1 day Ago By Damien Wilde
A happy working environment has always been a priority, but even more so now that more people than ever are working from home. Here are a few of the home office essentials I’ve accrued and think might help out if you are building a setup of your own. Slouch office chair I was recently lucky enough to test drive an office chair from UK furniture brand Slouch.
After a couple of months of sitting comfortably, I don’t think I could go back to another brand. Sure, you’ll hear people wax lyrical about Herman Millar and their exorbitant office seating options, but the fact is, most people don’t want to spend almost $1,000 on a chair. A good chair is one of the best investments for any office.
It’s the reason why I consider my office chair one of the most essential items in my home office. In the UK, Slouch drastically undercuts the competition without skimping on comfort and quality. I’ll stop short of calling their office chair lineup the best you can buy, but at around £300, I know I’m going to be content and comfortable for the better part of a decade.
Less bulky, gorgeous colors, and back-saving lumbar support in a package that isn’t “techie” like some office chairs that have too many controls and orientation settings that don’t actually make a difference to how you’re positioned at a desk or table. The lumbar loop has, if I’m honest, also become a little extra storage space for my mini sling that I carry around day-to-day. I’ve had a couple of months of my back thanking me for making a switch from an ancient Autonomous.
ai office chair. I actually think that Slouch has made the perfect chair for gamers too. It’s not unnecessarily gaudy or in your face.
So if you want a cosy home gaming setup, the slim-but-sturdy design means it’ll be right at home. Flexispot standing desk A few years back I was one of those people that thought IKEA was the answer to kitting out my office with furniture. A few hundred £££ later I figured I was ready for a long time to come.
However, I quickly realized that the quality waned the longer I used my previous Thygge desk. I hadn’t considered a sit-stand desk until I spotted a sale on Flexispot desks on Amazon. I have the E7 model, which looks like it is discontinued.
It’s a very sturdy desk, has a couple of presets you can set for your optimum sitting height and standing height. The killer here is the desk top. It looks great with the rubber wood top.
It’s age nicely and there is plenty of space to play with. I cannot recommend the brand highly enough – I even have two more desks in my office from the company for my gaming PC and top-down filming rig. One little but important bonus is that with a sit-stand desk you can just raise it to fit your chair underneath for clean, effective storage.
It’s a win-win. Logitech MX Master 3 Yes, I’m basic for having and using this mouse day-to-day. It’s just a given that anyone making videos or using a Mac would opt for this ergonomic mouse.
Sadly, it is what it is. I have yet to find a suitable replacement for the MX Master 3 , and my own peripheral is battered, bruised, and in need of some TLC. Find me a better tool for the job and I’ll listen, but for now it’s a staple and I can’t see that changing.
..at least until the MX Master 4 rolls around.
Pixel Tablet with Hub dock I’m sure like many of you reading; I am deeply, deeply into the Google Home ecosystem, with around 30-40 devices (mostly plugs and bulbs) plus several Nest cameras dotted around my house. I picked up the Pixel Tablet sans Hub speaker dock in mid-2024 but finally decided it was time to retire an older first-gen Nest Hub to a spare room in favor of the multi-purpose Android tablet instead. The change has been a huge upgrade and mostly because of Google’s switch to Gemini as the default on-device AI assistant if you want to make the switch.
For me, the voice recognition is far better than any other Nest Hub in my house. This is essential for my office desk setup as I can request multiple things at once and have lights, switches, and even my camera power up without making several individual requests. As a tablet, it’s so-so.
I take it with me when travelling to watch YouTube, but most of the time it’s my podcast and home control companion – something I almost can’t live without at this point in time. Lemokey HE 8K / Wobkey Crush 80 mechanical keyboard If you are a gamer or – like me – someone who types a huge volume of text on your PC then a decent keyboard is an essential in your office or PC desk setup. I’m lucky enough to have two setups.
One is my gaming PC which I prefer a dedicated gaming keyboard for, while my main editing or “work” setup is Mac-based but has different requirements. That’s why I use two different mechanical keyboards. Recently, I’ve been testing the unreleased Lemokey HE 8K keyboard as my wired gaming option .
On my Mac, I used the Wobkey Crush 80 after a friend recommended it to me. If I had to lean one way, the Wobkey keyboard has the edge in my opinion due to the design and the Bluetooth connectivity. However, for gaming, Lemokey has made a great midrange mechanical keyboard.
It has customizable magnetic Hall Effect switches. These are not like any switches I have used before but the it’s a great experience when playing casual shooters like Apex Legends. These switches are surprisingly smooth but the aesthetic in the terribly named “Cyber” design is one of the major bugbears I have with the keyboard.
The font used on the double-shot PBT keycaps look atrocious especially when the RGB is enabled. I can deal with it given how solid the construction and gaming experience is, but at $199 this is not a cheap option and for that reason it is hard to recommend over other cheaper mech boards designed solely for gaming. Luckily, there are plain colorways to choose from and I highly recommend those alternative options for a cleaner desk setup.
The Crush 80 board is similarly expensive at around $190 and does lack a few features, like a dedicated volume control knob, which is something I really would love to have. I love the Kailh Cocoa switches that come with the Pro model. The typing experience is just gorgeous, and it feels like such a tank compared to my previous Logitech Mechanical Mini.
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