9to5Mac Reviews

Earlier this summer, Anker announced a trio of new products – one of them being an incredibly thin MagSafe/Qi2 battery for iPhones, and now even Google Pixel 10. I’ve spent my fair share of time with it, and the new Anker Nano Power Bank is honestly everything you’d want out of a MagSafe battery bank.

With Apple no longer making their own MagSafe batteries, and the upcoming iPhone 17 Air having relatively weak battery life – this could be a great purchase to make ahead of Apple’s ‘Awe dropping’ iPhone 17 launch event.

The iPhone is capable of capturing plenty of varying scenes, and has been for many years. Ever since iPhone 11 Pro, we’ve had a triple camera array, allowing for ultrawide, wide, and telephoto shots. Despite this, many companies still offer third party lens solutions for your iPhone, allowing you to capture even more with your iPhone.

ShiftCam is one of those companies, and today I’ll be reviewing their LensUltra Fisheye lens. It’s like an Ultrawide, but with a bit more perspective.

I’ve tested a few BenQ products lately. My favorite has been their Mac monitor with Apple Studio Display specs and a more affordable price. The most fun? A new category for me: projectors. The GP520 4K HDR model BenQ loaned me to test alleviated my concerns about the practicality of a projector instead of a TV.

I’ve been reviewing one of XREAL’s more recent releases of AR glasses: the XREAL One’s. These are certainly the most versatile pair of AR glasses I’ve tried out so far, and they actually really come to life somewhere you wouldn’t expect: the M4 iPad Pro running iPadOS 26. XREAL One come in at just under 3 ounces (84 grams), making them easy to just carry around.

Logitech recently provided me with its Casa Pop Up Desk for review, and it’s a nifty little gadget for those who want more of a fixed desk setup while working on the go. If you’re more of a coffee shop person or always working outdoors – this could be a neat product for you.

For the longest time, I had believed that purchasing a new iPad at full price never made any sort of sense. Ultimately, you’re paying more than an equivalently spec’d MacBook, for less capability. It always felt like iPadOS was the key limiting factor for the iPad, not the hardware.

However, I’ve now owned an M4 iPad Pro for nearly a year, and I can confidently say it’s changed how I feel towards iPads. And that’s before factoring in all of the great new features in iPadOS 26.

A few weeks ago, Logitech announced an interesting new keyboard case for the iPad Air and iPad Pro – called the Logitech Flip Folio. It takes a different approach, and certainly targets a new market that hasn’t quite been thought about before.

The Lowfree Flow84 is the latest episode in my on-again, off-again love affair with mechanical keyboards. I describe it as the mechanical keyboard Apple would make for a mix of good and bad reasons, but we’ll get to that!

It’s one of a relatively new breed of low-profile mechanical keyboards, something that would have seemed a contradiction in terms just a few years earlier …

It’s hard to believe, but it’s been over seven years since I first got my hands on CalDigit’s TS3 Plus dock, and during its heyday, I labeled it as the best dock for Mac users. Since then, CalDigit released the TS3’s successor, appropriately called the CalDigit TS4 Thunderbolt 4 Dock, which offered a refined take on its predecessor.

Now, with the advent of Thunderbolt 5 adoption for the latest M4 Pro Macs and higher, CalDigit is back with an even more powerful version of its TS-series dock – the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 5 Plus, or TS5 Plus for short. Yes, CalDigit has retuned to its “plus” nomenclature of the past, as it plans to offer a less powerful 15-port version – simply dubbed CalDigit TS5 – in the future.

The TS5 Plus, of course, includes support for Thunderbolt 5, but is there any other reason why prospective buyers should consider it over the already great TS4? Perhaps! Watch my hands-on video review for a closer look, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Mac peripheral coverage.

Sonnet’s MacCuff mini is a great way to securely mount your Mac mini under your desk, on a wall, or behind a monitor, allowing you to reclaim precious desktop real estate. I recently tested the MacCuff mini with my 2024 M4 Mac mini, and I was impressed with its build quality, thoughtful design, and ease of use. Watch my hands-on review of the MacCuff mini, and be sure to subscribe to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more videos.

Since Apple announced the first Thunderbolt 5-enabled Macs last year, it hasn’t taken long for peripheral-makers to usher in new Thunderbolt 5 compatible devices. Of course, Sonnet is often at the forefront of bringing such new hardware to market, and its Sonnet Echo 13 Thunderbolt 5 SSD Dock is the first TB5 dock with an integrated NVMe SSD. How does it perform, and should you consider it? Watch our hands-on video walkthrough for the details, and be sure to sub to 9to5Mac on YouTube for more Mac hardware reviews.

I’ve had the joy of getting to test out the reMarkable Paper Pro over the past few months. It’s certainly an impressive device, though it isn’t quite for everyone. That said, I do think it makes a lot of sense for a lot of people, and I’m certainly happy such a device exists on the market. It’s certainly made me re-think a few things.

Zens recently sent over their Quattro Charger Pro 4 to try after Apple started selling it, and it’s already become a family favorite. In testing, I also discovered a fun, off-label use that potential buyers may appreciate.

I’ve described one of Waterfield’s earlier backpacks as a mini-Tardis, as it carries way more inside than you’d ever expect from the compact form factor, and that’s even more true of the latest Shinjuku Backpack.

It looks like a slim backpack suitable for a MacBook, charger, and a few other bits and pieces, but the beautifully-organized layout means it’s surprisingly capacious …

For me, one of the biggest issues with making the switch from a MacBook to a Mac mini was the display aspect of it. MacBooks all have fairly great displays, especially on the MacBook Pro. However, finding a good display that pairs nicely with a Mac desktop always feels like a little bit of a challenge.

You either have to go with Apple’s expensive options, or compromise significantly on the experience with a third party. Some common compromises include poor brightness, a lack of USB-C, or a lack of macOS integration. While the BenQ MA270U certainly isn’t a Studio Display replacement, it performs excellently in all of the qualities that matter to me.

If 27-inch 5K displays aren’t your thing, BenQ’s 32-inch 4K monitor is a fun option I’ve been testing and loving. The BenQ RD320UA 32-inch Ergo Arm Programming Monitor with MoonHalo is designed to maximize comfort during long coding (or writing) sessions.

At CES 2025, Belkin began shipping its new SoundForm Isolate headphones. They’re the first wireless headphones with active noise cancellation that Belkin has developed, and they come in at just $60 – making them incredibly affordable over-ear headphones.

There’s been a lot of talk about augmented reality tech lately, especially with the unveiling of Snapchat Spectacles and Meta Orion. Those are both highly expensive and unobtainable to consumers – but there is a growing market of affordable glasses, that provide some of the benefits of AR glasses at a much more palatable price tag. The RayNeo Air 2s’ are one of them, and I’ll be providing some of my thoughts.

Philips Hue bulbs are one of the easiest ways to give your existing light fixtures smart home capabilities, including through Apple’s HomeKit platform. The problem with Philips Hue bulbs, however, is that whenever a wall light switch is flipped off, the smart lights become unresponsive.

The Lutron Aurora dimmer is a simple yet ingenious way to solve this problem, and it should be at the top of every smart home fan’s holiday wish list.

Plus, they are currently on sale for 20% off on Amazon…