This roundup is part of This Year in Gear, a look back at the year’s most notable releases. To stay on top of all the latest product news, subscribe to our daily Dispatch newsletter.
Samsung Space Monitor
Price: $500 $370
From: amazon.com
The Space Monitor doesn’t have a traditional base that rests on top of your desk but instead has a clamp that holds onto the side. While resting against the wall, its screen raised or lowered all the way down to the desk’s level. And it has a movable arm that lets you pull the screen out and titled in a number of ways.
LaCie Mobile Drive
Price: $70 $65
From: amazon.com
The sleek LaCie Mobile Drive comes in up to 5TB capacity using a conventional hard drive, while the solid-state LaCie Mobile SSD can crank out data at 540MB/s with up to 2TB storage. They’re both modeled visually after Apple MacBook designs and include a one-month subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud All Apps plan, to make photo and video processing much easier.
Anker PowerCore+ 19000 PD
Price: $120
From: amazon.com
The PowerCore+ 19000 PD is a high-capacity portable power bank (19,200mAh) that comes with Power Delivery (PD), meaning that it’s perfectly adept at charging either your smartphone or laptop or both at the same time. But the neat thing about the PowerCore+ 19000 PD is that it doubles as a USB-C hub.
Moft Laptop Stand
Price: $25 $22
From: amazon.com
The nifty laptop stand has a couple of convenient tricks up its sleeve. It features two elevation settings — 15 and 25 degrees — so you can adjust the height to whichever you find more convenient for your sitting posture. And the stand uses removable glue to stick to the bottom of your laptop, so you can attach and detach it without leaving any kind of mark, or attach it to another laptop.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S5e
Price: $389 $369
From: bhphotovideo.com
The Galaxy Tab S5e is a tablet that’s a thinner, lighter and cheaper version of the company’s flagship Galaxy Tab S4. The interesting thing about the Galaxy Tab S5e is that, for roughly half the price, you’d think it’d be a far worse tablet than the Tab S4. But it holds its own.
Audioengine A2+ Wireless
Price: $269
From: amazon.com
Audioengine’s A2+ Wireless ($269) are very similar to its A2+ ($249). They’re the same size. They have the same look. They have a power amp built inside the left speaker, so they sound great all on their own. And with numerous wired connections, you can easily hook them up to your computer, turntable, tablet or smartphone. The difference is that Audioengine added Bluetooth aptX to the A2+ Wireless.
Logitech Slim Folio Pro Keyboard
Price: $120
From: apple.com
Logitech’s Slim Folio Pro keyboard for the iPad Pro starts at $120 — almost $60 cheaper than Apple’s official iPad Pro keyboard accessory. The Slim Folio Pro offers additional functionality, too. It has backlit keys and a dedicated row of iOS shortcut keys to control things like screen brightness and volume. The keys will also automatically light up as soon as the tablet is slid into place.
RavPower 61W PD
Price: $36
From: amazon.com
RavPower beat Apple at its own game and announced the smallest-ever 61-watt wall charger with power delivery (PD) for a speedy charge: the RavPower 61W PD 3.0 GaN Wall Charger. It’s about the same size as the 5-watt puck that comes with your iPhone, or roughly half the size of Apple’s own 61-watt charger, and it’s easily capable of charging a MacBook Pro, MacBook Air or new iPad Pro.
SteelSeries Apex Pro Keyboard
Price: $200 $190
From: amazon.com
The new OmniPoint switches inside SteelSeries’ Apex Pro keyboards register keystrokes with magnetic sensors with sensitivity that can be adjusted from 0.4mm (extremely shallow and therefore quick) to 3.6mm (very deep and deliberate). For comparison, Cherry MX Speed switches, another gaming mainstay, have a locked-in 1.2mm actuation point.
Dell XPS 13 2-in-1
Price: $1,999
From: amazon.com
The taller screen size means that the XPS 13 2-in-1 will have a larger footprint than previous models, but Dell is using this as an excuse to increase the size of both the keyboard and trackpad. Despite the larger footprint, the new convertible laptop is 8 percent thinner, too.
Apple Sidecar
Price: free
From: apple.com
You can now use the old iPad you have hanging around as a second screen for your Mac. This new capability of macOS Catalina is called SideCar and uses an iPad as a screen that takes instruction from your Mac and acts as a second monitor, similar to third party apps that already exist like Duet Display. You can use your new screen either to simply extend your desktop, but a handful of apps have more functionality.
Roli Lumi Keyboard
Price: TBA
From: playlumi.com
Roli’s Lumi keyboard is a two-octave, 24-key keyboard with traditional piano-style keys that can light up in multiple colors as you play, Bluetooth networking, and a rechargeable battery. If you want a bigger soundscape to mess around on, Lumis are modular and can be connected to each other up to a 72 key setup.
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Linedock for MacBook Pro
Price: $349+
From: linedock.co
The Linedock is an accessory that sits underneath a newer MacBook or MacBook Pro and adds nine extra ports, 20,000mAH of battery life and up to 1TB of extra storage. Boom!
Twelve South StayGo
Price: $100 $85
From: amazon.com
The StayGo ($100) packs a whole lot of ports in a small package: including three USB-A ports (USB 3.0), two USB-C ports, one 4K HDMI port, one Gigabit Ethernet port, and then separate ports for SD and Micro-SD cards. The StayGo essentially adds all the ports that most pro-users or photographers need. Unlike most other USB-C hubs, the StayGo also comes with a detachable meter-long cable, meaning its long enough to hide, maybe in a desk drawer, if you don’t want to clutter up your desk.
Samsung Galaxy Book S
Price: TBA
From: samsung.com
Samsung’s Galaxy Book S is the company’s newest ultra-light and ultra-thin laptop. It has a 13.3-inch touchscreen and, most interestingly, it runs on a Qualcomm processor, which have traditionally been less powerful but more energy-efficient than Intel processors, which lets the Galaxy Book S have a battery life rated for up to 23-hours of continuous video playback .
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Logitech MX Master 3 Mouse
Price: $100
From: amazon.com
Instead of using a physical mechanism to provide the tactile clicks that let you scroll, say, a spreadsheet one row at a time, the MX Master 3 uses magnetic resistance to create the same effect. It feels just the same as you scroll slowly, but it also gives the mouse a superpower: Scroll fast enough and the magnets disengage, then the all-metal wheel is released to spin smoothly and freely with a quiet, satisfying mechanical hiss.
Schiit Fulla in Matte Black
Price: $99
From: schiit.com
For years, Schiit Audio’s most affordable product has been the Fulla, a beautiful headphone amp and a DAC that everybody who wants to improve their desktop audio situation, for cheap, should buy. The Fulla costs $99 and it plugs directly into your laptop or desktop. From there, you can use it as a DAC/amp with wired headphones. Or you can use it as a DAC/preamp for a nice pair of powered monitors. Now, it is available in matte black.
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