Although intended to be a once-a-year post about the gear I use, this one is a massive 3.5 years late. I wanted to write this out originally before the start of 2026, but a few realizations (explained further below) and lack of equipment prevented me from doing it. This should be a regular, year end post here on.
For reference, the older post is here
Let’s dive right in.
The 12.9’ M2 iPad Pro
The all in one, primary workhorse. All my general purpose computing happens on this device. I used to have a 10.5’ iPad Pro earlier, that died and no one would replace the battery - which led me to recycling it and going all in with the 12.9, 1 TB model, along with the magic keyboard and the apple pencil.
When I last wrote, we were on iPadOS 14/15 with terrible external monitor support. Now, we’re at iPadOS 26.2, and with stage manager, external display support is a first class citizen. However, the biggest caveat is the weight - along with the magic keyboard, this is a dense package, weighing almost 1.5 kg. On a recent trip, I tried ditching the magic keyboard to try and write long-form content with the on-screen keyboard, but it was a disaster of epic proportions. I had planned to write out 5-6 posts, but couldn’t get through even a few lines.
This device is useless without the keyboard for serious work, and I will have to pay the penalty of carrying the weight to do anything useful with this.
Given where stage manager is currently, this will probably be replaced by an iPad pro 11’ on the next iteration.
The Thinkpad E14
I share this with wifey for general things I cannot do on the iPad. This is her primary non-work device and I use it sparingly. Been almost 4 years (this april) since I got this and this continues to be a solid performer. I’ve done the standard upgrades - 16 GB RAM and 2 TB SSD, so this will continue to be used for another 4-5 years at least.
The Thinkpad T14 - “Titan”
This is a 2025 purchase, and I’ve posted about this separately here. I sold the surface pro as I was getting severely limited by what I could do with it and after a lot of consideration, I got a well specced out T14 - from the factory, I got upgrades for a better processor (core ultra 155H), the wonderful 2.8k OLED screen, a wifi 7 card and a 4G WWAN modem. Aftermarket upgrades included replacing the 256 GB SSD with a 2 TB one, and bumping up the RAM to 64GB.
In retrospect, I’m thankful I upgraded the RAM before the prices skyrocketed and availability tanked.
This is my core dev / research machine now and I’m experimenting running local LLM’s on this for various uses. Will be posting up a separate series of articles on that!
Phone - iPhone 15 pro max
On my last post, I wished for bigger screens on non-pro models. That came true when the iPhone 14 plus released - got that, and somehow it didn’t feel as good as the pro phone. So, upgraded to the 15 pro max when it launched in 2023. Photography has become pretty important now, and this serves me well on that front as well. BYOD is also configured on this, and is used for work e-mail.
The battery is dying and I’m wrestling with myself to not upgrade to a 17 pro max now. I might get the battery replaced and pull on for a year or two, and upgrade in 2027 possibly.
wearables - apple watch ultra 3 and ultra human ring air
The apple watch is a no brainer. I’ve had one since March 2017 and is something I’ve constantly had on me. I originally got a nike series 2, which I dropped accidentally and broke the screen. Then moved to a series 6 nike, then an apple watch ultra 2 when it launched.
I sneaked in an end of the year upgrade to an apple watch ultra 3, for two reasons. The black finish was mind-blowing and I wish it was available in 2023 when I got the ultra 2. the second was the massively improved battery life - I get around 3 days easily between charges, twice of what I used to get with the ultra 2.
I also use the ring air from ultrahuman, and coupled with the CGM, gives terrific insights between blood glucose levels and other body parameters. Although, I might ditch it this year.
bought and sold - iPad Mini 6
got the iPad mini 6 towards the middle of 2022 with the sole intention of using it for reading books and consuming rss content. However, over 2025, I discovered that I didn’t have any time for books - I must have charged it for maybe 4-5 times throughout the year and it was evident that it had to go. Got a good price for it and sold it without any hesitation. In retrospect, the idea of two iPads seemed good initially, but with where stage manager is right now, it makes more sense to collapse both into a single 11’ iPad pro.
the backup devices
I have an old iphone 12 lying around for any backup use, and has a secondary, non-frequently used sim installed in it. I still haven’t managed to sell the nokia 6.1 and it continues to collect dust in my shelf. I will need to give this away at some point of time (considering I get peanuts when I try to sell it)
the other pieces
The dual displays (32’ 4k and the 27’ 2k) are still part of the setup, and I plan on selling both of them this year. I will be moving to an ultra-wide monitor, hopefully. the dell U4025Q. Over the last couple of years, I’ve seen what a game changer an ultra-wide monitor is, and the U4025Q is probably the best one that’s available today.
On the peripherals front, I sold the logitech MX keys - I never did like the full size keyboard and it took up lots of space on the desk. I will have to replace it with a more compact version sometime this year.
The MX master 3 mouse has a floating scroll wheel and I need to repair it when I get a chance. I also found my favourite logitech trackball on sale, so that’s what I use now.
Work laptop
Work laptop got upgraded to a full blown portable workstation - the thinkpad P1 Gen6. Over weight, over powered and too hot when it runs. No choice there :).
So, that’s it for this year, and I will follow this up with a follow up post at the end of the year!