5 of my favorite tech purchases, besides my Pixel

I’m a Pixel fan. I’ve been using one of Google’s phones for a few years now and genuinely don’t plan on switching to another brand. It’s easily my favorite and most-used tech product, but over the years, I’ve made plenty of other tech purchases that have proven to be well worth the money.

Today, I’ll walk you through a list of my top five essential devices that I own and use regularly — at least once a week. What’s interesting is that some of these were actually quite affordable and are relatively old at this point, yet they still perform more than good enough. Because of their continued reliability, I don’t plan on upgrading any of them anytime soon.

These are technically two separate products, but since I use them together for most of my work, I’m bundling them as one. As you can imagine, my job requires me to stare at a screen for eight hours a day and do a lot of typing. A good keyboard is absolutely essential for me, and I honestly don’t think you can beat what Logitech’s MX Keys S has to offer.

The typing experience is simply wonderful by my standards. The keyboard itself is very thin and looks incredibly sleek on my desk. There are plenty of customizable shortcut buttons available, allowing me to do almost everything from setting my preferred brightness levels to adjusting the volume without even touching the mouse. Plus, there’s a convenient backlight that comes in handy at night. I’ve tried countless wireless keyboards over the years, and you couldn’t pay me to switch to any of them. The MX Keys S is just that good.

It’s a similar story with the MX Master 3S mouse. Its ergonomic design is superb, fitting perfectly in my hand. It boasts more customizable buttons than your standard mouse and can be extensively personalized via the Logitech Options+ app. I genuinely can’t find a fault with it, although I must admit I was just as happy with the smaller Logitech MX Anywhere Mini that I used before. Both are fantastic.

I love to read, and I strongly prefer an e-reader to a physical book for several key reasons. It’s incredibly easy to carry around, slipping into almost any bag, and it takes up significantly less space than the dozens of physical books I read per year.

Despite my interest in staying on the cutting edge of tech, the Kindle Paperwhite I own is genuinely old — I have the 2nd generation model that was originally announced in 2013. And you know what? I’m not upgrading. Newer models are obviously better, with some even sporting an IP water resistance rating, but I don’t really care. My old Kindle provides everything I need and will likely continue to serve me faithfully for at least a few more years.

One of my favorite features is how I can just take it to the beach with me and read comfortably under the scorching sun. That’s incredibly hard to do with a phone, as the glare on the display makes it very difficult to read for an extended period. For a Kindle, however, that kind of bright sunlight doesn’t cause any issues due to its E-Ink display. The Kindle is such a simple, and relatively affordable, device, yet it’s one I’m most attached to.

I wouldn’t call myself an audiophile, but I genuinely enjoy good sound quality, especially since I’m really into music. However, I don’t want to spend a crazy amount of money on a Bluetooth speaker from one of the major, premium brands. Anker’s Soundcore line has become my brand of choice when it comes to portable audio, and I couldn’t be happier with my speaker.

I bought my Soundcore Motion Plus back in 2020, and it truly is a great speaker. I use it constantly. I listen to music to relax, or when I exercise, which I should definitely do more of. I also use it frequently when I have a Zoom call. I connect my PC to the speaker via Bluetooth so I can hear my coworkers much more clearly. The difference in audio quality between it and my laptop’s built-in speakers is immense.

As a visual person, I also truly appreciate the design of the Soundcore Motion Plus. It just fits in nicely with all parts of my apartment, blending seamlessly. It’s aesthetically pleasing to look at but doesn’t stand out too much. Overall, the value I got was fantastic, especially considering I only paid around a hundred bucks for it.

Staying on the topic of audio, I also own a pair of earbuds from Soundcore. I had the same logic here — I want quality sound but don’t want to spend an arm and a leg. The review for these earbuds by our sister site SoundGuys was excellent, and since those guys definitely know what they’re talking about, I just went for them.

No regrets so far, as they are very comfortable to wear, the sound quality is more than adequate for my needs, and they look good too. The battery life is great, and the charging case they come in is small enough for me to easily fit it in my pocket when I need to go places.

Just like with the Soundcore speaker, these earbuds represent tremendous value for me. I paid less than a hundred bucks for them. What’s even better, Anker even threw in a pair of Q20i headphones for free, so I was very happy with my purchase overall.

Since I sit for the majority of the workday, staring at a screen and typing on a keyboard, I need to exercise every day to move my body. It’s a great way for me to de-stress. I engage in plenty of activities, but my main one is running.

I try to run a few times a week, and I always bring my trusty Garmin watch with me. While not quite as affordable as the Soundcore products above, it’s well worth the price I paid for it. I love to track my runs to see how much mileage I’ve accumulated, so I can gradually try to increase my distance. The watch also allows me to check my heart rate and offers a bunch of pre-loaded training modes that can genuinely help me achieve my goals. While a lot of these features might seem sketchy on paper, they are actually very valuable — and free.

What I particularly like about it is that it’s one of those products that will serve me for years and years before I’ll even consider replacing it. It has all the features I need, so as long as it keeps working reliably and the battery life stays okay, I have absolutely no reason to upgrade.

These are my five essential tech products, beyond my beloved Pixel phone. Now, I want to hear about yours. Head to the comments section and let me know which devices you regularly use and what makes them so special.