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How to pick
Start with whatever you touch most. If you use a laptop on a desk, a proper mouse and a dock change how the machine feels far more than any internal upgrade would. If you type for a living, spend on the keyboard. None of this shows up on a specification sheet, which is exactly why it gets skipped, and it is what people actually notice day to day.
What I recommend
For a laptop on a desk
The point is to stop plugging four things in every time you sit down.
Laptop stand
A laptop on a desk puts the screen far too low, which is where neck ache comes from. Raising it and using a separate keyboard fixes that for very little money.
- Fixes the single most common cause of neck ache
- Also improves airflow underneath
- Cheap
- Only works with a separate keyboard
- Takes up desk depth
- Some wobble under a heavy laptop
- Fixes
- Screen far too low on a desk
- Needs
- A separate keyboard
- Bonus
- Air gets underneath a hot machine
- Material
- Aluminium over plastic
USB-C docking station
The monitor, keyboard, mouse, network and charging all come off one cable to the laptop. Check your laptop does video over its USB-C port, because not all do.
- One cable instead of four or five
- Charges the laptop at the same time
- Adds ethernet, which is steadier than Wi-Fi
- Not all laptops support video over USB-C
- Cheap docks cause display dropouts
- Needs its own power supply
- Gives back
- Monitor, keyboard, network, power
- Check
- Your laptop does video over USB-C
- Cables
- One to the laptop
- Brands
- Anker, UGREEN, Dell
Mice
The part you have your hand on all day, and the one people spend least on.
Wireless mouse for a laptop
The cheapest thing that makes a laptop less irritating. A proper mouse that fits your hand beats a trackpad for anything more than scrolling. Batteries last a year or more.
- Immediately more comfortable than a trackpad
- Batteries last a year or more
- Cheap
- Another thing to carry
- Receiver occupies a USB port
- Cheap ones feel light and hollow
- Beats
- A trackpad for anything beyond scrolling
- Connection
- Small USB receiver or Bluetooth
- Battery
- A year or more
- Size
- Match it to your hand, not the price
Logitech MX Master
The one that keeps appearing on desks of people who work at a computer for a living. Shaped to support the whole hand, a scroll wheel that spins freely for long documents, and it pairs with three machines at once.
- Noticeably more comfortable over long days
- Free spinning wheel is excellent for long documents
- Switches between three computers
- Rechargeable, weeks per charge
- Expensive for a mouse
- Large, so poor for small hands
- Too heavy for fast gaming
Privacy and odds and ends
Small things that stop being annoying once you own them.
Webcam cover slides
A few dollars for a cover that slides over your laptop camera. Is anyone watching? Probably not. Does it cost almost nothing to stop wondering? Also yes.
- Costs almost nothing
- Nothing to configure
- Works on any camera
- Thick ones can stop a laptop closing properly
- Adhesive can leave residue
- Does not cover the microphone
- Thickness
- Under 1mm so the lid still shuts
- Backing
- Adhesive
- Quantity
- Buy a multipack
- Fits
- Laptop, tablet, phone
USB-C to USB-A adapter
A couple of these in a drawer means an old memory stick or a wired mouse still works without hunting for a hub. Buy a pair, because you will lose one.
- Tiny and cheap
- Saves buying a whole hub
- Works both directions on some models
- Very easy to lose
- Does not add ports, just converts one
- For
- Old memory sticks and wired mice
- Buy
- A pair, you will lose one
- Size
- Small enough to leave on the cable
- Cost
- A few dollars
Laptop privacy screen filter
Makes your screen look black from the side. Useful on a plane, in a waiting room, or anywhere you handle things you would not want the next seat reading.
- Genuinely effective from the side
- Also reduces glare
- Removable on most models
- Dims the screen noticeably for you too
- Must match your screen size exactly
- Can add a slight sparkle to the image
- Size
- Must match your screen exactly
- Angle
- Blacks out past about 60 degrees
- Fitting
- Magnetic or removable tabs
- Bonus
- Anti glare coating
Related reading
Want the whole desk sorted?
I can set up the screens, the dock and everything hanging off it so it works as one setup rather than a pile of boxes.