My Home Office Setup
I have been iterating on my home office setup for a while now. This post describes my current setup as we reach the end of 2024.
This photo shows my current setup.
Monitor: Samsung Odyssey G9 ¶
I have tried several monitor setups—two landscape; one landscape and one portrait; various 27” and 32” combos, a ‘mini’ ultrawide, and finally (for now!) a proper ultrawide, curved screen.
I went for a Samsung Odyssey G9 49” curved monitor, 240Hz, OLED (around £1,000 at Amazon, you can probably find a deal somewhere). It is a beast designed for gamers, and my Mac only drives it at 60Hz or 120Hz. Honestly, it must be so bored.
It does not take long for the parabolic curve to fool your brain, and it means that wherever you look at the monitor, you are facing it square on.
I use Moom to tile the monitor, with five vertical ‘zones’ split horizontally. The centre zone is a bit wider than the rest. (I set it as 16x2, with verticals as 3-3-4-3-3.) I have shortcuts for each of five full stripes, five upper boxes and five lower boxes.
I generally have my working window in the middle, mail top left, calendar bottom left, ’noise’ top and bottom right (Slack, Signal, etc.). Then the verticals either side of the centre are for reference tools like Craft or a browser window.
Monitor arm: Vivo ¶
I recently switched out the stock Samsung stand for a Vivo heavy-duty monitor arm and it is lovely. I have a light bar and webcam sitting on the monitor—more details below—and it was all too heavy for the stock stand, which is not adjustable, so the monitor was starting to ‘sink’.
I’m love the additional desk space, and the new arm is strong! I thought I was going to break something while I was tightening it to support the weight of the monitor, but I’m sure it still has some torque left.
Dock: CalDigit TS4 ¶
This was a no-brainer. I had the CalDigit TS3+ for a couple of years so the TS4 was a natural upgrade. I tried the CalDigit Element Hub, which is a pared-down unit with just a handful of Thunderbolt 4 and USB-A connectors, but that was too minimalist even for me, so I ended up with the CalDigit TS4.
Webcam: Opal C1 ¶
For a long time I had a ‘proper’ camera—in my case a Sony RX100 Mark VII—connected to an AVerMedia Live Streamer HDMI-to-USB adapter. This gave me an amazing picture but with lots of tech sitting behind the monitor, including a boom stand just for the camera.
Then a couple of years ago, I stumbled across the Opal C1 webcam. It is tiny, has an array mic built into the front (which I do not use, see below for my mic choice), and it gives a fantastic image over standard USB-C.
There have been some bumps along the way with the software and drivers—the subreddit can get a little feisty—and I am looking at the Insta360 Link 2C as a possible replacement based on reviews because it has not been an easy ride in terms of stability, so take this one under advisement!
Lighting: BenQ ScreenBar Halo ¶
Lighting is always hard to get right. I give talks from home as well as being on a lot of calls so I want the audio and visual experience for viewers to not be miserable.
For a long time I had a pair of Elgato lights: a KeyLight as the main light and a KeyLight Air at the side. I recently replaced these with a single BenQ ScreenBar Halo and it is wonderful. It diffuses a lovely light down onto the desk without lighting the screen, which lights my face without washing me out, and it has a backlight that bounces off my wall to provide a fill. All of this is controlled by a chunky, tactile desktop controller. I got rid of both the Elgato lights and I now just have the single bar light.
I also have an original Anglepoise lamp, which is completely unnecessary but rather beautiful.
Microphone: Røde Lavalier II ¶
The choice of a microphone can be almost a religious thing. I have been through most of the major ones: Blue Yeti and Yeti Pro, Røde Podcaster, Shure MV7, on various boom and desk stands. I have ended up with a Røde Lavalier II lapel mic, with its ‘flat’ radio presenter sound which magically removes all the echo from my small home office while still sounding rich. Being able to remove the intrusive boom stand was liberating. Another benefit is that I can travel with the mic (and camera!) and have great AV on the road.
Keyboard: KeyChron K15 Pro ¶
I got into mechanical keyboards this year, having been tapping away on an Apple Magic keyboard for years. It really is a different experience but it is very much a personal choice. I know people who would rather stay with the ultra-low travel of an Apple keyboard, and I get it. I love typing on both.
I found a happy middle place with the KeyChron K15 Pro low-profile keyboard with an ‘Alice’ layout, which means the keys are splayed to the shape of your hands when you hold them out in front. This minimises wrist tension without going all the way to a split keyboard. (I use brown Gateron switches if you care, which are quiet-clicky.)
Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3S ¶
If you are going to leave the Apple Magic Trackpad for any mouse, it has to be the MX Master 3S. Magnetic spinny wheel, hardly-there mouse buttons, thumb pressy thing (technical term) that activates Mission Control, and thumb scroll wheel and back/forward buttons. This thing is a delight, but opinionated, so sorry lefties. Oh, and it charges from the tip, so take that, Apple Magic Mouse!
Desk: Flytta 2 standing desk ¶
When kid #1 came along, he did a lot of sleeping on daddy. I was lucky enough to be working at home at the time, so I got a standing desk so I could work while he slept in his Ergobaby Omni 360 (a bonus recommendation).
After (too) much procrastination and research, I ended up with a Flytta 2 standing desk. I must make an honourable mention of the Yo-Yo Pro 2, which is much cheaper and probably fine! The Flytta 2 has four memory positions, though, which I use for: sitting in a Herman Miller Aeron chair, sitting on a wobble stool, standing, and standing on a wobble board or mini walking machine. What can I say? I like to fidget.
Laptop accessories ¶
I think I own most formats of Apple screen: Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad Mini, iPad Pro, 14" and 16" MacBook Pros (both tricked-out 2021 M1 Max, which I have no intention of upgrading for a while), and Al Dente tells me the battery on my workhorse 14" machine still has 83% of its original capacity.
The MBP has a Moft stand on the back, and a magnetic privacy screen on the front for whenever I travel. I had a more expensive Kensington privacy screen which I left somewhere, but the whatever-Amazon-has ones seem to be fine.
I also have way too many GaN chargers and Anker batteries of varying capacity. I seem to have the 10,000mAh one in my bag most of the time. (My ridiculous bag collection will have to be the subject of a future post.)
Miscellaneous ¶
If you look at the back right of the desk, you will see a TP-Link Deco XE75 mesh node, but look out for their new BE85 series for WiFi 7. I tried various Ubiquiti home products, which are beautiful but the gorgeous and minimalist mesh nodes did not have Ethernet ports, which was a deal-breaker, and the Deco units seem to give me both wider and more stable coverage.
The mesh node is sitting on a Mac Mini M1. I already have my eye on the new M4 or M4 Max, but I have not been able to convince myself yet that it is worth it. My MBP is my main machine, plugged into that massive Odyssey monitor, so I cannot justify a beefier desktop machine.
Then just off the side of the picture, is my printer-scanner. It is whatever Brother laser printer is on offer like everyone else, in my case in colour with a flatbed scanner. I can tell you it is a MFC-L3770CDW but that is probably end of life by now, so get whichever one you like the look of that is on sale. And the hooky aftermarket toners work just fine, thanks, at about at third of the official price.
Oh, and yes, that is a mechanical pomodoro timer. I do not use it much but I just love the ticking sound when I do.
