Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the project and always felt like Penns landing had a lot of wasted potential. Just more a comment on how abysmally long it takes the city to finish any project. Felt like city hall was under construction for a continuous decade.

Yea, knowing Philly I expect to be dead before this is finished lol.

Yea, that's obvious, it's just frustrating because if it was available I'd buy a 13 inch iPad with Mac os in a second... I wouldn't even care how expensive it is. It would instantly become my primary laptop. I tablet mode for consumption and note taking... Mac is for real work it would be prefect.

Totally... but its worse than that for. It not just that 5% that ends up killing the experience (although it totally does), its that simple shit takes way longer and is way more cumbersome on ios, which really drags down the whole experience to the point I don't want to use it.

For example, I often have to attach pages from documents I reference to the end of a letter. It is a goddamn nightmare to print pages 8-12 of a twenty-page document and then merge that with another or two other pdfs. I tried to do this on my iPad and it took like 20 min of research, 10 min of messing with the os until I finally pulled it off.

In Windows or mac OS, this is a drag-and-drop operation that takes 15 seconds, but with iOS it takes like 10 times longer, even when I know what to do.

IDK... I'm just mad because it could be perfect. A simple dual-boot option would solve all of these problems, and the only reason we don't have it is that apple thinks they can churn 1~2.5k out of you for a MacBook air or pro. I don't even need touch control in Mac OS because the only reason I'm end up booting into mac OS is when I need to get work done, so I'll have a mouse and keyboard handy. Not that I even need a mouse because apple has a touchpad in their overpriced keyboard.

I'm being a broken record here, but the work's already been done... Apple sells a macos laptop that a keyboard, screen, and touch pad. The iPad has a screen, touchpad and keyboard, what the problem here?

No... A laptop with a touchpad (like my dell xps) lacks a lot of utility from the tablet form factor, particularly when it comes to media consumption or (for my workflow) when I use the ipad and pencil as a notepad. I don't want laptop with a touch pad, I want an Ipad I can use like a real computer when I need to do work.

I don't see why we can't just dual boot into ios or mac OS... They sell a super nice keyboard and if you pair that with a BT mouse, its a laptop. But Ios keeps it from being actually useful.

I get it... they want to make money on my twice, but its just ending up with a shitter total product, because now I need to carry around two devices.

Power has never been the issue. Even the old ipad air is plenty fast to act as a laptop replacement. Its the limitations imposed by ios, which, no matter how hard they try to advertise otherwise, just cannot replace a desktop experience.

I'm a lawyer, so my workflow is pretty simple... lots of emails, research in browser light office use, and adobe acrobat for PDFs. I made the mistake of going out of town for a few days and leaving my laptop at home, and ios was just a nightmare. I was able to scrape by, but it was unbelievable how much shittier the mobile version of everything was. I can't even put a simple jpeg in a signature block. Mobile MS Word couldn't properly load my letterhead without completely fucking up the margins, making it unreadable. Even the "Pro" version acrobat couldn't reorder pages. Just insanity.

>iPad Pro is quite powerful

Yea but its the same problem when these discussions happen. iPad Pro also starts at $750 for the base model and the M1/2 Chip isn't really able to game that well when it comes to 99% of the games people want to play on the deck. There have already been a bunch of steam deck killers come out but the price tag always makes it a tough sell.

That's funny you mention that, the keyboard I mentioned in my post with the pandas was a GMMK Pro with Mito Lazer, so very similar to what you are using, so very familiar with what you are working with.

If you are going to for a silent switch, the U4s is definitely your best bet, and would definitely check the boxes in terms of quiet switches. The only thing I'll note is that they are truly a silent switch, even quieter than my buddy's Filco with silent reds. This means there is minimal thock, if any, to really speak of. Now, this is perfect for a work keyboard, but I wonder if it maybe goes too far, so you aren't even getting the "subtle tactile sound" you are looking for. Typing on them atm, its basically nonexistent because it's so good as a silent switch. I think you may be happy with the lubed Drop X, they are quieter than the lubed pandas but still retain that nice tactile sound. But, they aren't exactly cheap.

I'm personally not a fan of sound tests online since there are always way too many variables to consider, but that may be helpful if you are on a tight budget. You may want to consider ordering at least some U4s to see if they fit the bill before you invest in a full set, but if you are ever going to be in the market for a work keyboard, they basically cannot be beaten, so I don't think you'd regret your purchase regardless.

Depends on the sound you want, both switches are nice. I have a board with the U4Ts and just tuned a buddy's board with glorious pandas. The U4Ts, while a great feeling switch, are loud as shit, even after lubing them. When I play games online people frequently comment on how fucking loud the U4Ts, my favorite is "hey man, can you bang out that email later, we are trying to beat this raid boss." I eventually built another board with aqua kings and can't go back to bobas because they are downright disruptive when working/gaming long periods of time compared to the relatively silent aqua kings.

So the question you need to answer is how loud do you want your keyboard to be. Also, are your pandas lubed or unlubed? If they are lubed (not sure about the factory job, I handlubed with 2304), they are relatively quiet so the U4Ts will be a huge change in sound. If they are stock, then it will be comparable, but the bobas will still be louder. After I lubed a set of pandas, I ended up liking them better in terms of usability than my U4Ts. Sure they didn't feel as nice, but the sound was just better IMO. You should also consider the new Drop Holy Panda Xs, which are quite nice (and reviewed favorably by Goat as well). I got a set of them and they are indeed nicer than Glorious Panda (also expensive), and IMO have a really nice muted clacky profile when lubed. I'm currently lubing a full set of the Drop X to replace the U4Ts in my tactile board. But I tend to like a quieter switch over mega thok, which is why my favorite overall switch is the boba u4 (silent tactile) they retain 90% of the feel of the U4Ts and are quieter than anything discussed previously. I have U4s on my work board, and just build my GF a keyboard with them as well, although they lack the nice sounds from the other switches, it's all about the tactility.

So my recommendations, from lots of trial, error, and wasted money, are (1) to go for the U4Ts if you are a thok slut, (2) go for Drop X if you want to upgrade to your current setup, (3) if you want nice quiet clack either hand lube your pandas or hand lube the drop X and (4) go the U4s if you want a silent board.

The second set of switches I ever tried to hand lube were Everglide aqua kings, that are totally transparent. My eyes were bugging out trying to keep track of everything but at least I could see that I applied lube to each part before putting it back together. I bet these were even worse.