Articles by Christine Persaud

The best monitor light bars can brighten your workspace for easier reading without boosting the brightness of the screen, which can be taxing on your eyes. Light bars usually don’t take up much, or any, additional space on your desk and don’t cost a lot. And this is especially important if you’re using an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse with a computer, like a Chromebook, and thus have minimal desk space. As you look toward enhancing your home office with items that can help you be more productive and better organize the space, we’ve done the research to identify and rank the best monitor light bars for your home office or workspace.

Best for customization

LOFTER Screen Bar Light

Staff Pick

With three lighting modes, including warm, cool, and natural, and 10 brightness levels via a total of 84 LEDs, this light’s slim and sleek design keeps crucial desk space free. There’s no glare or shadows thanks to the convenient angle, and it’s easy to set up, plugging in via USB.

$3…

Solid GPS watch

Garmin Venu 2

$400 at Amazon

Pros

Fashionable design
Good battery life
Lots of music storage

Cons

No ECG

The Garmin Venu 2 is a solid, premium smartwatch that will appeal to both serious athletes and those just looking to get fit with some exercise. Along with plenty of workouts, sports, and fitness tracking, it’s also an elegantly designed smartwatch that can easily disguise as a wristwatch for nights out on the town.

Rugged for runners

Garmin Forerunner 745

$490 at Amazon

Pros

Lots of added features for runners
Decent battery life
Small and light

Cons

More rugged design
Expensive
No ECG

As the name implies, the Garmin Forerunner 745 is ideal for runners and athletes who partake mainly in outdoor sports and activities. With GPS, detailed training stats, on-device workouts, and useful stats like recovery time, race predictor performance, and training effects, it’s a runner’s dream with a rugged, sporty design to match.

Garmin is a…

One of Samsung’s latest smartphones, the Galaxy S21 Ultra, impresses with tons of fabulous features, including amazing cameras and a super sleek design that’s complemented by the absolutely gorgeous 6.8-inch screen. The phone is IP68 dust and water-resistant, but it’s still important to protect it with a case. And while the device doesn’t come with the popular Samsung S Pen, it works seamlessly with one. So, it’s a no-brainer to grab the S Pen — easily the best stylus for Android phones like this one — to use with this phone. While you’re at it, consider choosing among the best S Pen cases and other accessories to complete the experience.

Trusted brand

Spigen Liquid Air P

Staff Pick

You can never go wrong with a Spigen case, and this one actually comes with a built-in slot to accommodate an S Pen. It’s slim and form-fitting with an anti-slip matte surface that’s comfortable to hold while tapping away or jotting notes. With military-grade protection and Air Cushion technolog…

The best tablets and large-screened smartphones are designed for you to use your fingers to navigate menus and screens, type, select, and more. But you can also use the best stylus for Android phones and tablets to do all of the above. A stylus offers better precision, particularly with specific tasks like coloring, jotting down digital notes, or selecting items in a detailed document or spreadsheet. They’re especially useful for those with large hands, fingers, and/or thumbs who find it difficult to manipulate small text on the screen. We’ve rounded up the best universal stylus pens. For those who own a Samsung device, specifically, however, the absolute best option is an S Pen.

Fine-point stylus

Adonit Dash 3 (Black)

Staff Pick

This universal stylus for Android phones and tablets features a fine-tip point that mimics a paper-like drag.

$50 at Amazon $50 at B&H Photo

For the latest Samsung tablets

Samsung Note20 Replacement S Pen

For a replacement or extra S Pen to u…

If you have your eyes on OPPO’s new flagship smartphone, the OPPO Find X3 Pro, chances are you have been lured in by its impressive feature set, which includes the 50MP camera that provides true color reproduction (seriously, it was used to film an entire sci-fi movie!), sizable 6.7-inch AMOLED screen, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G mobile process. Even though it isn’t officially available in the U.S., you might find clever ways to get your hands on one. If you do, like with any phone, you should instantly protect it with a case. But with features like an integrated fingerprint reader and Smart Sidebar, you’ll need to make sure the case you choose can accommodate the phone’s unique design without impeding on functionality. These are the best OPPO Find X3 Pro cases you can get so far.

Luxury leather

PUROOM Luxury Carbon Fiber PU Leather Case

Staff Pick

There’s just something about the OPPO Find X3 Pro that screams elegance, so this case seems perfectly fitting. Not only is it av…

Introduced in December 2020, the Samsung Galaxy A12 is a solid Android 10 device featuring a 6.5-inch screen, 48 MP camera, and 5,000mAh battery with fast charging. At just 8.9mm thin, it’s an entry-level phone that won’t rival some of Samsung’s more premium models, like the Samsung Galaxy S20, but it’s a great phone for those who don’t need all the bells and whistles. It’s a reliable smartphone for a teenager, an elderly family member, or even as a secondary phone. Regardless of who it’s for, protect your smartphone with a case. These are the best Samsung Galaxy A12 cases you can get.

Everything you need

Milomdoi Case

Staff Pick

It’s everything you need in one package for an affordable price, including a military-grade protective case with a 360-degree ring holder kickstand on the back along with a 2-pack of tempered glass screen protectors. The case is made of soft TPU silicone and offers heavy-duty protection with Air Cushion technology.

$11 at Amazon

Built-in screen prote…

Every kid wants a tablet, but deciding to invest in an Android tablet for kids is a big step. There are several features to consider: price, parental controls, and perhaps most importantly, durability. The Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is a top pick not only for offering tons of great content for kids but also for its included protective bumper case and parental controls. You can manage what your kids do and not worry that they might be accessing questionable websites or web content.

Best Overall: Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Edition

The Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is packed with some of the best hardware and software features you could ask for as a parent. Amazon took its top-of-the-line tablet, loaded it with parental controls, kid-specific content, and wrapped it up in a durable and functional case. While the screen size might be difficult for smaller toddlers to hold, the provided case does include a fold-out kickstand to prop up the tablet.

At 1080p, the full-HD display provi…

Projectors are a fun and popular way to provide the theater experience at home. But they can also deliver presentations and even cast your favorite movies and TV series from virtually anywhere like the backyard or a cozy campsite. Projectors are pretty simple to set up and you can typically connect a video source, whether it’s a set-top box, streaming stick, media player, or other device. But some of the coolest projectors come with software built-in so that all you need is a projector screen or even just a plain white wall. There are a variety of projectors that come with Android built-in, and the Anker Nebula Apollo checks all the boxes, so we’ve ranked it as the best Android-powered projector. It offers good bang for your buck with HD picture, seamless touch controls, long battery life, and decent built-in speakers. Read on to see some of our additional top choices for the best Android-powered projectors to suit your entertainment needs.

Best Overall: Anker Nebula Apollo WiFi Min…

Best answer: Yes, the Fitbit Ace 3 is swim-proof and thus safe to use in the water, though you should take a few precautions to ensure that it remains functional.

What is the Fitbit Ace 3’s waterproof rating?

The Fitbit Ace 3 is Fitbit’s latest activity and sleep tracker for kids, and arguably the best fitness tracker you can get for kids aged 6-12. It’s a simple device with a silicone band kids can wear around their small wrists to keep track of how many steps they take each day, their active minutes, and how many hours they sleep as well as set timers, alarms, and more.

The wearable is water-resistant up to 50 meters, not technically waterproof. But with that said, you can safely go in the shower, pool, or walk in the rain with the device and it will be fine. If your kids do an intense cardio workout, play soccer, or run, the sweat won’t impact it either.

However, keep in mind that with any wearable device that is water-resistant or even waterproof, you need to be mindful of …

Although a Chromebook’s trackpad works well enough for most situations, a wireless mouse is best when using a larger display to multitask or during intense video gaming sessions. Chromebooks are here to stay — and Google recently confirmed that it’s even extending the lifetime of supported Chromebooks to nearly a decade. Most wireless mice will work with all of the best Chromebooks, whether you’re a student looking to get one as a part of your overall selection of Chromebook accessories, or if you’re a Chromebook user who craves more precise navigation. Here are some of the best Chromebook mice to meet your unique needs.

No risk, easy set-up

seenda 2.4G Noiseless Mouse

Staff Pick

Available in tons of cool colors, including this pastel-like mint green, this versatile mouse is compact enough to throw into your bag and easy to set up via the USB dongle and instant connection via a 2.4GHz network without the need to install drivers. Plus, it comes with a lifetime warranty that pr…