Gadgets

Customisable laptops

For years we in the gadget cupboard have been building our own custom desktop PCs with bits from many different manufacturers in a mix and match style. There has been no equivalent in laptops until now, with Framework. Granted, it is a halfway house, as there’s only the one board, case, display and battery manufacturer, but other than that you have free rein: bring your own SSD, memory chips, wifi and bluetooth and (for those annoyed by expensive proprietary versions) USB-C power adaptor. There are four expansion ports which are also modular, so you can choose and swap out various different ports (USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, displayport, MicroSD or extra storage).

Framework frame.work www.apple.com

Vive VR

There are rumours aplenty about new VR offerings coming soon. HTC have something actually available: the new Vive Pro 2. Though some have criticised its lack of innovation, it does have some solid improvements going for it: 5K (4896 x 2448) visuals, larger field of view (120°) and a refresh rate of 120Hz, and it supports display stream compression, or DSC, to keep it working on lower bitstream connections like displayport 1.2. The headphones are hi-res audio certified with 3D spatial sound, but you can use your own, and the controllers can be replaced with Valve’s Index controllers. One thing they haven’t improved is the microphone, which is woeful.

HTC Vive Pro 2 www.vive.com $1,400

Mini solution

If you recently acquired one of the new M1 Mac Minis, you may have hit the only real drawback of the Mini: the ports are few and round the back. Satechi have you covered with their Type-C stand and hub. The stand fits perfectly under the Mini, looks just like it and using a single Thunderbolt port offers three USB-A slots, a USB-C, a headphone jack and SD and Micro SD reader slots, all at the front. If that wasn’t enough, there’s also a slot for an M.2 SATA SSD to add storage to your Mac.

Satechi Stand & Hub for Mac Mini with SSD Enclosure satechi.net $100