If you know someone who doesn’t want to come back from working from home, these desk-bound gadgets could keep their desk their new home for time to come.
The working world may never be the same, but for many, that’s quite all right. With so many of us having grown accustomed to the extra time our lives have in the work-from-home world, “WFH” may as well have become a new favourite acronym and initialism (it’s technically the latter, but most will regard it as the former).
And that may mean buying something for the home office could be just what some people would want.
After all, if the home office is the place to be, making it just that much nicer could just be a great gift for the holiday, and let that person know that you’re thinking of them.
TwelveSouth HoverBar Duo
Price: $140
One of those random accessories and peripherals we didn’t know we needed until we saw it, the TwelveSouth HoverBar Duo has become a surprisingly useful piece of kit in the Pickr office.
Essentially a device clamp on a stand, it’s a gadget that is simple to explain, and yet feels like it makes the desk so much better overall. With the HoverBar Duo, you can clamp an iPad to the side of your monitor and expand your screen, or even do that with your phone.
It’s just a handy way to make your desk feel that much more connected to the extra gadgets you’ll inevitably have in your life.
Logitech MX Master 3
Price: $150
Logitech has spent quite a bit of time trying to refine its mice, and with the MX Master 3, not only does it have the design right, but also the functionality.
You might think a mouse only has one purpose, controlling where the mouse cursor goes and what you click, but the MX Master 3 goes beyond that, bringing great software to let you remap the buttons on an app-by-app basis.
It means you can change buttons to do different things in each of your important app, speeding up workflows dramatically. Add to that just how comfortable this right-handed mouse is (even for Pickr’s left-handed editor!), and you have what is a solid mouse choice working from home, or even anywhere else, for that matter.
Satechi iMac Stand
Price: $150
A stand mostly made for Apple’s iMac, you mightn’t think this has all that much use for anyone without one, but then you’d be wrong.
The Satechi iMac stand not only takes an iMac, but can also lift a monitor, raising it off the desk to give you a little more clearance and height, while also giving you a few more USB ports, card readers, and a 3.5mm headset hack at the front, expanding what your computer can do from the one place.
It even lets you throw a little bit under it, basically providing some extra storage opportunities, handy given we’re all holding so much extra on our desks in the first place.
Samsung T7 Touch SSD
Price: $279
Regular backups are a must have in any office, home or otherwise, but keeping backups fast and secure are also important in the grand scheme of things, and both of those are covered with Samsung’s external T7 Touch.
The drive supports a fingerprint system to unlock the drive, keeping the contents locked up until your digit makes it way to the pad, while the drive is also one of the fastest we’ve encountered.
It’s also small and light, and while that mightn’t matter as much while working from home, for that eventual day when you have to go back into the office, having a fast and light backup kit is likely to be appreciated.
Koala Virtue Office Chair
Price: $375
We bet the last time anyone thought of their office chair, it was because it was about to break, not because they actually wanted one that was comfortable over long periods of time.
Koala could have an answer to that, with a model that looks a little different from the usual drab black chairs every office has, and instead is made from the same materials Koala uses in its foam mattresses, with a focus on providing support for your back.
There’s clearly no shortage of gamer chairs that look to do much the same, but few look like they’re made to make the office stylish, and Koala’s kind of does, giving it a bit of an upper hand when buying for someone who wants to keep the professionalism of work in the work-from-home.
Dell 34-inch Curved USB-C monitor P3421W
Price: $999
Working from home means you can typically stretch out a little more, and that may mean getting a bigger screen to let you get more done. More tabs, more windows, and more screen real estate to get more accomplished in your WFH life.
Ever since we started working from home more aggressively, we’ve been taking full advantage of the ultra-wide monitor we’ve been using, with just that little bit extra space delivering a bigger desktop to do things with, and the curvature of a curved screen just being subtle enough to let your eyes and head take in more without moving it as often.
While we’ve not reviewed this particular breed of Dell 34 inch, the model we’re using is a slightly older variation, and works exceedingly well. Meanwhile, this version supports the an ultra-wide res, a curve, and the more modern Type C connector practically all new laptops arrive with.
Apple iMac 24
Price: $2199
A rather pricey holiday present, Apple’s 2021 iMac offers a reason to keep working from home: you could be using such a lovely computer, why would you work from anywhere else?
This reinvention of the all-in-one desktop isn’t just another iMac style for Apple, but one that revives the concept, bringing back the colourful personality of the originals, all while providing something new. There’s a beautifully sharp and vibrant screen, the super-fast Apple M1 chip just like out of the 13 inch MacBook Pro, plus some of the best sound a desktop has ever had.
Yes, it’s a little on the expensive side, but it’s a beautiful computer that might just keep you tethered to your desk, using that deliciously lovely 24 inch screen and maybe getting some more work done. Or even something else.
