You can take a look back at last year’s gear here:
there were/are some major changes happening with my assortment.
iPhone 12 Pro Max – This remains my main mobile device still. It still has a number of cracks on the screen but it still does what it needs to do. The device lives in a Quad Lock case and I have Quad Lock mounts for both desktop and car, which I highly recommend and make life easy.
I have still not been able to justify the upgrade to a newer iPhone. No apps I use demand it and I can’t see that I am really missing out on anything by staying where I am. Yes, there has been another new iPhone but is a $2K+ cost warranted? Nope.
One thing that remains configured my iPhone for is default grey scale display. I do this for two major reasons, firstly to prevent the phone from grabbing and holding my attention and secondly to save power. With the colours disabled on your phone it is amazing at how les tempting it is to play with it and use it as a crux when you are bored.
The great thing I will say about about Apple devices is their battery life. My experience is that this allows them to work for years and years, providing great value.
So for now, unless this device breaks, I’m in no rush to replace it.
Surface Pro 9 – This is my travelling and demo machine and replaces the Surface Pro 6. Having a dedicated travel machine makes it easy to grab and also to only have the software on it that I need. By that I mean I’m not installing random stuff on it to test.
I like the size and also the fact that it comes with with a Surface pen, which is handy as I discovered that the Surface Pen also works on Surface Hubs! (Great when the Surface Hub pens don’t work).
The device has a Samsung ViewFinity S70D 32″ 4K UHD VA Panel HDR 10 Monitor attached, which I bought last year to provider high resolution. The previous Samsung 32 Inch S39C FHD Curved Monitor (1920×1080) monitor has been moved to my Surface Pro 3 for IoT work.
I do most of my demos on this machine as well as Teams webinar work as it is nice and quick. This machine runs Windows 11 Enterprise.
While this machine powers on, I again, can see no reason to shell out probably close to $3K for a new device.
Surface Pro 7 – This is my main desktop machine. Being the same form factor as the Surface Pro 6, it just slotted directly into my Kensington SD7000 Surface Pro Docking Station I already have in place. This machine runs Windows 11 Enterprise.
This device has a Acer CB281HK 28″ LED LCD monitor as well as a small Samsung connected to it. This makes things really handy when doing webinars.
The downside of going to another Surface device is that it won’t fit in my Kensington SD7000 Surface Pro Docking Station which I really love. So if I upgrade this machine, I need to do away with the docking station as well.
I can’t see me replacing this device in 2026 unless it totally fails.
Surface Pro 6 – My backup machine in case my main machine fails or is unavailable for some reason. This machine run Windows 11 Enterprise and only gets turned on occasionally.
This machine is becoming noticeably slower to work with and takes much longer to boot up and run applications. Once these are all ‘fired up’ it is fine, but it is noticeably slower than the more modern Surface machines I have.
Surface Pro X – I use this machine as a ‘lite’ travelling desktop as well as a whiteboarding machine for demos and training. Give that it comes with the Surface Pen and has a nice large screen and will lie flat it makes the prefect device for scribing. I also use this device for writing note into places like OneNote. Perhaps not the most effective use of the device but it beats the iPad when it comes to scribing hands down in my books. This machine runs Windows 11.
Surface Pro 3 – Continues to work fine and function as a test machine in my production environment. This machine has now been removed from my production network and operates stand alone. It does this so it can run my IoT project work. I found that with the security I have on my production network that I could not easily operate the IoT software I needed so the simple solution was to remove it from the production network and use it stand alone. This machine is slow and clunky, but for now it is doing the job it needs to. This machine is not suitable for Windows 11 and thus still happily runs Windows 10.
This device now has the Samsung 32 Inch S39C FHD Curved Monitor (1920×1080) monitor connected to it make code much easier to read and work with.
Surface – I have had an original Surface version 1 for many years now. The keyboard has long since broken by the system still works fine, although somewhat under powered with only 4GB of RAM. This machine is now a dedicated device on a separate test tenant. This allows me to test Autopilot and other settings on it regularly. This machine is not suitable for Windows 11.
iPad mini 5th Gen – I decided I wanted a smaller ‘notebook’ size table to use like a paper diary, amongst other things, so I went out and bought an iPad mini.
I also now use this iPad mini with the Apple pencil, which generally works well, although the Apple pencil battery is pretty much knackered. The secret is to get a good case for both the iPad mini and the pencil. My choice was:
Finite Case with Pencil holder
which I’d certainly recommend as it is flexible, tough and cheap.
After a number of years the Apple Pencil doesn’t really hold a charge any more. That is disappointing, although I appreciate it doesn’t have a huge battery. This has again increased the friction with me finding a suitable replacement for a paper notebook because every time I want to write something down, I need to charge the pencil up which takes ages.
Here is another device that works well and really has no need of a replacement but I have considered upgrading to a current iPad mini but again, I’m struggling to justify the AU$800 cost when the existing device is more than fit for purpose. Even if I did buy a new iPad mini what would I do with the current device?
D-Link Wireless N300 Model Router DSLG225 – to allow connect to the NBN broadband network.
Ubiquiti – I have a variety of Ubiquiti equipment in place including a Security Gateway. All these have worked flawlessly and I can’t recommend this gear highly enough.
Docking station – I still love my Kensington SD7000 Surface Pro Docking Station. It is a really neat device, that suits most modern Surface Pro devices. It is slim, compact and now allows me to have 3 external monitors off the one Surface devices (as you can never have enough screen now can you eh?). I can plug in all my devices, microphones, phones, etc to it and all the cables are hidden at the back. I also like that you can adjust the screen up and down, a bit like a Surface Studio.
If I did upgrade my Surface pro 7 device it could not be used with this docking station which would be sad. Seems to me all the docking station form factors have moved to just being external bricks rather than the elegance this solution provides. being unable to use this docking device upon a device upgrade is a major reason preventing me from upgrading if I’m honest.
The original Kensington SD3500v has now moved to work with the Surface Pro 3 and that is also working well
My gear remain pretty much the same and functioning reliably. I’ve survived another year with teh same kit, meaning I have not shelled out for new kit. When the old stuff does the same and the new stuff, why waste money right?
I no longer have a frontline Android phone, but the longer I go without it the more I wonder whether I do in fact need it? if so, I could always buy it, but until then it can go on the back burner. The major investment in 2025 was a higher resolution screen for my Surface Pro 9.
Keeping things simple works best I believe.
CIAOPS 