Tag: underscored-computers-laptops

Computer speakers are the unsung heroes of the audio world, dutifully spitting out audio that’s often better than the sometimes aggressively-bad speakers built-in to your monitor, desktop or laptop, even at the budget level. If you’ve been around computers long enough, you’ll know the Creative brand — they’re responsible for the Sound Blaster sound card that allowed many of us to first hear the dulcet voice of Duke Nukem, the shotgun blast in Doom and the glorious MIDI-fied Star Wars orchestral score in TIE Fighter. A few weeks ago I picked up a pair of the company’s budget computer speakers — the Creative Pebble 2.0, to be exact.

Although they didn’t quite make the cut for our list of the best computer speakers, you could do far worse if you’re looking for a solid, petite daily driver stereo set for your desktop machine.

After many years of owning an iMac and being satisfied with the built-in speakers Apple uses, I finally decided to upgrade to a true headless desktop. Unfortunately and unsurprisingly, the speaker in the Mac Studio is atrocious for anything other than playing system sounds. But I don’t need much more than that for computer speakers. For the most part, I use my computer for writing, and if I listen to tunes while I write, I’ll inevitably be distracted by my musician brain’s demands to play sections back to hear how a guitar player did something, or to digest a wacky time change. If I care about a movie or show, I want to watch it on my TV. And if I’m going to game, I’d rather use headphones.

All of that is to say, when I was looking for a set of speakers, I just wanted something cheap that sounded good, looked nice and didn’t hog precious desk space. Several buying guides pointed me to the Creative Pebble 2.0. It seemed to satisfy my requirements well enough, being made up of two petite speakers with a look reminiscent of the spacier elements of mid-century design. What I didn’t expect was that they’d actually sound very good for the money.

If you’re looking for something with guttural bass that gets loud enough to fill a big ol’ room, the Creative Pebble 2.0 probably isn’t what you need. But otherwise, the Creative Pebble 2.0 are probably the perfect desktop speakers for anyone looking for what I described above. Their sound is honest and straightforward — no fancy computational audio here. They won’t vibrate your desk, but they don’t sound like tin cans, either.

Granted, they aren’t ideal for everything. “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John feels like a trap door opened underneath it and all of the low end was jettisoned, while Journey’s “Wheel in the Sky” can come across as muddy once the vocals chime in. But for other music, Creative’s little speakers showed impressive dynamics. Charles Mingus’ version of “Jelly Roll” is a deceptively-simple song from a fun jazz album full of musicians hollering in the background, synced horn sections, delicate snare brush work and slapping bass — the speakers faithfully reproduced all of that, never crushing any of the small details that set up the soothing atmosphere that got me the closest to falling asleep while on the road with a band that I ever managed.

On top of the fact that they sound good, I love the Creative Pebble’s simple, functional design. They’re powered by your computer’s USB port or not-included 5-watt USB wall adapter, lending them versatility as laptop speakers, while saving you from crawling under your desk and fishing out a hidden power strip for desktop use. They’re angled upward at a 45-degree angle, which let me point them just past my head for ideal stereo immersion. There’s a single volume knob, and on the back, a built-in 4-foot line-out cable with a 3.5mm audio jack to plug into your computer’s headphone port. Between them, a 3.9-foot cable allows plenty of play for a broad spread. Lastly, at less than 5 inches in any dimension, they make a tidy fit in any space-constrained setup.

Creative sells other versions of these speakers, including the $50 Creative Pebble Plus, which adds a subwoofer to the mix, and the $60 Creative Pebble Pro, which uses USB-C for power and has a built-in microphone and RGB lights on the bottom. If you want a slightly better deal than those, our overall top budget pick is the Cyber Acoustics CA3090 stereo 2.1 speakers with subwoofer, which is an oldie but a goodie I can vouch for, having used the set for nearly a decade. For my money though, I’ve rarely been happier with a gadget I spent $20 on than I have with the Pebble 2.0. It almost feels like getting away with something.

If you need a new Apple laptop, it’s a really good time to buy one. The newest MacBooks are faster and longer-lasting than ever, and offer a range of options depending on how much power you need. The MacBook Air M2 is the best laptop for most people, thanks to its blazing speed, slim design and reasonable price, while the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros provide lots of ports, more advanced displays and even more power for creative professionals. And if you’re on a budget, the 2020 MacBook Air is still a great buy today. After testing all of Apple’s current MacBooks, here are our picks for the ones you should buy right now.

The new MacBook Air M2 offers some of the best laptop performance within a slick, practical design for a reasonable price, making it the best overall MacBook for most people.

A bold refresh from the long-standing Air design we last saw in 2020, the latest MacBook Air mixes things up with more uniform edges, larger physical function keys and a more seamless display that lets you see more at once (as long as you’re cool with a notch). It’s basically a miniature version of the excellent 14-inch MacBook Pro chassis, but without the added power and ports that serious creatives might need. It also remains true to its namesake, with a 2.7-pound, 11.3mm thin design that’s a breeze to pick up and take to work.

The MacBook Air’s shaved-down bezels give the display itself a noticeable bump in real estate (13.6 versus 13.3 inches), and images and videos pop a bit more, thanks to the jump from Apple’s Retina to its Liquid Retina technology. And the Magic Keyboard feels as great as it does on any modern MacBook, with enough travel and feedback to keep us typing away comfortably for hours on end.

Old-school Mac fans will be happy to see the return of the MagSafe charger, which attaches and detaches with a quick magnetic snap to make charging a little easier — and prevent your MacBook Air from hitting the ground if someone trips over the charging cable. The MagSafe connection also keeps the Air’s Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports free for accessories, which is good considering you get only two.

The MacBook Air M2 offers a wealth of smaller quality-of-life upgrades over its predecessor, including a sharper 1080p webcam and a richer quad-speaker system. But for many folks, the real selling point will be the performance.

The Apple M2 processor that powers the latest Air delivered some of the best speeds we’ve ever tested on a laptop. On top of handling our usual workload (including video calls, messaging apps and countless Chrome tabs) and some light music production without a hiccup, the MacBook Air M2 toppled virtually all competitors on our benchmarks. Apple’s latest laptop produced the highest single-core result we’ve ever gotten from Geekbench 5, and came very close to the pricier MacBook Pro M2 on the multi-core and graphics tests. It also performed about 16% better than the MacBook Air M1 on general performance tests. The M2 Air can even handle some light gaming, though it ran a bit hot and produced some relatively low frame rates when trying to run demanding titles like Shadow of the Tomb Raider at higher settings. Still, when it comes to everyday productivity — and some light creative work — this is a machine you can rely on.

The MacBook Air M2 delivered fairly strong battery life in day-to-day use, often going an entire day before needing a recharge. That said, it drained in a pretty quick five hours and 21 minutes during our more demanding 4K video playback test, falling behind the MacBook Pro M2 by roughly 45 minutes. If you plan on doing anything beyond light web surfing and emailing, you’ll want to keep the charger handy.

The new MacBook Air’s improved design and performance does come at the expense of a higher base price: $1,199, a whole $200 more than the MacBook Air M1. We’d recommend going with the 512GB storage configuration (a 256GB solid-state drive will fill up fast), which bumps the machine up to $1,499. You may also want to consider upgrading to 16GB of memory for serious multitasking and general future-proofing, which would bring the total cost to $1,699. But even with those added expenses, we think the MacBook Air M2 is worth the investment for those upgrading for the first time in a while — or getting their first MacBook.

The best budget MacBook

If you’re looking to spend less than $1,000 on a MacBook, the older MacBook Air M1 remains a great option. You’ll be sacrificing the newer model’s larger screen, better webcam and useful MagSafe charger, but you’ll still be getting a sleek and powerful laptop that’s faster than virtually anything at this price.

Read our review

The upgrade pick

If you’re a creative professional or a hardcore power user, or you simply feel like splurging on the best that Apple has to offer, the 14-inch MacBook Pro is the laptop to get. It’s an especially great upgrade for first-time Pro buyers, or anyone coming from an old Intel model.

Read our review

Display	13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display	13.3-inch, 2560 x 1600 Retina display	14.2-inch, 3024 x 1964 Liquid Retina XDR display
Processor	Apple M2	Apple M1	Apple M2 Pro / M2 Max
Memory	8GB / 16GB / 24GB	8GB / 16GB	16GB / 32GB / 64GB / 96GB
Storage	256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB SSD	256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB SSD	512GB / 1TB / 2TB / 4TB / 8TB SSD
Camera	1080p FaceTime HD camera	720p FaceTime HD camera	1080p FaceTime HD camera
Ports	Thunderbolt 4 (2), MagSafe charging port, headphone jack	Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (2), headphone jack	Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (3), SDXC card slot, HDMI port, headphone jack, MagSafe charging port
Battery life (rated)	Up to 18 hours	Up to 18 hours	Up to 18 hours
Size and weight	11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches, 2.7 pounds	11.97 x 8.36 x 0.16-0.63 inches, 2.8 pounds	12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 inches, 3.5 pounds
Color options	Silver, Space Gray, Midnight, Starlight	Silver, Space Gray, Gold	Silver, Space Gray
Price	$1,199	$999	$1,999

Once we had all the models on hand, we began the unboxing process and charging them up to 100%. (Many laptops come with some power out of the box, but very rarely do they ship topped up.)

As with every CNN Underscored review, we rigorously test devices both quantitatively and qualitatively. For laptops, we made the decision to benchmark first to get a standard for quantitative performance. If you’ve read our standalone laptop, tablet or mobile phone reviews, these tests will be familiar.

We performed GeekBench 5 tests. These run the laptops through a series of workflows and application processes, many of which you’d find yourselves (and we found ourselves) completing on a daily basis. We also run the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, which runs the demanding computer game at 1080p with all settings cranked up to see how well a system can handle gaming and graphically intensive tasks.

Regardless of operating system, we put each laptop through our standard battery test, which involves charging the laptop to 100%, setting brightness to 50% and engaging airplane mode to ensure connectivity is off. We then loop a 4K video file with the sound set to 15% until the battery dies and the machine turns off. These tests are monitored in person as well as via two cameras to ensure accuracy.
The combination of battery and benchmark testing gives us a quantitative feel for the devices and a hard number for each that can be used for comparisons. We then used each laptop as our daily driver for work, play and entertainment tasks, testing the battery to see if it could last through a full day of tasks, watching a movie to get a feel for the display and, of course, running a bunch of different applications.

The MacBook Pro M2 offers some of the fastest performance of any laptop we’ve tested, but its design is frustratingly dated. You still get an older Retina display with thick bezels, a 720p webcam and the Touch Bar, which we don’t find nearly as useful as a good set of physical function keys. Unless you specifically want a machine with an internal fan for especially grueling tasks, the cheaper MacBook Air M2 offers virtually the same level of performance — plus a more modern chassis — for a lower price.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro has everything we love about our upgrade pick in the 14-inch model, just with a larger screen and a few more configuration options for really maxing out the processor. It’s a great choice if those two things matter to you (and if you have the cash to spare), but we think the 14-inch MacBook Pro’s lower starting price and more portable design make it the better pick for most power users.

Now, with the M1 Macs fully available, the performance of these models are a bit dated. If you’re in the market right now, we’d suggest an M1 MacBook Air for most people. That said, if you see a good deal on the Intel 13-inch, it could be worth the plunge.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2019 was previously our video editing and creative laptop of choice, thanks to its strong performance and connectivity options. However, it’s since been phased out by the 2021 16-inch model, which offers far more ports, a more advanced Liquid Retina XDR display and significantly better performance, thanks to your choice of Apple’s M1 Pro and M1 Max chips.

The 2021 MacBook Pro marked a return to form for Apple’s highest-end laptop, ditching the stuff we didn’t like (see ya, Touch Bar), bringing back the stuff we did (ports! A MagSafe charger!) and loading it up with the best performance we’d ever seen on a Mac laptop. As such, it’s no surprise Apple didn’t bother adding any new features to its new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros for 2023 — the company just made them even more ridiculously powerful.

Powered by your choice of Apple’s new M2 Pro or M2 Max processor, the new MacBook Pro is the fastest laptop we’ve ever tested by almost every metric, toppling nearly all competitors on our benchmark tests while making light work of heavy real-world workloads and graphically demanding games. It’s an even better version of our upgrade pick for best laptop, and an easy recommendation for power users willing to invest in the best Apple has to offer.

But is it the right upgrade for you? After many, many hours of working, video calling and gaming on a 14-inch M2 Pro model, here’s who I think should — and shouldn’t — buy one.

The latest 14-inch MacBook Pro is physically identical to the model that launched in 2021, which is to say that it’s the best-designed Mac you can currently buy. What I said about the 2021 MacBook Pro still applies here — it offers the best display, keyboard and ports of any Apple laptop. I’ve tested tons of notebooks in the year-plus since the previous 14-inch MacBook Pro arrived, and getting my hands on the new model was a reminder that none of them feel quite as good to use.

I was delighted to get my fingers back on the MacBook Pro’s excellent Magic Keyboard, which thankfully ditches the gimmicky Touch Bar for big, satisfying function keys. The Pro’s 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display remains one of the best I’ve ever used on a laptop, with rich colors that made watching movies a joy and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate that allowed me to glide around web pages much more fluidly than I can on Apple’s lower-end Macs. Yes, there’s still a notch up top that allows for the thin bezel, and yes, I’m personally still fine with it. The new MacBook Pro’s booming six-speaker setup filled my entire living room with the sounds of boygenius’ intricate vocal harmonies, and the laptop’s 1080p webcam once again captured my face with much better clarity than most of Apple’s rivals.

You still get a much better port selection than Apple’s 13-inch MacBooks, with three Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, a headphone jack with high-impedance support and a convenient snap-on MagSafe charger that will keep your laptop from going flying if someone trips on the wire. New for the 2023 models is support for up to four monitors on an M2 Max model (up from three on the previous gen) as well as multichannel audio output when connected to an HDMI display. This is truly the ultimate MacBook, and we haven’t even talked about performance yet.

The M1 Pro-powered MacBook Pro delivered record-breaking speeds when we tested it back in 2021, and Apple has managed to outdo itself by a significant margin on our M2 Pro model. This is the fastest laptop I’ve ever used, delivering a blazingly responsive experience for everyday tasks while trouncing all of the competition on our demanding performance tests.

Unsurprisingly, the latest MacBook Pro didn’t break a sweat under my usual workload of Slack, Outlook, Discord, Zoom and way too many Chrome tabs, staying cool, quiet and free of any nasty slowdown while I multitasked. But our benchmark results tell the real story of just how powerful this thing is.

On the Geekbench 5 multi-core test (which gauges overall multitasking performance), the new MacBook Pro scored a whopping 15,302 — that’s nearly double what we got from the M2 MacBook Air, triple the results of the Surface Laptop Studio and an impressive 37% gain over the already speedy 2021 model.

The latest MacBook Pro was similarly dominant on our graphics tests, rendering the visually demanding action of Shadow of the Tomb Raider — in 1080p with all settings cranked up — at a smooth and highly playable 55 frames per second. That’s a notable improvement over the 47 fps we got from the M1 Pro model as well as the Surface Laptop Studio (the latter of which has dedicated Nvidia graphics), and nearly double the sub-par framerates we got from the latest M2-powered MacBooks.

The spooky cinematic horror of Resident Evil Village ran like a dream on the new MacBook Pro, as I frantically fought my way through hordes of disturbingly detailed werewolves at a silky 80 to 100 fps — and that was with “prioritize graphics” mode on. The framerate got a small boost from Apple’s new MetalFX upscaling tech, which optimizes games for Mac hardware on the fly and is set to also come to upcoming releases like No Man’s Sky and Grid Legends. This is the best triple-A gaming experience I’ve had on a Mac so far, and while MacOS still can’t compete with the massive selection of titles available on Windows gaming laptops, the M2 Pro’s spectacular performance has me hopeful for the future. It’s worth noting that while Apple’s laptop stayed impressively quiet for most activities, the fans did audibly whir up during my more intensive Tomb Raider and Resident Evil sessions.

From juggling a workday’s worth of tasks to tearing through the latest blockbuster titles, the new MacBook Pro’s performance is in a class of its own. And here’s the scary part — the M2 Pro model we tested isn’t even the most powerful option out there.

The 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros can be outfitted with Apple’s even faster M2 Max chips (starting at $2,899), which promise up to 30 percent better graphics performance than the previous generation and offer significantly more memory bandwidth. We’ve yet to test the M2 Max for ourselves, but on the last-gen Macs, we saw a 39% increase in GPU performance from M1 Pro to M1 Max. Those who have a truly grueling workload — whether it be editing 8K video or working with complex 3D graphics — may want to consider the Max, but most creatives should be set for a while even if they opt for the base M2 Pro chip.

The new MacBook Pro should get most people through an average workday on the road, but you’ll still want to keep your charger handy. Apple’s notebook lasted a solid 7 hours and 50 minutes on our battery test, which consists of continuous 4K video playback. That’s more than an hour longer than the previous 14-inch model (6:36), and much better than the roughly 6 hours we got from the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro. However, we got slightly better results from Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 5 and Laptop Studio, both of which clocked in at a little over 8 hours.

It’s also worth noting that while our usual day-to-day multitasking didn’t make much of a dent in the MacBook Pro’s battery, activities like video calls — and especially a few hours of Resident Evil Village — proved to be a significant drain. As such, make sure to pack that power brick accordingly.

Fortunately, once our MacBook Pro did tap out, the included 67W power adapter did a good job juicing it back up quickly. Apple’s notebook is billed as being able to get a 50% charge in just 30 minutes, which is largely in line with my testing.

It should go without saying, but the latest MacBook Pros are an investment — especially if you plan on upgrading them with better processors, memory and storage.

The 14-inch model starts at $1,999, which gets you an Apple M2 Pro chip with a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU (more cores = better performance) in addition to 16GB of memory, 512GB of SSD storage and a 67W power adapter. We tested an upgraded model with a 12-core CPU/ 19-core GPU, 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage, which brought the total cost to a whopping $3,299. And that’s far from a fully kitted out unit — once you toss in the highest-end M2 Max chip, 96GB of RAM and 8TB of storage, you’re looking at a laptop that can run you as much as $6,299.

To put that price in perspective, you can currently get Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio with an Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics and the same starting RAM and storage as the MacBook Pro for a slightly cheaper $1,800. You won’t get the same fast processing speeds as the M2 Pro, but you will get dedicated graphics for comparable gaming and rendering performance, as well as a more flexible 2-in-1 design with a touch screen and stylus support. The Studio maxes out at 32GB RAM and 2TB of storage for $2,800 — that’s plenty for most people, but it also means you can’t go quite as wild with configurations as you can on the MacBook Pro.

Granted, many of the MacBook Pro’s upgrades will be overkill for many, and I’d argue that you get your money’s worth in terms of performance on any of these configurations. But just be ready to pay up if you want lots of storage or the best possible processor.

Apple didn’t need to fix what isn’t broken on the 14-inch MacBook Pro, but for those who already own the 2021 model, there’s nothing new here. That includes the same Silver and Space Gray color options, which look fine, but are also a bit dull compared to the more snazzy Starlight (gold) and Midnight (blueish-black) available on the latest MacBook Air. Why can’t power users have some fun too?

Processor	Apple M2 Pro or M2 Max	Apple M2	Apple M2	11th Gen Intel Core i5 / Intel Core i7 with Intel Iris X or Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti graphics
Memory	16GB / 32GB / 64GB / 96GB	8GB / 16GB / 24GB	8GB / 16GB / 24GB	16GB / 32GB
Storage	512GB / 1TB / 2TB / 4TB / 8TB SSD	256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB SSD	256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB SSD	256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB SSD
Display	14.2-inch, 3024 x 1964 Liquid Retina XDR display	13.3-inch, 2560 x 1600 Retina display	13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display	14.4-inch, 2400 x 1600 PixelSense display with touch and pen support
Camera	1080p FaceTime HD camera	720p FaceTime HD camera	1080p FaceTime HD camera	1080p webcam
Speakers	Six-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio support	Stereo speakers with Spatial Audio support	Four-speaker sound system with Spatial Audio support	Quad speakers with Dolby Atmos
Ports	Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (3), SDXC card slot, HDMI port, headphone jack, MagSafe charging port	Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (2), headphone jack	Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (2), MagSafe charging port, headphone jack	Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (2), Surface Connect, headphone jack
Battery life (rated)	Up to 18 hours	Up to 20 hours	Up to 18 hours	Up to 19 hours
Size and weight	12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 inches, 3.5 pounds	11.97 x 8.36 x 0.61 inches, 3 pounds	11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches, 2.7 pounds	12.72 x. 8.98 x 0.75 inches, 3.83 pounds
Price	From $1,999	From $1,299	From $1,199	From $1,300

If you’re a creative professional, a hardcore power user, or simply feel like splurging on the best that Apple has to offer, the 14-inch MacBook Pro is the laptop to get. It’s faster than anything else you’ll find for the money, has all the ports you need for transferring multimedia or working with multiple monitors, and packs the best display and keyboard of any MacBook.

For those getting their first MacBook Pro or upgrading from an old Intel-powered model, the new 14-inch and 16-inch options will prove to be a massive step up in every way — from sheer performance to everyday ease of use. And if you already find yourself hitting a ceiling on your 13-inch MacBook Pro M1, you’ll see some truly significant gains on this model.

Those who own a 2021 MacBook Pro have no reason to upgrade here, and the much more affordable $1,199 MacBook Air M2 — our overall top pick —  is still more than enough laptop for most people (and can handle light photo and video editing). But if you truly need the extra muscle and are willing to invest in the ultimate MacBook, the latest 14-inch and 16-inch Pros are worth their premium price.

Another day, another nifty WFH device to streamline work and declutter the home office.

An all-in-one, post-pandemic product, the Logi Dock not only packs in two HDMI ports, five USB-C and USB-A ports and a power port to charge your laptop, but it also comes with a speaker, six microphones and a Bluetooth pairing button. Throw in the five simple touch controls for volume or connecting to a conference or video call as well as simple-to-use software to integrate your calendar, and this elegant solution helps maximize your home office for space and productivity.

When I first saw the Logi Dock at a live event, I felt compelled to give it a try. And now that I finally have it set up on my desktop, I can confidently say that this little black box is worth its premium price tag.

Unlike some, my work-from-home setup is not simple. When my husband takes the desk over, he just plops his laptop on a stand and goes to work. But I need all the accouterments. That includes peripherals like a monitor, a full-size keyboard, a mouse and a stand-alone webcam — not to mention a phone charger and a desk lamp. And this, as you can probably imagine, can come laden with a lot of annoying wires snaking across, and behind, my desk.

Measuring 3.34 inches by 6.3 inches by 5.18 inches, the rectangular Logi Dock may not look like much, but it packs a mighty punch. You can choose from the graphite color I received from Logitech or an off-white, which is what I probably would have bought for myself. Resting on an angled stand, seven fabulous ports (including an HDMI and DisplayPort for dual monitor setups) and one 100W power port are neatly laid out on the back of the device, and I was able to plug in my MacBook, my monitor, my webcam and the USB dongle for my Logi Lift mouse. Another USB-C is on the bottom left-hand side of the dock, which is where I plugged in my iPhone 14 Pro Max. In the end, that left only the Logi Dock’s power cord plugged into the wall.

Then I just set it toward the back of my desk and marveled at how clean and clear everything looked. And because it’s wrapped in fabric, it presents more like a handsome wireless speaker than a geeky dock. A true treat for sore eyes and a formerly cluttered desktop.

So, now my desk looks great. But the real magic happens when I need to make or take a call, both voice and video. Logitech does not include a webcam in the dock, and it’s a fair assumption that most of us have our own at this point of the WFH game.

And though you can free up USB ports by directly pairing a wireless Logitech Zone or Logi Bolt webcam, like the Brio 4K Stream, you certainly don’t have to. I had no problem using my Microsoft Modern webcam for all my video calls. Six mics are built in to the dock to enable the remote meeting functions, which encompasses any meeting on Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Voice and Google Meet.

Because the mics are beamforming, the dock is meant to help more clearly capture your voice while masking background noise. When I asked folks on the other end of these calls how it sounded, they seemed perfectly happy with the audio quality, though it still couldn’t completely suppress all those NYC noises — like sirens and those infernal honking sessions. Of course, you can also pair your wireless headphones via the Bluetooth button on the back of the box or automatically sync one of the supported headsets, both wireless or USB-C wired.

All I have to do to join a call is tap a button on the top of the box, and ditto if I want to mute myself, adjust the volume or turn my video on or off (the video on/off and mute buttons also light up when you use them so you’ll know what your status is). That also means no more fiddling in-app during the call, which I highly appreciated.

And if you want to listen to tunes or a podcast, you can simply stream your personal audio through the Logi Dock as well. I listened to my Spotify playlists and tuned in to NPR News Now podcasts throughout the day. Though the speaker is omnidirectional, both music and voice sounded good enough, though markedly not as great as what I get on my Sonos speakers.

To be able to unlock all the shortcuts built in to the Logi Dock, you’ll want to pair it with the free Logi Tune software. Once it’s downloaded on your computer, you can sync it with your calendar and it will remind you to join meetings by flashing ambient lights on the dock’s underside. As someone who’s been known to lose track of time when I’m writing, having this visual memo was super helpful. Just make sure to go into whatever app you’re using and switch the settings to run through the Logi Dock. This should take only a minute.

You can let Logi Tune live on the right of your screen or keep it closed and allow it to send you alerts. Not only does it let you know you are actively connected to the Logi Dock under the My Devices tab, but you can toggle to check your agenda as well.

I don’t know about you, but I have a work calendar that lives in Outlook, and a Google calendar for personal stuff. And though I certainly take more meetings from work, I do quite a few Zooms from my Google schedule, including school meetings for my kids, doctor appointments and even some video calls with our family in England. But the Logi Dock makes you choose. It’s not exactly Sophie’s Choice, but when I looked at the Calendar connection in the Settings on Logi Tune, it only gives me offers to let me disconnect my Outlook, not add something else. Which means I have to rely on OG notifications for my personal meetings instead of those groovy blinking lights.

Unfortunately, the $399 price tag may be the stumbling block for many interested parties when it comes to the Logi Dock. It is the priciest dock on the market, and many people may be content plopping down $80 for the Satechi USB-C hub or $50 for the Totu 9-in-1 hub, our favorite picks for best USB-C hubs.

Of course, other serious charging dock contenders aren’t exactly cheap in comparison, and none of them come with a built-in speaker and mics. The Pluggable USB-C 4K docking station may have an SD card reader and support for three monitors, but for $279 it comes with only four USB-C 3.0 ports. The $350 Anker Apex Thunderbolt 4 docking station is a 12-in-1 hub with two HDMI ports and comes with a SD card slot, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, four USB-A ports and just one USB-C port. But, unlike the Logi Dock, it is equipped with an Ethernet port and even a headphone jack.

Working from home can have its ups and downs, but creating a clean, pleasing atmosphere is clutch for most of us sitting at a desk. With a helpful array of ports and inputs, the Logi Dock not only helped me organize and distill the many annoying wires from my peripherals down to just one (yes, one), but it also made hopping on my video calls a cinch.

Between the speaker and six mics, I could play music at my leisure, take a voice call and easily mute and turn my video on and off calls from the constant demands of Zoom and Microsoft Teams, all with the press of a button.

Yes, $300 is pricey, but if a cogent, orderly space is what you’re after, along with the ability to simply control your video calls without fiddling with virtual controls, the Logi Dock is worth every penny.

After a whirlwind of releases this fall, including four new iPhones, the AirPods Pro 2, two new iPads and iOS 16, Apple is ready to push the release button on the latest major software update for the Mac: macOS Ventura.

MacOS Ventura isn’t the same substantial update that last year’s macOS Monterey was, but it does bring several useful new features to Apple’s computer lineup. There’s a completely new way of multitasking, a native option to use your iPhone as a webcam and new Messages, Photos and Mail features — to name a few.

I’ve been using Ventura since it was first released in Apple’s beta program back in June, and my initial assessment has proven true: MacOS Ventura is a sneakily meaningful upgrade.

MacOS Ventura will be available as an update through the Mac App Store. You’ll need to search the store for “macOS Ventura” to find it. Download and install the Ventura installer, then follow the prompts to install the latest major macOS update.

The new macOS Ventura will work on the following MacBooks and Mac desktops:

• iMac (2017 and later)
• iMac Pro (2017)
• Mac Pro (2019 and later)
• Mac Studio
• Mac Mini (2018 and later)
• MacBook Air (2018 and later)
• MacBook Pro (2017 and later)
• MacBook (2017 and later)

I suspect Continuity Camera will become one of the more popular MacOS Ventura features because it turns your iPhone into a webcam for your Mac, something that’s long overdue. And better yet, you don’t have to do anything to set it up other than bring your iPhone close to your Mac. Then, when on a call, select your iPhone as a camera option in the respective app’s settings page.

Then, you can use the camera controls on Control Center to turn on Portrait Mode, use Center Stage to keep you in the frame or use Stage Lighting to improve lighting conditions.

There’s even a desk view that uses the iPhone’s cameras to create a video feed of your desktop so you can appear on the call and show a demonstration simultaneously. The desk view feature sounds great; however, I’ve had some issues getting it to look just right. I’ve found that the farther away your iPhone is from you, the better off you are with getting everything lined up just right, but even then, the video doesn’t quite look right.

Stage Manager is new to both the Mac and iPad with the release of Ventura and iPadOS 16.1. The new feature brings a new multitasking workflow to both platforms, although it’s been more controversial for the iPad than the Mac due to performance issues.

Stage Manager on the Mac, however, doesn’t suffer from the same issues, and, as long as you remember it exists, I can see it being a useful update to help Mac owners multitask.

Stage Manager is an optional feature you have to manually turn on or off in the Control Center. When enabled, Stage Manager creates an active stage where it shows an app or group of apps. On the left side of the screen are more stages, with app(s) shown on small thumbnails. You can have multiple apps located and running in each stage.

You can drag and drop apps into a group. For instance, I commonly use Safari and iA Writer at the same time. In the traditional multitasking MacOS workflow, all open apps live on a single desktop. That means when I open another app like Mail, Slack or Twitter, those windows just pile on top of everything else. The end result can be a cluttered mess of apps and windows; it can be overwhelming unless you’re constantly managing and minimizing windows, creating secondary desktops or using apps in full-screen mode.

With Stage Manager, I can create a stage with my writing apps — Safari and iA Writer — and then another stage with Mail, Slack and Twitter. And then, as needed, I can switch back and forth between the stages, accessing and using apps as needed.

It’s a far cleaner and more simplistic approach to multitasking on the Mac that, granted, has a learning curve. But here’s the real problem with it: I can never remember it’s there.

Over the last few months, I’ve rarely used Stage Manager, not because I don’t like it but because at some point I turned it off, and then it never crossed my mind to turn it back on. And that’s the problem with making Stage Manager an optional feature with a button tucked away in the Control Center.

When I use Stage Manager, I enjoy the cleaned-up look and interactions. I just wish I remembered it was there more often.

Sure, there are a few headlining features to macOS Ventura. Stage Manager and Continuity camera are two prime examples, but for me, it’s all of the small features in Ventura that make it a must-have upgrade for any Mac user.

Prime example? You can now use Handoff to switch a FaceTime call between your Mac and your iPhone or iPad without hanging up. If you start a FaceTime call on your Mac, just bring your iPhone near your computer and you’ll see an alert asking if you want to move the call between devices. A quick click later, the call has moved over to your iPhone. Pretty darn cool.

With the launch of iOS 16 in September, iPhone owners gained the option to edit or delete iMessages. And now Ventura gives that option to Mac users. If you find that you sent an errant message to the wrong iMessage contact, you have two minutes to realize your mistake, right-click on the message, then select Undo Send to delete it.

If you make a bunch of typos in a message, you have 15 minutes to right-click on the iMessage, select Edit and fix your mistake.

I use the edit feature multiple times a day. Typos happen, and it feels great to fix them instead of sending multiple messages to save face.

In a similar aspect, the Mail app now has a customizable send delay that doesn’t actually send your email until after that time has expired. That means you can reply to a message, promise that a file is attached, click send, only to realize you didn’t, in fact, attach anything. In the bottom left-hand corner of the Mail app you’ll briefly see Undo Send to stop the message from being sent at that moment.

You can adjust the grace period from 10 seconds all the way to 30 seconds, if you think you’d benefit from having more time.

MacOS Ventura will launch alongside iPadOS 16.1 and iOS 16.1, all three of which will debut iCloud Shared Photo Library. I played with this feature early on in the beta program before it was removed. On paper, the shared photo library promises to easily sync photos and videos between your iCloud Photo Library with up to six family members. You can set it to automatically share photos and videos with specific faces or a date — perhaps of your partner or children — or manually add items to the shared library.

MacOS Ventura is free and comes with useful features and improvements like Continuity Camera, Stage Manager and smaller changes to apps like Messages, Mail and Photos.

If you have a Mac that’s compatible with macOS Ventura, I see no reason why you shouldn’t upgrade. I’d suggest waiting a few days, maybe even a week, to ensure there aren’t any major issues or bugs that weren’t caught during the beta program, then press that upgrade button. This software might not revolutionize the way you use your Mac, but like Blink-182 once said, it’s all about the small things.