Best gadget you have bought in the last year: what and why?

[Jackson79]

Not the most expensive. The one with the best return on what you paid for it. The thing you use more than you expected to or that solved a problem you had forgotten was a problem.

Could be something high-tech or something completely mundane. The metric is genuine usefulness per pound spent.

[ShadowPilot]

A decent pair of wireless earphones I bought reluctantly after my wired ones finally died. I held out on wireless for years for reasons I now understand were irrational. The quality is excellent and the convenience has changed how I listen to things throughout the day.

[Ava]

A small USB-C hub for my laptop. Nine ports for about 25 pounds. All the dongles and adapters I was carrying individually are gone. I genuinely wonder what I was doing with my time before.

[AEWNoah32]

An e-ink reading device. I was a phone-reader for years and accepted the eye strain and distraction as the cost of always having something to read. The dedicated reader changed my reading habits completely.

[Solid Gary]

A physical alarm clock. Removed my phone from the bedroom. The sleep quality difference was noticeable within a week. Sometimes the best tech is the decision not to use tech.

[Taker00]

A Raspberry Pi that I have used for approximately six different things over the last year. Current job: a local network ad blocker. Previous jobs: a media server, a backup target, a retro gaming machine. Most useful 40 pounds I have spent.

[Steady Dylan]

TechRadar reviewed the JBL Go 5 speaker as a five-star product and I bought it on that basis. It is genuinely the best small Bluetooth speaker I have owned. The ambient lighting is a gimmick but the sound is real.

[Sinead]

A mechanical keyboard. I was sceptical of the enthusiasm around them and then I used one for a week and understood entirely. The typing experience is meaningfully different and the satisfaction is not imaginary.

[BanterQueen]

A physical notebook and a good pen. Genuinely the most-used things on my desk. Every productivity and note-taking app I have ever tried eventually loses to paper.