Help with using a MacBook M3 Pro as a laptop and desktop

In regards to the displays, the Sonnet Echo 20 TB4 Superdock says it can support a ASD on one of the TB4 ports and a 4k 60Hz display on the other TB4 port but I'd be interested in understanding this further. There's also a dock that has 2xTB4 chips albeit a bit expensive with mixed reviews on reliability (IVANKY something-or-other)

That's essentially what I would have. I could put a 2TB SSD into it's internal SSD slot for Time Machine (uses circa 700Mb/s bandwidth) and have an external data SSD on one of the USB C ports (10 Gbps) on the TB4 dock or plugged in to the ASD or LG display, or alternatively plugged direct to the MacBook although that would then be two plugs to take off! Not a big deal really.

External keyboard, mouse and trackpad connected over bluetooth.

That would just leave some ports for syncing/charging iPhone and iPad - not a great power delivery for these but it's not a big deal for me as I normally charge the phone overnight next to my bed and the iPad just over time during the day.

(edited with a bit more info)

The TB4 dock will provide power to external drives and the MacBook via its TB cable so I don't think power will be a problem - I can imagine having to plug the displays into their own power source. Really, power isn't what I'm scratching my head over, it's really the useability/aggravation of using the MacBook across the above scenarios. I'd say the usage profile would be: 70% computer desk, 20% workbench and 10% off site. Although once I start having to work at my workbench, it's likely to switch around to something like 80% workbench, 10% computer desk and 10% off site. Generally, I mostly work at the computer desk but once I start having to sit at the workbench, then a lot of work will go on there.

I wouldn't use it for gaming and for the software purposes I would use it for - heaviest things being something like Fusion 360, LabVIEW and some low key development and I know it will be fine for what I do.

My queries are not about the MacBook itself which I know would be fine but really about day-to-day usage: moving it between computer desk, workbench and off-site and how much aggravation that would likely to be. I'm not sure.

In my head to move from computer desk to workbench what I'd like to do is:

• Pull the TB dock lead out
• Move to workbench and open MacBook lid
• Plug in the TB dock on the workbench
• Crack on with work.

What I suspect is to move from computer desk to workbench I would need to do the following:

• Put MacBook to sleep
• Wait 1 minute for it to flush any cache to disk and properly go to sleep. Would it flush caches??
• pull the plug to the TB dock. This I suspect would raise the "incorrectly ejected disks" error - and if it was doing a TM backup??
• Move to workbench and open MacBook lid
• Plug in TB dock
• Crack on with work

Pretty much the same to take it off site and the same but in reverse to move back to computer desk. Would it be as simple as this? At night if I put the MacBook to sleep would it also "turn off" the displays? And so on....Where are my pain points likely to be?

With the iMac and MacBook setup I have now, none of those things apply but my aggravation, if you like, is that the two machines aren't really in sync and obviously it's expensive to upgrade the two machines rather than just switch everything to one MacBook. I also have to buy two software licences for some pieces of software I use (e.g. Parallels and the guest Windows OS.)

That is useful info, thanks. So it looks like I'd have to assume that at least two things would be plugged in to the MacBook. Whether or not I then require a dock could be moot: if I plug both displays into the MacBook, the other peripherals could hang off the LG display as it has 2 TB and 3 USBc ports; the ASD has 3 additional USBc ports as well I believe (can't remember and it isn't really necessary to look it up right now.)

Notwithstanding, I'm still not clear exactly what is likely to happen with plugging in/unplugging stuff. I'm pretty convinced in my mind that external drives will need to be ejected - I guess I could create an Automator routine to eject/mount them before pulling the plugs. IIRC there's a bit of software that would eject/mount external drives when I put the MacBook to sleep. That doesn't sound too onerous as long as I remember!

Are there any other particular issues with using clamshell mode, say with powering down stuff when I put the MacBook to sleep when I'm done for the day? Doing some research, it would appear that most problems seem to relate to people not really setting it up properly.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. I definitely don't want to be running a 5K display (any display) at 30Hz so that's good information. It would seem that I'd need to remember to eject drives before pulling two plugs but apart from that there are no specific issues with running it in clamshell mode. I expect I'd get into the swing of it after a short period of time.

If I good find better reviews, i.e. less biased and from people who have used it in anger for a period of time, on the IVANKY dock that may be a reasonable option although I do like the SSD slot in the Sonnet. Anyway this thread was more about any vagaries of using clamshell mode than the kit itself.

It's an option - the biggest issue I have is desk space: the screens would have to be in a row as there isn't the height available due to it all being fitted furniture with shelves above. Using the MacBook in clamshell mode also gives me working desk space and I'm used to having two bigger screens for the last 25+ years. Having said that, I'm also thinking about using just a ASD with the MacBook screen and selling the LG screen. Clearly I have options I can try out before deciding.