Working on the move? 10 gadgets to make mobile productivity go with a swing

A couple of decades ago, in a world before pandemics and video calls, the now achingly Gen X phrase ‘road warrior’ was coined to apply to the new breed of perpetually mobile workers. Enabled and emboldened by tech – both in terms of gadgets and the soaring scope of the industry itself – road warriors saw themselves at the vanguard of the new post-office landscape.

The pandemic put paid to any lingering glamour and the vast majority of modern remote workers have swapped the road for the kitchen table, with the occasional coffee shop if funds allow. But the idea of being rootless and restless, whilst remained tethered to co-workers and a career is still an attractive one, even if it often comes out of necessity rather than desire.

We’ve scoured the stores to find the best tech accessories for keeping up to date and on the ball when you’re out and about, whether it’s the perennial problem of having enough battery life on hand, or the myriad promises of AI-powered productivity boosts. Here’s our guide to gear for running an office on the move.

Acer Swift Blade 14

One of the thinnest and lightest laptops on the market, the new Acer Swift Blade 14 weighs in at just 799 grams. With a 14” OLED screen, 50Wh battery and Intel Core Series 3 processors (up to the Core 7 processor 350), along with 512GB of storage and 12GB of memory, the Swift Blade 14 is our choice of ultra-lite, providing you’re able to live with one of the two finishes, Marshmallow White and Marshmallow Blue.

There’s also four-speaker audio, three USB-C connectors and an easily switchable webcam. The 14’s overall thickness of just 12.9 mm makes this an easy addition to the smallest of bags.

Acer Swift Blade 14, from £1,049.99, Store.Acer.com

Krafted Edge

Pairing well with the Swift Blade 14 is the Krafted Edge, an ultra-slim laptop powerbank designed to slot beneath the device itself. Just 12mm thick, the Edge has 20,000mAh capability, enough for up to three full laptop charges or four phone charges. Charging the Edge itself should take around two hours and there are two USB-C slots and two USB-A slots for simultaneous device charging.

The battery itself is modular and replaceable, while the casing combines an aluminium alloy base with a top panel made from OBP-certified ocean-plastic (i.e. waste that would otherwise have been ‘Ocean Bound Plastic’). The design cleverly incorporates a braided USB-C cable that slots into one end of the case so you’re never without a means of charging. Perfectly shaped to slot into a laptop sleeve alongside your computer, you won’t even know that it’s there.

Krafted Edge power bank, £149.99, Kraftedtech.com

Lexar Muse Ultra-Slim Portable SSD

The new Muse Ultra-Slim Portable SSD from Lexar is designed to bulk up the data capability of your smartphone. Described as the world's thinnest portable SSD, this pocketable storage measures just 8cm by 4.8cm by 3.8mm – it’s only 1 mm thick at some points). Available in 512GB and 1TB sizes, it weighs in at 26.5g and there’s a magnetic sleeve accessory for clipping it to the back of your phone.

Lexar Muse Ultra-Slim Portable SSD, available soon, Lexar.com

Timekettle LiveTalk

Timekettle have a pair of AI-equipped earbuds out in the wild, the W4 Plus and the LiveTalk. The former more focused on translation, while the LiveTalk is the choice for everyday translation and conversation summaries. Like all products of this ilk – and there are now a lot of them – there’s a certain amount of commitment required to get the best performance. LiveTalk consists of a pair of 6.9g open-ear earbuds that offer real-time AI translation, along with with AI-powered conversation summaries.

They do work, after a fashion, although the system struggles to keep up with the speed of casual conversation and works best when translating a piece of recorded speech. The sci-fi dreams of genuine real-time, UN-grade machine-driven simultaneous translation are not here yet, but they will be. LiveTalk can be used via your phone’s microphone or by joining in on a phone call.

Battery life is an impressive 35 hours (with the relatively hefty case) and as always there’s a subscription service for heavy users who need more than the basic 200 free minutes a month. Occasional travellers will find the LiveTalk’s arsenal of 54 languages (all European languages along with including Chinese, Japanese and Hindi and many more) spans most of the globe.

Timekettle LiveTalk AI Translation Earbuds, $109, Timekettle.co

Flowtica Folio

Adopting a new workflow doesn’t always feel intuitive, plus there’s the very real danger of switching over to a system or technology that flails, fails or gradually fades into obsolescence. That’s why we’re only giving a cautious nod to the new Flowtica Folio, a luxury notebook folder designed to be used with the Flowtica Scribe AI note-taking pen. We can already sense your hesitation.

Essentially, the Scribe is another form factor for the increasingly common AI-driven Dictaphone model, a pen that contains a microphone, 32GB of onboard storage and the ability to export recordings to the Flowtica app, where they’re automatically transcribed.

There’s no additional trickery, save for a button that adds a bookmarklet into the recording when you want something highlighted. The Folio simply acts as a smart way of combining the pen with your favourite notebook. In this age of E-ink tablets and hyper-capable smartphones, Flowtica’s set-up feels like a step too far, and having a relatively discrete recording device in meetings, etc., is a potential legal red flag.

The company’s newest product, the Verso, is a more practical piece of portable technology. Superficially similar in function – it’s an AI notetaker – the Verso clips on the back of a Smartphone and has its own E-ink touchscreen, so memos and notes can be read straight away. Orders are open now.

Flowtica Scribe Field Kit (Pen + Folio Notebook), £144, Flowtica.ai
Flowtica Verso E-ink AI notetaker, more information at Flowtica.ai

Anker Universal Charger

If you’re the kind of person who can keep hold of a travel adaptor for more than one trip, it’s worth splashing out on a quality unit that does it all. That’s certainly the case for Anker’s newest 4-in-1 universal charger, a hefty but compact travel accessory with inbuilt UK, US, and EU plugs - Type G, Type A and Type C, for those keeping track. With enough sockets to charge up to four devices at once – and 100W power for laptops – it’s a one-plug solution to almost every travel and remote working use case.

Anker Universal Charger, £69.99, Anker.com

Clicks Power Keyboard

The Power Keyboard from Clicks is a really truly tiny, tiny keyboard. Those with long memories will remember the Blackberry, once heralded as the ultimate device (peak road warrior, in fact), but somewhat elevated in status by the passing of time. The Blackberry had a physical keyboard, you see, something that Steve Jobs’s new-fangled touchscreen couldn’t hope to surpass.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a modern human being who isn’t well-versed in high-speed smartphone text input, and even harder pressed to find someone who still uses their Blackberry. Clicks reckon there’s enough enthusiasm out there for their Power Keyboard, however, a battery pack combined with a slide out keyboard that adds power, bulk and the delight of tapping away on tiny little keys. The large fingered need not apply.

Clicks Power Keyboard, £109, Clicks.tech

ProtoArc XK01 Foldable Keyboard

Another way of transforming a tablet or smartphone into something a little more practical is a folding keyboard. We particularly like ProtoArc’s tri-fold XK01 unit, which offers a full-size 105-key layout, including a host of multimedia keys and a number pad, and an onboard battery for up to 120 days of standby power. The company also offers a version with an onboard trackpad.

ProtoArc XK01 Foldable Keyboard, £44.99, ProtoArc.com