Remote Work Gear

Open-plan offices, coffee-shop noise, construction next door, a partner on their own video call three feet away — remote work comes with a soundtrack. And while you can’t mute the world, a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones gets remarkably close. Active noise cancellation (ANC) has evolved from a premium novelty into an essential productivity tool. The best ANC headphones don’t just block out background hum — they actively create a bubble of silence that lets you focus deeply, hear every word on calls, and even reduce listening fatigue at lower volumes. In this guide, we tested and compared the 6 best noise-cancelling headphones for work in 2025. ...

Modern laptops are thinner, lighter, and faster than ever — and they’ve lost nearly every port that made them useful. Most ultrabooks and MacBooks now ship with two or three USB-C ports and nothing else: no HDMI, no SD card slot, no USB-A, no Ethernet. If you want to plug in a monitor, a hard drive, a keyboard, and an SD card at the same time, you need a hub or a docking station. ...

The built-in webcam on your laptop is terrible. Even premium laptops like the MacBook Pro and Dell XPS ship with 1080p sensors that struggle in anything but perfect lighting — grain in the shadows, blown-out highlights near windows, and colors that make you look like you’re video-calling from a basement. In the era of remote work, where you might spend 10 to 20 hours a week on Zoom, Teams, and Meet, a grainy, washed-out webcam isn’t just an annoyance — it’s a professional liability. Your face is your first impression in every video call, and a good webcam makes you look sharper, more engaged, and more credible. ...