Guide
Notebook buying advice: The big laptop comparison
by Jan Johannsen
This equipment is useful in the home office
17.3.2020
Translation: machine translated
Working from home: long routine for some, wishful thinking for others. The coronavirus has forced many people to spontaneously reorganise their homes.
If you spend a day working from home every few weeks or months, it may have been enough to just take your laptop out of the office. Now, however, you need to be prepared to spend several weeks working from home. A few other things will be helpful.
The computer
I assume that you already have a laptop available. If this is not the case and you are thinking of buying one for your home office, I recommend taking a look at our notebook buying guide.
Yes, this may seem silly, but there are situations in which I am grateful to be reminded of the obvious. To be able to use your laptop at home, you need to remember to take the power supply with you from the office and/or the docking station with its additional connections. If you have a PC at home, you should already have all the necessary accessories. All you need to do is install the programmes you need for work and log in to the portals and services you use. It is also important to be able to access your own documents. Depending on your company's requirements, this can be via a cloud service or a VPN connection to the company servers.
Mouse
You should also pack your mouse. Even if you only want to work on your laptop at home, it is much more comfortable and precise to move the cursor with the mouse than to move it using the touchpad. I now even pack my mouse for trade fairs that last several days and sometimes even for longer appointments.
I currently use the Logitech M720 Triathlon, but you can also get from around 20 euros, you can also get useful models for working from home. In addition to an ergonomic shape, it's important to me that the mouse doesn't have a cable - even if it's a bit more expensive. It just lies around and gets in the way. The batteries in my mouse have lasted almost a year now and Bluetooth should be available in every notebook by now.
Screen
In the long run, even a large notebook with a 15 or 17-inch display could be too small. It's not just Excel spreadsheets that hurt your eyes in the long run. If you don't already have a monitor at home, your first choice would of course be to bring one from the office. In consultation with your employer, of course. Then you can be sure that all the cables will fit.
If this is not possible, you should resist the temptation to use your TV as a monitor. This is not a problem with a cable or via wireless transmission paths and is also harmless for a video stream, for example. However, TV sets are designed for a different viewing distance and for less detail than a PC screen, which you sit much closer to. Or to put it another way: it's better to work on a 24-inch screen than on a 15-inch screen, but it gets worse at 55 inches.
Paying for a monitor at home out of your own pocket if you only need it for work is understandably not a tempting option. If, after a while, you are thinking about it, I recommend the following article. However, you would need to budget for 150 to 200 euros.
In addition to the screen size, ergonomic customisation options and a matte display, you need to make sure that the notebook and monitor have the same connection for image transmission. As a rule, this is currently HDMI. But the famous exception to the rule is not uncommon at this point. The newer MacBook models alone, for example, only use the USB-C port.
Keyboard
If you only use a laptop in your home office, I think its keyboard is sufficient alongside the mouse. The situation is different if you connect the laptop to a monitor. In this case, a real keyboard is more comfortable to type on in the long term and makes more ergonomic sense. As a rule, it should be even easier to take your keyboard from the office with you than the monitor.
Headphones / headset
A pair of headphones or Office Headset can be very useful or even indispensable in the home office for various reasons. Laptops usually have a microphone and speakers, a PC does not.
If you make a lot of phone calls on your computer or take part in a lot of (video) chats, a headset with a microphone will make it easier for the person you're talking to to understand you. If you're not alone at home, other people won't be able to hear you. Although many headphones also have a microphone, their quality cannot always keep up with the headset microphones that come closer to your mouth on their headband. In other words: if you have a headset in the office, take it with you.
With headphones, especially models with active noise cancellation, you can isolate yourself from your surroundings when working from home or not annoy them with your music. If you have a quiet study or your very own flat, this should be less relevant. <p
When I was but a young student, I'd sit in my friend's living room with all my classmates and play on his SuperNES. Since then I've had the opportunity to test out all the newest technology for you. I've done reviews at Curved, Computer Bild and Netzwelt, and have now arrived at Galaxus.de.
