keyboard. It's similar looking to a Magic Keyboard but the keys have dimples in them so it's more comfortable.
It's not just the monitor being big, I want lots and lots of pixels. I'm currently running 3840*2160, and have a second monitor attached set up in portrait mode (so I can display a manual page while I work on the other one).
Of course, I'd get an even bigger monitor with more pixels if they didn't cost so dang much :-) How big, you ask? A wall size retina display! I've wanted one for 40 years.