Does anyone have any tech preferences typing/coding.
Favourite keyboard, Best mouse you’ve found? the perfect mouse mat, Headphones you couldn’t live without.
(I’m definitely not looking for an excuse to buy stuff)
My absolute favorite keyboard is the Microsoft Ergonomic (any model). Alas, it’s rather fragile - the circuitry is printed on sheets of plastic, so any liquid spills mean the keyboard is dead. Since I have cats that means I can’t have one at home or I’d replace it every month at minimum.
My second preference is the Logitech Wave, which is also ergonomic and comfortable to work with.
For mouse, the best I’ve found is the Logitech M510. It’s comfortable, easy to use, and doesn’t get terribly gunked up with cat hair.
Headphones, I swear by the Rocnation Skullcandy Aviator style headset with a cheap splitter to convert the mobile phone plug to a standard headphone/microphone pairing, then a USB converter. For whatever the reason, that combination gives me the best control without losing quality. The headset is bar none the most comfortable and wearable set of headphones I’ve ever used. Also long-lasting - my work set is 5 - 6 years old and still going strong, and the home set is 2-3 years old. I’m not sure the style is even available any more.
Hardware related
Mouse: Roccat Lua, a cloth mouse-pad.
Keyboard: prefer a mechanical, but not really mandatory; a basic 10$ keyboard can work. feeling of key press and positioning is important - always en-US layout - wysiwyg;
Monitor: Prefered 3 side by side 22-24 inch monitors, but 2 is also fine most of the time.
On the desk: some paper and a pen.
Headphones: in ear slim Sennheiser MX 271, 365 - easy on the ears because of wearing glasses; although the quality of the sound is not that nice…
My stuff:
Dell wireless keyboard and mouse.
Blue Snowball mic.
Sennheiser earphones.
Logitech HD 1080p - sadly virtually unavailable now
Vertical mouse - for RSI
Wireless Headphones HS70 Pro - also easy on the ears with glasses
Motorized sit-stand desk - for back pain
DELL 27" 4K S2719DC - for old eyes
The keyboard HAS to be a mechanical one - gold std. IBM Model M…but I use a Ducky
The Mouse MUST have kinetic scrolling.
The DESK MUST be sit/stand.
The Monitor MUST pivot from Horizontal to Vertical and have a 16:10 instead of 16:9 ratio!
1 Like
Does anyone have any recommendations for a wireless headphones for work calls / comfy to wear for 8 hours a day?
Philip I don’t think anything headphones has 8 hour battery life. I dis a lot of searching as well.
I can-not recommend the Corsair HS70Pro , battery about 4 hours maximum, very comfortable, but the USB dongle drivers are painful and sometimes I spend 2 minutes just getting the wireless to pair. But for someone who wears glasses HS70Pro is the most wearable.
1 Like
Sorry do you mean you recommend it?
Nope, although the HS70Pro is comfortable. But mine requires me to unplug the dongle and replug it every day just to get it working, (on 2 diff computers running windows10.) which is annoying, the battery life is OK, so you might be lucky with the dongle replugging pain.
1 Like
Lenovo T480 work laptop. I would totally get one for private use, if I needed one.
Headphones: over the ear, dual bluetooth (2 paired devices: phone + laptop), active noise control and a microphone arm that can be used for mute/unmute. I bought a pair of expensive Jabra Evolve 75 … 3 years ago? worth it every day.
1 Like
The Jabra Evolve 75 was on my list on well, I will take a look later but it sounds good.
1 Like
Have used a wireless Jabra pro 900 series set at work before, they are dear, but they are brilliant. I’m a bit tone deaf, so dunno about music quality, but the ones we had were worth it mainly because they have incredible working distance.
1 Like
Is the Logitech more sturdy than the Microsoft version?
Much more sturdy. So far my older Logitech has survived everything I’ve thrown at it in well over 5 years of constant use. The newer keyboard (same model, currently being used on my work laptop since I’ve been working from home the last 7 months) hasn’t had nearly as much use but is just as good. About the only thing I’ve had to do with them is disable the power button: if I didn’t, I’d have my system rebooting on me every time one of the cats walked on the keyboard.
2 Likes
Thanks for the feedback. I was going for a Microsoft erg but given the costs are not too dissimilar I’ll opt for the logitech. Bill Gates has enough of my money to date 
1 Like
Does anyone have, recommend or use anti fatigue mats?
Having a low chair need to keep feet moving so converting to standing desk. Any suggestions appreciated!
No real preference as long as it’s comfortable for me.
I do most of my work on ThinkPad T580 because it’s powerful and I love ThinkPad keyboards, feels so nice to type on them.
For mouse I use cheap A4-tech V7M mouse, it’s big and fits in my hand nicely. I have two of them, one for my laptop and another one for my desktop at home.
On desktop I use Natec Thor 300 TKL keyboard (cheap mechanical keyboard, noisy AF). But I don’t use desktop for work that often, it’s mostly for entertainment and gaming.
Headphones - AKG K550 on desktop (connected via SMSL iDEA USB DAC), on laptop Xiaomi Pro HD (good budget in-ear headphones with mic).
Desktop monitor is Dell ST2420L (older 24" model, bought it back in 2012 and it still works). I can plug it into laptop as well when needed, tho I rarely need two displays. Thinking about upgrading to some 27" or 32" model, but I’m not in a hurry so I’m waiting for something good that is also budget-friendly.
That’s all my own gear.
As far as company gear goes, got 27" iMac (late 2012 model that frontend team no longer wanted to use) when I started working for them back in 2017. Used it for some time, but I haven’t turned it on ever since I’ve bought my own ThinkPad T580. Now it’s just gathering dust on my desk at the office.
Talking of ergonomics. Vertical mice. A must for the over 40’s. I’m not going to recommend a specific one, but the cheapo I got for the missus has helped her so much I got one myself, and my RSI has pretty much halved itself to the point of only being a problem on gaming weekends.