Working from home continues to be a divisive practice, with some employers grudgingly giving in to pandemic-driven patterns of change and others resolutely herding workers back to their cubicles. This updated selection of new tech and accessories should help transform your domestic space into a harmonious and productive home working space.
New tech essentials to ease working from home
Gridlock shelving by Massproductions
Swedish design house Massproduction has created a new modular wall-mounted shelving system, Gridlock. The wooden shelving, available in natural, white, as well as black-stained ash, has two different depths with additional components coming soon to add additional storage options as well as a dedicated desk area.
Gridlock, various sizes available from Massproduction, Massproduction.se
Vegan DeskPad by Twelve South
Twelve South’s newest DeskPad uses vegan leather to give a classic feel without the ethical downsides. Available in Black or Dove Grey, the large desktop pad accommodates your keyboard, pointing device and any other accessories, providing a unifying, consistent and slightly soft surface that will transform a kitchen table into a micro-office environment. Detail obsessives will admire how the edges are curved to match the MacBook corner radius.
Twelve South Vegan DeskPad, $49.99, TwelveSouth.com
RØDECaster Pro II Audio Production Studio
RØDE is an Australian specialist in audio recording and sound design. The company’s new RØDECaster Pro II is a self-contained audio production studio designed for anyone creating audio content, from podcasters to streamers and musicians. The compact device allows up to nine individual audio channels, multitrack recording, on-board effects and integrated Bluetooth to accommodate phone-ins. All this is controlled with a 5.5in touchscreen.
RØDECaster Pro II, £649, Rode.com, available from Andertons.co.uk
Teague Breeze Concept
Created by legendary and pioneering industrial design agency Teague, the Breeze concept is a new approach that combines heating, cooling and filtering systems. Intended to find favour in homes and small workspaces around the world and replace clunky industrial units with a sleekly designed, multifunctional object, the Breeze concept would be available in a number of different colour ways. The designers have also incorporated a range of modular options, from glass-topped drinks tray to shelving and oddments storage.
Teague Breeze, concept only, Teague.com
Apple Mac Studio
Another substantial performance hike, courtesy of Apple’s shift to the M2 Max and M2 Ultra chipsets, the new Apple Studio is an ultra-compact desktop aimed squarely at the data-heavy creative. M2 Ultra models support up to 192GB of memory and can support up to eight additional displays, with a processing capability that can cope with 22 simultaneous streams of 8K video. For filmmaking and 3D rendering, scarcely anything else can touch it.
Apple Studio, from £2,099, Apple.com
Electronic Materials Office Altar I
London-based start-up Electronic Materials Office pledges to make electronics that last for ever, with superior build quality, premium parts and materials and an emphasis on devices you use every day and forge a close bond with. Its Altar I is a low-profile wireless mechanical keyboard, built using aluminium and recycled plastic and a tried and tested switch mechanism. Only available in black, the keyboard promises a superior typing experience (available in both US and UK standard keyboards) and can remember two Bluetooth devices.
Altar I keyboard, $349 (pre-order price), ElectronicMaterialsOffice.com
Tenon Smart Adjustable Desk by Beflo
Another addition to the burgeoning category of sit-stand home office desks, Beflo’s Tenon smart desk has an integrated touch screen to control ambient light as well as pairing with Alexa and Siri. An optional Flow Kit adds smart cable management, and there are integrated power and USB outlets to keep everything as clean and clutter-free as possible. On top of all that, the electrically adjustable height makes it easy to switch from sitting to standing throughout the day.
Tenon Smart Adjustable Desk, $2,499, Gobeflo.com
MagEZ Slider 2 by Pitaka
Pitaka’s MagEZ Slider 2 attempts to bring all your Apple devices together for wireless charging. The stand incorporates a perch for Qi enabled earbuds, an Apple watch mount and a main MagSafe-compatible charge base with a detachable power bank. LEDs show the charge status and the Slider 2 can support up to 7.5W of wireless charging.
Pitaka MagEZ Slider 2, $129, iPitaka.com
Espresso Display
An ultra-thin portable monitor, Espresso’s plug-and-play 15in display connects and powers via USB-C and gives your computer some welcome additional screen real estate. The wafer-thin screen clips onto an ingenious folding stand, while a detachable cover protects the touchscreen 1080p display when not in use. In-built speakers and support for pen devices make this a handy companion to a computer or laptop.
Espresso Display, 15in, £479, UK.espres.so
USB cables from Nothing and Teenage Engineering
They may be a small part of your set-up, but cables are essential and good ones make a difference. Two of our favourite brands, Teenage Engineering and Nothing (which recently released the Nothing Phone (2)), have both issued simple USB-C to C cables in recent months. The latter adopts Nothing’s trademark transparent shell for a streamlined, minimal look, whereas TE’s cable is designed for audio, MIDI and data transfer, especially from their own range of devices, and is designed to be hard-wearing enough to take on the road.
Teenage Engineering textile USB-C to C cable, £19, Teenage.Engineering
Nothing USB-C to C cable, available from Nothing.tech
Charcoal smart standing desk
Charcoal is an American brand that builds sophisticated, standing home office desks. Available in both small and large sizes, the Charcoal desk isn’t just a high-rise surface that’ll save your back and circulation. To benefit from the desk’s abilities, you need to surrender to its array of sensors, filtered through a companion app, and follow its advice to have some downtime when it figures your productivity is lagging.
Charcoal’s CEO and co-founder Arjun Ashok describes the desk as helping ‘us use our brain the way it’s designed to function … this profoundly affects our daily living’. The desk height can be adjusted using discreet motors, with a glossy acrylic surface and inbuilt haptic feedback that’ll communicate when it's time to take a break.
Charcoal Desk, from $1,199, Charcoal.inc
Dyson ‘CSYS’ desk light
Away from home hygiene and dust-busting, Dyson has a healthy side hustle in lighting design, spearheaded by chief lighting engineer, and ‘son of’, Jake Dyson. The company’s ‘CSYS’ desk light is designed for longevity and eye-saving luminance. To achieve this, the LED light source has an extremely low optical flicker, near daylight-level colour balance and a special cooling technology that the company claims gives the ‘CSYS’ a 60-year lifespan.
Available as both a desk and floor lamp, the carefully balanced arm can be precisely positioned without the need to be constantly readjusted, the illuminated stem gives an ambient glow, and dimming is achieved by a simple touch-sensitive slider.
Dyson CSYS Dyson Solarcycle Morph desk light, from £499.99, Dyson.co.uk
Philips Brilliance curved monitor
You’re spoilt for choice with the current generation of curved desktop displays, intended to better mimic our natural eye position and ability to take in information in our peripheral vision. Our choice is Philips’ Brilliance series, in particular this 34in curved UltraWide model.
Capable of displaying 3440 x 1440 pixels in a 21:9 format, the monitor includes a pop-up webcam within the bezel that can be tucked away when not required, and also has sensors to use Windows’ face-recognition sign-in technology. There’s a built-in USB docking station to connect and charge up to four devices, with both HDMI and USB-C connectivity.
Philips Briliance Curved UltraWide LCD Monitor with USB-C 346P1CRH/00, £570, Philips.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk
NuPhy Field75 wireless mechanical keyboard
NuPhy’s new Field75 is billed as a wireless mechanical keyboard for gamers, but its rugged form, old school-style keys, and click-clacky action make it a physically delightful object with which to bash out a few hundred words. The nearest thing to a digital typewriter, the Field75 has a slight whiff of dieselpunk (according to the company), as well as the form and palette of AI-inspired science fiction visions, with names to match – Gravity, Ethereal and Noether. We especially like the metal volume knob, which syncs perfectly with the mechanical ethos of a key that travels and clicks, rather than simply squishes beneath your fingers.
Field75 by Nuphy, $159.95, NuPhy.com
Grovemade desk shelf system
Wallpaper* favourite Grovemade isn’t exactly at the cutting edge of technology; its wares are designed to prop up, support, sort, and organise the myriad connections, devices, cables and professional detritus that clutters up the workspace. For a hefty monitor stand, with space to store a laptop or two, the elegant Desk Shelf is a solid bet, available in three sizes and a number of finishes. Based out of facility in Portland, Oregon, the company prototypes and does limited manufacturing in-house, selling a wide variety of well-crafted stands, tools, and accessories.
Grovemade Desk Shelf in solid oak, medium, $300, Grovemade.com
Nomad Stand One Magsafe wireless charger station
Nomad’s Stand One is a must-have desk accessory (see our pick of other wireless chargers too), a simple, monolithic wireless device that doubles up as a mount for your iPhone in either portrait or landscape format. Rated to offer MagSafe fast charging at up to 15W, the Nomad Stand One is available in carbide and silver finishes and wouldn’t disgrace any desk.
Nomad Stand One MagSafe Charger, $110, NomadGoods.com
Brother HL-L2350DW Wireless Mono laser printer
You’ll struggle to find a desktop printer with enduring looks and a minimal carbon footprint in this era of pricey ink and disposable hardware. If you have to print – and, let’s face it, many of us rarely do – then Brother’s HL-L2450DW is as close to a classic as this notoriously visually challenged sector gets. For a start, it’s a laser printer, so you won’t be subjected to inkjets’ perishing thirst. It’s also wireless, meaning you can print from your phone and Chromebook as well as conventional PCs. Finally, it has a squared-off, sober look that's more than acceptable.
Brother HL-L2350DW Wireless Mono Laser Printer, £129.50, Brother.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk
Teenage Engineering TP-7 Field Recorder
The Swedish wizards at Teenage Engineering happily throw cost considerations out of the window, creating music-making devices (such as the OP-1 Field) and accessories that are refined, beautiful and eye-wateringly expensive. The new TP-7 is no exception. Ostensibly designed for making field recordings, for music, sound-effects, broadcasts, and so on, the TP-7 is a miraculously elegant piece of product design.
Shaped to fit in the hand, the tiny device has a lever for fast forward and rewind, a small but vivid screen with time, date and play counter, VU meters, internal microphone, speakers, three different 3.5mm audio in-points, a dedicated companion app and USB-C. The pièce de résistance is the wheel, which spins to indicate recording or playback and can be physically stopped or scrubbed back and forth to locate a particular section of audio. With 128 GB of internal storage and a dedicated transcription function in the app, this is a powerful tool for a number of trades.
Teenage Engineering TP-7, £1,299, Teenage.Engineering
Google Pixel Tablet
Google’s new Android tablet aims to combine the functionality of a hand-held screen with a dockable display that just happens to run Google Assistant and stream video and audio. An excellent desktop companion, the Pixel Tablet will double up as a video calling unit, a multifunctional information display, a digital picture frame or simply a digital assistant that’ll take notes using Google’s voice typing. A separate case features a metal stand for different viewing angles.
Google Pixel Tablet, from £599, Store.Google.com
Meticulous Espresso home espresso machine
Finally, no work space is complete without a source of energy. When it comes to a coffee maker, we’ve got our eyes on the forthcoming Meticulous Espresso home espresso machine. The innovation here is a robotically controlled lever, ensuring the pressure is perfect every time, thanks to a bunch of sensors and a powerful digital motor. With an integrated scale, neat circular UI and an app filled with endless tweaking options, this elegant object is crowdfunding now. Here’s hoping it works as well as it looks.
