Having the right equipment can make all the difference when setting up a home office, or establishing a specific place in your home to get some work done. A good office chair alongside a standing desk can be a cornerstone of this setup, but picking the right one for your needs can be tricky. 

We've all been told about the harmful effects of sitting for long periods, so the Flexispot BS11 Pro offers a range of customization options to make sure you're sitting in the most comfortable, but also benficial position. Along with using a standing desk to try and be more active throughout your workday, an effective office chair focusing on ergonomics can help you correct your posture and avoid slouching.

With a focus on ergonomics, the Fleixspot BS11 Pro is the company's latest push to make sure its customers are staying comfortable and healthy when working from home, but how did it stand up to our tests?

• Looking for something for gaming? You should check out one of the best gaming chairs

Pricing and availability

The Flexispot BS11 Pro is currently only available on the company's UK website for £429 (around $530) in grey, black and light blue color options with free shipping. However the company is currently running a promotion whereby anyone signing up to the Flexispot newsletter can get 6% off their next purchase - which could save you a few pounds.

Users are free to return the chair within 60 days of receipt, and Flexispot offers a 60-day risk-free policy to all items. The company provides a five-year warranty on the chair - and for more information, you can check out the Flexispot website.

Design and build quality

The Flexispot BS11 Pro is available in several color options, with our chosen black on offer alongside grey and light blue alternatives.

Described by the company as "the jewel in our crown", the design of the BS11 Pro is modern and professional, with a smart black cushion and back section supplemented by the same color arm and head rest.

The cushion and back section are made of a breathable mesh that provides far more comfort than typical plain plastic chairs, and with its ergonomic focus, the BS11 Pro is designed to be sat in for longer periods.

Setup and assembly

The Flexispot BS11 Pro arrived in a single 20kg large box, with all the various parts separated into different packets and smaller boxes. It isn't initially clear where to start building the chair, with the assembly instructions hidden in a box alongside the wheels and assembly screws.

The instructions are quite plain and basic, and we felt that a bit more guidance could have been offered in order to make the build a simpler process. It often wasn't clear which screws were needed for which step, or which way round a particular component was meant to go, causing quite a bit of confusion.

All in all, the chair took us around 45 minutes to build, significantly longer than many other competitors tested on TechRadar Pro, so be prepared to block out some time. Once complete though, the chair is ready to go, and you can start adjusting the height of the seat and the arm and head rests straight away.

In use

Luckily, all this time spent assembling feels very worth it once you sit in the chair for the first time. As you might expect from an ergonomic chair, both the seat and the backseat initially feel very odd to sit on, with the shape almost pushing you forward. However after a few minutes, your posture changes, moulding slightly to fit with the shape of the chair, and instantly feeling more comfortable.

Adjusting the height of the chair and the angle of the back is done via two levers underneath the seat, with a further lever on the other side locking your preferred settings into place. You can choose from a range of seat heights, and recline or raise the back of the seat as much as you'd like, quicjly and easily.

Similarly, the arm rests are raised and lowered by a small lever built into the arms of the chair, with a variety of height options available for your pleasure. Once set, the arm rests are comfortable enough to rest and lean on, even for long periods of time.

The chair feels solid and sturdy, but on smoother floors (our test area was shiny wooden flooring), it did tend to roll backwards unexpectedly if we moved slightly. On carpet, this might not be too much of an issue, but for those of us with slippier floors, watch how you roll.

Overall though, the Flexispot BS11 Pro is incredibly comfortable to use over long periods, and we definitely feel better for sitting in it.

The competition

With hybrid working more popular than ever, the market is full of office chairs to help users set up a home working space.

TechRadar Pro recently reviewed the Branch Ergonomic Chair, describing it as "the perfect office chair upgrade for you, especially if you’ve been feeling fatigued or in pain while sitting in front of a computer for long periods of time." Our reviewer also praised the range of adjustability options and color schemes available.

Another option at around the same price point, is the Vari Task Chair, available for $330 - although it’s only available in either black or grey, with the grey model being slightly more expensive at $360. If you consider a headrest a must, Vari also sells the Task Chair with Headrest starting at $385.

Final verdict

If you're looking for a final piece to the home office puzzle, then having an ergonomic chair is likely to solve that problem.

After our initial struggles with the setup, the Flexispot BS11 Pro Ergonomic Chair proved to be a comfortable addition, offering a useful range of customization options that allowed us to get the chair just how we like it.

The price tag may be a little higher than some of the competition, but if you're looking to splash out on a long-lasting, sturdy ergonomic office chair, this could be the one for you.

Looking for something else to boost productivityt? Check out our roundup of the best laptop stands

Cleer Audio Scene review: One-minute review

Despite ‘Cleer Audio Scene’ sounding like three words you’d hear yelped in a coffee-induced haze after too long on a stressful film set, it’s actually the name of a refined mid-range Bluetooth speaker which is looking to upset some premium rivals.

We can’t get beyond the second paragraph of this Cleer Audio Scene review without mentioning the JBL Flip 6, a 2022 speaker which received 4.5 stars in our review and currently sits on our list of the best Bluetooth speakers, as the Scene seems designed to rival it – this new speaker has a slightly lower price tag, a similar design, and a few extra features to sweeten the deal.

In large part, the Cleer Audio Scene does a good job of distinguishing itself – the fact it has a lower price speaks for itself, but the addition of a microphone for calling, useful extra ports for aux-in and top-notch audio clarity makes for a strong device.

Still, as the imperfect score shows, the Cleer Audio Scene does have a few rough edges that might mean it's not the best choice for you.

The Scene is bigger and heavier than the JBL Flip, so it’s a little less convenient to carry in a bag or pocket; in fact, the only area where it’s not heavy is its bass, with the focus on definition resulting in a less bass-heavy experience than on rival devices. And if those points sound minor, you’re going to hate our final gripe: the turn-on and Bluetooth-pairing jingles are plain annoying.

Sure, those are petty points, but there’s only so many times we could roll our eyes at this speaker.

Cleer Audio Scene review: Price & release date

• Released in December 2022
• Officially priced at $79.99 / £99.99

The Cleer Audio Scene went on sale in most areas at the beginning of December 2022, just in time to hit the Christmas playlist rotation, though it took a little while to hit store shelves in some regions.

The speaker officially costs $79.99 / £99.99 (about AU$170 – it's listed on Cleer's Australian website, but without an official price at the time of writing), and the fact it sits below the triple-digit barrier may well turn heads for people looking for an inexpensive speaker.

That price roughly puts this as a mid-range speaker, with more affordable options like the Tribit Stormbox Micro 2 or pricey rivals like the B&O Beosound A1 offering fewer or greater features depending on how much you’re willing to spend on your Bluetooth music machine.

As we said, Cleer Audio’s speaker is most comparable to the JBL Flip 6, but undercuts the $129.95 / £129.99 price of that comfortably.

Cleer Audio Scene review: Specs

Cleer Audio Scene review: Features

• Battery life lives up to expectations
• Easy pairing and good connection quality
• Microphone quality is clear

The Cleer Audio Scene is a Bluetooth speaker, using Bluetooth 5.0 – that’s a slightly older standard of wireless connectivity, so you might get weaker connection over long distances compared to some new products released, but from our testing we never had issues.

You’ll find the basic selection of ports here – a 3.5mm jack for aux in, as well as a USB-C port for charging – and there’s also a power, Bluetooth, volume up and volume down button.

The speaker delivers up to 12 hours of battery life, which is roughly par for the course for a portable speaker. The JBL Flip 6 has that same figure, and from our testing, both hit it. (The B&O A1 v2 delivers 18 hours without being larger, if you want more.)

Pairing a device to the Scene is incredibly easy, because you’re not required to download complicated apps or perform an impromptu tech ritual to connect your phone or tablet. It took us seconds to pair our iPad to the speaker, both for initial pairing and for subsequent sessions.

One minor gripe we had is that the power-on and power-off jingles were quite annoying – both sound surprisingly like an odd knock-off of Berlin’s Take my Breath Away, something you don’t necessarily want to hear every time you’re putting on some tunes. A deal-breaker this is not, but we prefer the simplistic noises of other brands’ devices.

A nice feature in the Scene is the presence of a microphone, so you can conduct calls using it. From our testing, our voice was clear on video and voice calls, but using a loudspeaker as a mic was such a bizarre concept that we didn’t choose to use it outside of our tests.

• Features score: 4/5

Cleer Audio Scene review: Design

• Wave-like design
• IPX7 waterproofing
• Bigger than JBL Flip 6

The design of the Cleer Audio certainly seems to evoke its JBL rival, because its build waves to the cylindrical look of the Flip 6, but with a few changes. ‘Waves’ is the key word there, as the Scene has one pinched side, which makes the speaker look like a crashing wave. You can almost imagine a surfer in the middle there.

Despite the Scene aiming to have a more refined design than the utilitarian Flip, this design change has some unfortunate consequences: the speaker is harder to easily slip into packed bags or cluttered shelves. You also have to lie the device horizontally, while the Flip is a little more versatile with fitting into little spaces.

The Scene is also bigger and heavier than the Flip, again making it less portable, and when packing for a picnic, we’d rather save our bag space for more hummus.

There’s a mesh covering over most parts of the speaker, it comes in red or black, and it’s IPX7 rated. That means it’s protected against splashes of water, but won’t fare so well from fine particles like dust and sand.

• Design score: 3.5/5

Cleer Audio Scene review: Sound quality

While we may have been critical of elements of the Cleer Audio Scene’s design, its sound quality will redeem it… for most people.

The Scene has dual 48mm drivers and passive radiators, which will be enough to tell you it's serious about audio quality before you’ve even started the tunes. But when you press that ‘play’ icon you’ll be really impressed with the speaker – the brand’s name is no lie, it really is clear audio.

The speaker puts out music with great clarity, with the treble and bass waltzing hand-in-hand over different genres of music.

This refined audio was a particular blessing as we like to flit between genres of music – while some speakers specialize in bass-filled rock music, and others fare better in treble-focused instrumentals, the Scene fared equally well when we indulged all the whims of Shuffle Mode.

So why did we say it’ll only impress ‘most people’? That’s because, while many portable Bluetooth speakers emphasize heavy bass, the Scene focuses more on even definition in all areas, which means the bass is tighter – possibly too tight and refined for some.

Sure, that fits the Cleer Audio mantra of detailed sound, but if you prefer your Lil Nas X to your Liszt, a balanced bass won’t quite give Old Town Road its edge. If you like your bass-booming parties, this speaker might not be right for you – and it's worth noting that bass is easily lost when listening outdoors and there's wind noise around you, so more is often better. There's a reason other portable speakers often go heavy on it.

But if you a speaker more for using flexibly around the home, the Cleer's audio is great, and well-balanced.

• Sound quality: 4.5/5

Cleer Audio Scene review: Value

If you prefer balanced audio to a bass experience, the Cleer Audio Scene will be a great-value option for you – it performs very well for its price, and is a preferable option for people who don’t want to slam out party tunes.

If you’re looking for an all-around cheap speaker and don't need top-notch audio definition, there are definitely more affordable options – but we think it's worth stretching to the extra clarity here.

• Value score: 4/5

Should I buy the Cleer Audio Scene?

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Cleer Audio Scene review: Also consider

SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD: Two minute review

The transition to SSD from conventional hard drive storage has been a gradual one. But with the limits of 2.5-inch drives being about 5TB currently, the SSD looks likely to overtake legacy technology this year in both speed and available capacities.

The G-DRIVE range of external SSDs, under the SanDisk Professional branding, offers a selection of robust external drives ranging in size from 500GB to 4TB. And, of these, the SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD is the lowest rung on this ladder.

Where other drives offer Thunderbolt technology, this drive is exclusively USB 3.2, and the best port for it is one with USB 3.2 Gen 2 level bandwidth.

The drive is contained within a block of milled aluminium covered in a TPU skin, providing a useful level of durability and water/dust resistance. According to SanDisk, the protection is IP67 standard (not water submersion), and the enclosure can withstand 2000lb of crushing force alongside a drop of 3M onto a carpeted concrete floor.

The PRO-G40 from the same source has higher crush resilience and IP68 dust/water resistance, but the G-DRIVE SSD should be able to handle some knocks and environmental encounters. Though, this isn’t a device we’d take swimming.

Included in the box are two 50cm cables, one each for USB-C and USB-A connections, allowing it to be connected to most computers that support USB.

While it will work with USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 (aka USB 3.1), to get the best transfer speeds from it requires a port with USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbit/s.

For those that own an Apple Mac, just connect the drive and then use it to manually copy files or configure it for Time Machine use.

As it comes pre-formatted for Apple APFS, Windows PC owners will need to understand how to use the Management Console and volume management to reformat the drive to a file system that Windows will understand.

That SanDisk doesn’t include any cross-system boot sector with a utility to configure the drive for any OS is disappointing, and they also provide no software for this drive or others in the same range.

Considering the cost of this hardware, it is remarkably short on added value.

One area it does shine is that the NVMe inside has the capability for 256-bit AES-XTS hardware encryption, enabling the contents of the drive to be secured effectively.

Though, the owner must provide encryption tools to lock and subsequently unlock the contents stored on the drive, if they want to use this functionality.

SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? From $94.99 / £138.99
• When is it out? It is available now
• Where can you get it? Widely available from the larger online retailers in most regions and directly from Western Digital.

Bought directly from the makers, the 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB are £138.99, £227.99, £356.99 and £673.99 in the UK. In contrast, US customers are offered the same capacities for only $94.99, $129.99, $209.99 and $429.99.

Based on current exchange rates, UK customers pay, on average, between 80% and 120% more for the same capacity directly from Western Digital.

Even with VAT factored in, UK customers are getting a remarkably raw deal. And online retailers such as Amazon aren’t undercutting Western Digital by any significant amount.

And for those wondering if this high pricing is Brexit related, it isn’t. The prices for this range in France are equally inflated, being €163.99,  €264.99, €410.99 and €769.99.

Since this drive is only USB Gen 3.2 Gen 2 capable, there are many brands and products that offer the same capacities and performance levels for significantly less.

A good example is the Crucial X8 4TB, a similarly robust design with similar performance over USB. In the UK, this costs £274.58, including VAT, and in the USA, it's $279.99. And Crucial also makes the X6 which is ten dollars cheaper for the same 4TB of space.

That you can buy two Crucial X8 for the price of a single SanDisk Professional SSD that isn’t any faster suggests that either Crucial is underselling its line or SanDisk has entirely lost the pricing plot.

Making it somewhat water/dust resistant and hardware encryption doesn’t justify more than doubling the cost, unfortunately.

• Value: 2 / 5

SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE Desktop: Design

• Tough enclosure
• Both USB-C and USB-A cables
• No carry case

The milled aluminium and rubberised coating provide a sturdy home for the NAND module mounted inside the SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD.

Given the IP67 rating, it should handle the odd splash of water, being dumped in the dust and, with 2000lb of crush resistance, accidentally driven over by a family car.

One curiosity is that the drive can supposedly handle being dropped 3 metres, but in the fine print, that’s onto concrete covered in carpet. The carpet requirement seems to be something of an odd detail, as the world wasn’t fully carpeted when we looked last.

Where this drive is better than the more expensive PRO-G40 is that it at least comes with both the USB cables most customers will need, and they are also a decent length.

But the same as that counterpart, SanDisk doesn’t provide a pouch or case to carry the drive and its cables, a niche that some third party will undoubtedly fill.

The only feature of the drive is a small white LED on the bottom that flashes to indicate activity, and that’s the only detail.

For those wondering if the enclosure could be repurposed, there appears to be no obvious way inside. And, while it might be possible to dismantle, there are no guarantees that the NAND flash module inside uses a standard M.2 slot.

But we can say with some certainty that any attempt to open it would immediately invalidate the five-year limited warranty.

Overall, this is a very nicely engineered and constructed external drive that looks able to cope with abuse that might be expected to kill those external SSDs that are made mostly of plastic.

• Design: 3 / 5

SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD: Features

• Up to 4TB options
• Apple Pre-formatted
• No software

Probably the best aspect of this design is the available capacity, as many of the other SanDisk Professional SSDs are capped at 2TB, where 4TB of storage is available.

For those purchasing the G-DRIVE SSD for their Apple Mac, all they need to do is connect it to a recent Apple Mac computer, as the drive is pre-formatted with APFS.

Microsoft Windows-using customers will need the technical knowledge and confidence to use the Windows management console to delete the existing partition and create a new NTFS or exFAT volume.

Why they didn’t use exFAT and a utility that runs on both platforms to reformat the drive for both groups is a mystery. Because that’s normally what Western Digital does, the overarching business that owns the SanDisk brand.

What Western Digital also usually provides with its My Passport drives are some Windows software utilities that copy user files to the drive or install new firmware releases.

The G-Drive SSD comes with none of these, regrettably. We can only conclude that those who designed the G-Drive SSD assumed that it would be mostly Apple macOS users purchasing this drive, and they have Time Machine and don’t need any other tools.

Whatever the thinking, for those that don’t own a Mac, this is another compelling reason not to buy this solution.

• Features: 2 / 5

SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD: Performance

• Good USB speeds on Gen 2
• Gen 1 equal to SATA SSD
• Solid benchmark scores

Inside the G-Drive SSD is an NVMe stick, probably much like the ones that most people use in their laptop or desktop systems.

We know this because the performance here is at least twice that of a SATA SSD, at around 1,000MB/s.

Obviously, transfer speeds at this level are only possible if the host machine has an SSD that’s at least capable of that speed, if not marginally quicker, and USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports.

The port type is critical because USB 3.2 Gen 1 only offers 5Gbit/s of bandwidth, which equates to roughly 500MB/s, or the same speed as SATA SSDs can achieve.

Therefore, for those with USB 3.0 (USB 3.2 Gen 1) ports, there is little point in purchasing this drive over cheaper options because you will never see its actual performance.

When connected to a PC using USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, our speeds topped out at around 1,050MB/s reads with 1,000 MB/s writes on CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4, irrespective of USB-A or USB-C.

The less optimistic AJA System test presented 881MB/s reads and 871MB/s writes using a 16GB test file.

The fine irony of these numbers is that the NVMe inside can undoubtedly go quicker, but the USB connections are the limiting factor here.

As a USB drive, these numbers are solid and equivalent to those that we’ve seen from the Crucial X8 and its like. There are faster USB drives that use the USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 standard, such as the PNY EliteX-PRO and Kingston XS2000. For those curious, Thunderbolt-connected SSDs can be three times these speeds, something to consider for those that have that port and can afford those drives.

In short, the performance of this drive is acceptable within the context of the USB interface it supports, but it’s hardly anything special.

• Performance: 4 / 5

The G-Drive brand strongly hints at delivering something special, above and beyond what others are offering. Often in terms of performance, but also the warranty and reliability.

But problematically, many brands are offering the same USB 3.2 Gen 2 performance and 5-year warranty as the SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD, and most aren’t asking this much for those things.

This hardware is beautifully made, and in five years’ time, it is likely to still look good and be working well due to its resistance to water and dust. But will the 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB capacity seem like a large amount of space then, and will 1,000MB/s transfer speeds be fast enough?

Given the speed of change we’ve seen in the past five years, the answer to both those questions might well be no.

SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD: Report card

Should you buy a SanDisk Professional G-DRIVE SSD?

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