I got my Spider monkey almost a week ago. I really enjoy it for what it is: a way to turn my Ipad pro into a floating screen on a super-flexible base.
The downsides
During the week, I have not once taken the Ipad out of the claws of the Spider monkey.
The thing about putting a tablet into something like a Spider monkey is that it becomes much more unwieldy to move, and that that it requires setup after every single location change. Not a lot of setup, not difficult setup, but nevertheless one step more than usig a caseless tablet. To sum it up: mode changes are slower. Once in a mode it is superior, but it takes work to get there.
The upsides
Put in the work to change modes, reap benefits. I have no other computer where I can get a position like this:
This setup felt amazing in the same way as the one I discovered last week, only better in all ways. I was truly leaned back, watching an interesting video while using splitscreen to make some notes in Drafts.
I am pretty sure my Ipad usage has gone up the past week thanks to the Spider monkey. It feels like a great combination with my Ipad pro, for me, personally. It is slower and less portable than a laptop by a good margin, but the user experience for me is worth it. Unexpected turn that: the tablet becoming the less nimble device. Shows why you do not want to have something like this as a default. Better sell the naked robotic core and let people adapt it to their situations. But perhaps Apple should promote the fact that these things exist more? Promote putting tablets inside situation-appropriate solutions? That could be a key to those professional uses and users Apple keep talking about tablets now being for.