Has business hardware peaked?

(Image credit: Future)

published 24 October 2025

Business software is evolving faster than ever before, with advancements such as AI spurring developers to introduce new ways of working and interacting with the software layer.

But by and large, business hardware has stayed much the same for the past decade. With a few notable exceptions, the laptops, desktops, and portables we use for work today are simply evolved versions of what we were using in 2015.

Is this set to change? And what could the hardware of the future look like?

In this episode Rory speaks to Bobby Hellard, ITPro’s reviews editor, to explore some of the latest advances in business hardware and ask – is this the best it gets?

Highlights

"[T]he actual experience of using it is it was great. The reMarkable Paper Pro doesn't have any apps, so you don't get notifications and it's really good if you just want to think about an idea, write it down. You're not distracted, you're not tempted to look on social media or check your email, you're just on the device, right? That's great to sort of lock yourself in. And I think that's the case with the others as well."

"For us, everyday people, us business people, us office workers, you could probably get a laptop from five years ago and do just fine provided the battery lasts."

"The question there is, are we going to forego laptops and also start wearing glasses at some point in the office? Where do you see this happening? I mean, is it going to be people in data centers dealing with heavy analytical stuff walking around with glasses? I don't know, it still seems like it's not got a better way of doing it than the laptop. Is my my theory there."

Footnotes

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Rory Bathgate is Features and Multimedia Editor at ITPro, overseeing all in-depth content and case studies. He can also be found co-hosting the ITPro Podcast with Jane McCallion, swapping a keyboard for a microphone to discuss the latest learnings with thought leaders from across the tech sector.

In his free time, Rory enjoys photography, video editing, and good science fiction. After graduating from the University of Kent with a BA in English and American Literature, Rory undertook an MA in Eighteenth-Century Studies at King’s College London. He joined ITPro in 2022 as a graduate, following four years in student journalism. You can contact Rory at rory.bathgate@futurenet.com or on LinkedIn.

Highlights

Footnotes

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