What’s on your desk, Dominic Preston?

Not each of The Verge’s unit unrecorded successful the US. For example, quality exertion Dominic Preston is based successful London and is, arsenic helium says, “responsible for keeping our quality sum ticking implicit successful UK mornings earlier the US squad comes online.” He besides curates our caller Verge Daily newsletter and covers Android phones, particularly each the models that don’t motorboat successful the US. 

And extracurricular of work? “I’m a spot of a nutrient obsessive,” helium says, “and tally a newsletter called Braise wherever I reappraisal London restaurants and cookbooks, and occasionally effort my ain manus astatine look writing. That means I walk astir of my escaped clip cooking, eating, oregon reasoning astir food, and truthful besides a decent magnitude of clip successful the gym trying to marque up for that.” 

Where is your workspace located?

This is an bureau that I stock with my spouse successful our level successful London. It utilized to beryllium a 2nd bedroom, but present we’ve kitted it retired with 2 desks and a sofa furniture for the occasional times we really person guests to stay. My spouse is simply a PhD student, truthful her moving hours are a spot unpredictable, and divided betwixt present and schoolhouse — which means that 90 percent of the clip I’ve got the bureau to myself.

Could you archer america astir your desk(s)?

We some person lasting desks. Mine is an Autonomous SmartDesk 2 that’s physics and automatic, hers an aged pneumatic exemplary by Bakker Elkhuizen that they don’t marque anymore, which annoys her due to the fact that it requires a spot of effort to displacement up and down. They’re some decorated with self-healing cutting mats, which are inactive occasionally utilized for arts and crafts (or arsenic the backdrop for my product photos) but mostly treble arsenic elephantine rodent mats.

You person some a seat and a walking station. What are they, and however good bash they enactment for you?

The seat is simply a secondhand Herman Miller. It really utilized to beryllium my partner’s, portion I sat successful a large Duelhawk Jet Black PU gaming seat (also nary longer available), until we each realized we preferred the other’s spot and swapped. I’m aged enough, and sore enough, to beryllium consenting to put a small successful the seat I’ll beryllium utilizing each time anyway.

The walking pad is simply a pretty inexpensive 1 from Mobvoi. I really bought it instantly aft speechmaking a piece by my workfellow Victoria Song connected a antithetic Mobvoi model, and pursuing her proposal I’ve made nary effort to interaction its astute features oregon way my workouts; truthful acold it’s served maine well. I conscionable usage it arsenic dilatory arsenic it goes, and effort to walk arsenic overmuch of each greeting walking connected it arsenic imaginable — connected a bully time I’ll rack up 2 oregon 3 hours of dependable walking time; connected a atrocious time I’ll support putting it disconnected until the java hits and ne'er rather get going. Either way, I fto myself beryllium down for the afternoon, which is much apt to beryllium concentrated penning clip — I find it hard to bash thing excessively originative oregon analyzable portion walking astatine the aforesaid time.

(I know, I know, my cablegram absorption isn’t great. I thin to beryllium precise tidy, but cables are 1 of the fewer things I perfectly don’t person the patience to organize. Sadly, having a lasting table truly lays bare those sins, truthful I whitethorn person to unit myself to get amended astir it.)

Here’s the agelong one: archer america astir the assorted tech devices you’re using. 

My existent setup is somewhat awkwardly trapped betwixt my enactment and idiosyncratic computers, though I person immoderate plans successful the works to amended it.

My enactment instrumentality is an M2 MacBook Air, which lives propped up connected a Ugreen laptop stand. It’s connected to the show connected the right, a inexpensive 24-inch QHD Philips model that I bought successful 2020. 

The confusing portion of my setup is that 2nd monitor, an embarrassingly aged Acer one. That’s due to the fact that I’ve besides got a desktop PC that I usage extracurricular of work, and that connects to some monitors. At the extremity of the enactment time I tin flip the MacBook shut, and my idiosyncratic setup is bully to go. It’s each unnecessarily cluttered, though, particularly since the MacBook can’t enactment some outer monitors astatine once, truthful this year’s large upgrade volition astir apt beryllium a 32-inch 4K show to regenerate the brace of them. I’ll happily instrumentality immoderate recommendations from the comments!

My keyboard is the Logitech MX Keys S, which I love. I’m arsenic overmuch of a sucker for a bully mechanical committee arsenic the adjacent guy, but I emotion low-profile, full-size keyboards, and bully mechanical options successful that abstraction are fewer and acold between. I utilized to usage a Hexgears Venture, but I ran it into the crushed eventually, and this has served maine good since.

Logitech MX Keys S

Where to Buy:

• $129.99 astatine Amazon
• $129.99 astatine Best Buy
• $129.99 astatine Logitech

The rodent is besides Logitech, though it isn’t my accustomed one. I picked up this MX Anywhere 3S a portion backmost to usage erstwhile I’m traveling to commercialized shows and merchandise launches, and usually person the larger MX Master 3S connected my desk. Sadly the near fastener connected that has fixed up the ghost, and I’m holding disconnected connected replacing it successful the hopes that the long-rumored MX Master 4 is astir to launch.

Continuing the Logitech taxable (I’m conscionable present realizing rather however overmuch of my table setup was built by them), I person an aged Z337 2.1 talker system that conscionable hardly fits connected the table close present (another crushed I request to power to a azygous monitor), and a Brio 500 webcam that I mostly similar for however casual it is to flip the built-in privateness shutter.

Everything connects up done an Anker Prime USB hub that’s astir surely much almighty than I request it to be, but has tons of front-facing USB ports for charging my array of phones, helped by a Xiaomi 50W wireless charging stand, which made much consciousness erstwhile I was utilizing a Xiaomi 14 Ultra arsenic my main phone, but is somewhat wasted present — different phones don’t deed that max charging speed.

Anker Prime Charging Docking Station

Where to Buy:

• $269.99 $169.99 astatine Amazon
• $269.99 $169.99 astatine Anker (with codification WS7DV27TLOVQ)

I thin to person a rotating formed of phones floating astir my desk, though this is comparatively tidy for maine — connected messy days I tin person up to 5 oregon six handsets taking up space. Beyond the Vivo X200 Ultra I utilized to instrumentality these photos, you tin spot the Fairphone 6 and Huawei Pura X, the 2 phones I’ve astir precocious been investigating for reviews. 

Tell america astir your camera collection.

I decided I wanted to effort retired movie photography backmost successful 2019, due to the fact that I was spending a batch much clip penning astir cameras arsenic portion of my telephone reviews and utilizing cameras arsenic portion of my job. I figured movie would beryllium a bully mode to marque myself larn much astir the halfway principles. 

I picked up this Canon EF connected eBay. It’s a ’70s SLR with a metallic body, which means it’s dense but is built similar a vessel — I fishy it volition outlast me. It came with a Canon 50mm lens, and I’ve gradually picked up a fewer inexpensive options to spell with it: a 28mm wide-angle, a 35-70mm for erstwhile I privation flexibility, and a 70-210mm telephoto I bought specifically for a safari successful Kenya a mates years back. I ever archer myself I’ll bargain better-quality lenses erstwhile I’m a bully capable lensman to get the astir retired of them, but I’ll astir apt conscionable person to wound the slug eventually.

The microphone surviving alongside them each is the Rode NT-USB, which I usage for podcasts and videos, though I’d similar to get a roar limb for it truthful I tin store it astir the desk.

You’ve got a batch of toys and games connected those shelves! How agelong person you been collecting them?

This is simply a truly motley assortment of things I’ve collected implicit the years — immoderate bought, immoderate gifted, immoderate acquired from an aged bureau clearout. There’s much dotted astir the remainder of my apartment, though my woman is connected an (understandable) ngo to ore it each successful the office.

Do you person immoderate favorites?

I’m an implicit Alien obsessive, and I really person 2 full-size facehuggers, 1 plushie and 1 vinyl, which I adore. There’s besides a (sadly not full-size) powerfulness loader from Aliens, which I can’t get capable of. Elsewhere successful the flat I person a fewer archetypal ’90s Street Sharks and Small Soldiers enactment figures, which are inactive waiting for the close support to show them on.

The committee crippled postulation is tiny but steadily growing. I’ve been playing a batch of Gloomhaven implicit the past twelvemonth oregon so, though Betrayal astatine House connected the Hill is astir apt the crippled that gets breached retired astir often. I’ve besides got a steadfast postulation of D&D 5e and Alien RPG sourcebooks — I tin powerfully urge the latter, and that’s not conscionable the fanboy successful maine speaking!

Okay, archer america astir that beauteous cat.

That’s Noodle, 1 of our 2 cats (the different is Loaf, and yes, of people they person an Instagram account).

She’s really a caller summation to my desk. We’ve had the cats for a mates of years, but successful the past fewer months Noodle has decided she really wants to bent retired with maine portion I work, and volition happily prevarication down connected my keyboard to bash so. We acceptable her up with a small broad furniture instead, which she present sleeps successful astir fractional the day, though she inactive isn’t supra a keyboard nap erstwhile the temper strikes. The biggest astonishment to maine is that she doesn’t look to caput the lasting table going up oregon down portion she’s connected it, which I expected would origin a spot of panic.

Photographs by Dominic Preston / The Verge