When we published a Setups post with the headline “This desk has a minimalism level of over 9,000,” consultant Mike Leardo felt compelled to send in his own rig to show what peak minimalism really looks like.
You can’t get more minimalist than this — mouse, keyboard and screen.
Anthony Ivanovsky is a Toronto-based marketing expert and IT manager who has a knack for gadgets, both big and small. In his setup, an MSI Optix MAG341CQ 34-inch UltraWide Curved Gaming Monitor immediately draws the eye. And at $500, it costs considerably less than other ultrawides on the market.
On the left-hand side of his desk, standing like a monument, is the commanding Mac Pro. He uses this beast of a machine for video editing, photo editing and for his day job working for a tech startup. Aside from the base Radeon 580X, he also has two additional Radeon VII graphic cards, which may seem like overkill until you learn that he also runs three different YouTube channels.
I just opened more than 650 tabs in Safari on a new M1 MacBook Air. I would have opened more, but I got bored.
Meanwhile, in the background, the machine is downloading Photoshop and the Microsoft 360 suite, and I can see in Activity Monitor that it’s processing thousands of iCloud photos while also indexing the hard drive.
Despite this, the machine is as fleet as a greyhound. I started working on a Photoshop project while checking email, keeping an eye on TweetDeck and, of course, clicking around all those open Safari tabs. The MacBook Air is just humming. I’ve never seen anything like it.
The heart of Merényi Márk’s setup is a 2018 Mac mini. Even though it’s a base-line model, this little Mac that could executes every task he throws at it.
Márk recently ditched his LG UlraWide Monitor and replaced it with an LG 32UK550-B 32-inch 4K VA Monitor, which is made for gaming. He prefers the standard 16:9 aspect ratio of his new monitor when playing on his Xbox. In terms of fewer viewing angles that come with a VA (Vertical Alignment) panel, he sits right in front of it, so it’s not an issue. And he “expected far worse viewing angles and colors from [a VA panel],” so it came as a “pleasant surprise” to him that it’s so good.
Tyler Marsh has a setup that would make even Marie Kondo proud. He has nothing on his desk besides a couple of family photos and a scented candle, which both spark joy.
The linchpin of Marsh’s rig is an LG 34-inch UltraWide Curved Monitor. It’s the only thing in the setup that isn’t minimalist. He uses the massive screen to run a 2017 MacBook Pro for personal use. He also has a Lenovo ThinkPad T480 14-inch Business Laptop as his work machine.
Alex Knoll is a professional photographer with some serious carpentry skills. When he couldn’t find a desk he liked that matched his budget, he decided to just build one himself. He sketched a plan on his iPad with the Procreate app and bought himself a few long slabs of pine and got to work. With a set of $100 table legs he bought from TableLegs.com, the total cost of the materials came out to roughly $300.
Picking up a new iPad Air next month? If you’re switching from a 11-inch iPad Pro, you will be pleased to know that most of your existing accessories should work just fine with your new tablet.
Both devices are almost identical in size, with the new iPad Air being ever so slightly thicker than the iPad Pro. Unless you have an incredibly tight-fitting case, you shouldn’t have any compatibility issues.
When the new Mac Pro was released, Jonathan Morrison knew that meant one thing, it was time to change his setup. So he abandoned his MacBook Pro and started from scratch. He now runs a scintillating Mac Pro through a scintillating 32-inch Pro XDR Display. And because he is a Tech Youtuber, he also has the Pro Stand. He says that the Mac Pro is overkill for the stuff that he is doing but he loves how quiet it is.
Los Angeles-based designer Johan Loekito has three MacBooks on his desk. Yes, three!
It may sound bonkers to have three MacBooks on one desk but his hardware collection is more modest that it first appears. His main machine is a 2018 MacBook Pro and it’s a company laptop. He has a 2015 MacBook Pro for personal stuff, and a 2014 MacBook Air that is his partner’s.
Duncan Schultz, a government official from the land down under, started working from his home in Brisbane earlier this year. It turned out to be a great opportunity to upgrade his setup. He got rid of his 2015 iMac and instead bought himself a 2020 Mac mini and decided to experiment. He specced out his Mac mini with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. He wanted plenty of screen real estate without having two screens. So he connected it to a Samsung 43-inch 4K Smart TV and is not looking back.
The Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse are still some of the best accessories Apple ever developed. These refurbished models offer a great way to upgrade your Mac (or iPad) and save some cheese.
B&H Photo is offering even bigger discounts on some 2018 iPad Pro models today only. You can save up to $500 on the 12.9-inch option, with prices starting at just $669 for Wi-Fi + Cellular connectivity.
Get yours today before prices go back up.
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Mark Davis is somewhat of a Renaissance man. He is an author of four novels, an entrepreneur, an engineer and a scientist. He is between startups right now but recently sold a data analytics platform to Dell. In order to perform all of his duties, he needs a setup that can match his tempo. Naturally, he has a dual-monitor setup.
His main monitor is a Samsung U28E590D 28-inch 4k UHD which has a one-millisecond response time that obliterates latency. He pairs it up with a LG 27-inch IPS Monitor which he mainly runs off of his 2018 iPad Pro. A 13-inch MacBook Pro is the backbone of the setup. It is covertly hidden on a Twelve South BookArc behind the monitors. His MacBook is specced out with 16GB of RAM storage, which is important to him “so I can run multiple virtual machines in parallel when needed,” he said.
Ryan Sebastyan is a video editor who until recently was on tour shooting Def Leppard gigs, back when we still had concerts. The tour seems to be on hold now, but he has a nice selection of shots on his Instagram page.
Back at home, he built himself a killer setup. The headliner of this tech festival is the impeccable 27-inch iMac Pro, a beast of a machine. The Grovemade Walnut Monitor Stand makes the iMac its own computer upon a hill. Naturally, he pairs the iMac with the Apple Magic Mouse and Keyboard (with Numeric Trackpad!). The matte black color stands out nicely against the walnut desk and stand.
Jessie Ruane is a New York-based professional actor and interior home decorator so when it came to her home office setup she came to play. Since she last redid her setup, Ruane wanted to go with something cleaner and more minimalist. She said the favorite part of her setup is that it “is super functional to record great audio, hook up hard drives and accessories efficiently, and just perform everything speedy.”
The mainstay of the dual-monitor, MacBook Pro-run rig is an outstanding 27-inch LG UltraFine monitor. The LG UltraFine has a whopping 8 million pixels, more than four times as many as most conventional 1080p HD monitors and works seamlessly with her MacBook.
Connell McCarthy is a senior designer for Shopify by day and moonlights as a musician. His setup was built to handle both of these activities.
He works at a Strucktube table, by Tokyo Desk, which gives him a ton of space to work with. His monitor is the LG 32-inch FreeStyle IPS Monitor which gives him good screen quality without breaking the bank. The nerve center of his rig is a MacBook Pro.
If you’ve ever used the brilliant Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro late at night, while someone sleeps quietly beside you, you’ve probably noticed that clicking its trackpad is too darn loud! But you can avoid it.
With one simple settings change, you can use a silent tap to click instead. Here’s how.
Amazon is today offering its biggest discount yet on the brilliant new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. You can enjoy a rare $19.02 off the 12.9-inch model, which is down to just $329.98 for a limited time.
Bag yours before they sell out.
It took web designer Carlos Azaustre a span of three years to piece together his setup. Everything was carefully chosen.
To start off, the Madrid-based front-end engineer has the Samsung 34-inch UltraWide Monitor. He previously had a 24-inch FullHD Monitor but after a few years of wear-and-tear he decided it was time to make a change. So he splurged and went with the Samsung UltraWide. He runs his rig off of a 13-inch 2013 MacBook Pro which sits upon an AmazonBasics Laptop Desk Stand.
Jake Weisler is a professional wedding photographer and a content creator for Full Time Filmmaker, which produces crash courses about filmmaking. So having lots of storage — a whopping 56 terabytes — is key to his success.
At the center of this setup is the incredible 27-inch iMac Pro. Weisler uses a Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard with the additional Numeric Keypad. He also sports an Azio Retro Classic Mouse, which actually has a leather topping for some genuine comfort. As an editor, he needs both a trackpad and a mouse because he uses them simultaneously to scroll, click and swipe.
Designer and photographer Michael Evins’ desk is loaded with Apple gear. Almost everything on this setup was designed by Apple in California.
“I have been using Mac for about 12 years now,” Evins said, “I just like how everything works together in harmony.”
The lifeblood of his rig is the 2015 iMac. For peripherals he, of course, has the Magic Keyboard and Trackpad. An iconic duo.
Ben Hess is a professional cinematographer — and he has the gear to prove it. He rocks an iMac Pro that’s hooked up to a 27-inch LG 5K UltraFine Monitor, giving him acres of premium screen real estate.
But the highlight of this rig is not the $5,000 computer or the $1,300 screen. It’s his $27,000 Red Gemini Camera and $5,000 lens. Hess comes to play. The Red Gemini is top-shelf, and an Atlas anamorphic lens gives him the eye of a hawk.
There’ll be versions of Apple’s clip-on Magic Keyboard for other models besides the iPad Pro, according to a reliable source.
Apple’s accessory wowed reviewers and users this spring, but it’s currently only for the company’s top-tier tablets. Apparently, that’s going to change.
Apple’s newest MacBook Air is $49 more affordable if you buy yours on Amazon right now. Or you can save even more by opting for a renewed previous-generation MacBook Air, which is now available for less than $850.
Renewed stock doesn’t last long, so bag yours before they’re gone.
Busy medical student Zach Hicks spent years developing this mouth-watering, Mac mini-powered setup. His main screen is actually a 43-inch smart TV, which gives him a bunch of screen real estate so he can open up a lot of PowerPoint presentations at once.
To accompany these big screens, he uses an Apple Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse. A HomePod pumps out the audio, while two Philips Hue Bloom lamps illuminate everything. And, if you are wondering about the Apple boxes above his desk, they serve as a visual reminder of his journey to build this dream setup.