Last January I got a new laptop that blows my desktop out of the water in terms of specs. I was dumb and decided to get a budget desktop because of all the USB ports and the disk drive it has. It was something like $300-400USD. My current laptop was roughly $1000USD before tax.

Had to remove the complete spyware win11, but otherwise it's been a great laptop (minus the few times I've either somehow broken MXLinux or broke KDE Plasma). Totally better than my old laptop as well considering I don't need to constantly charge my new one to keep the battery from dying and it doesn't have a lot of damage.

Many have had big impacts. Piano, phone, computer.

Apple Watch

No longer would I have to get out my phone to pay for something, or pause music, or adjust the Temperature. The early models didn’t have health sensors but I still get excited every September for Apples announcement to see what sensor they add next

Dehumidifier - 5 years and counting drying laundry indoors overnight with no risk of rain or wind!

Going to get roasted for this, but Alexa devices. The video versions play Netflix, YouTube, Hulu etc and have much better sound than the standard little speaker orb version. They all sync together so you can stream music in each room that has one like having a whole house stereo system.

Being able to verbally add something to the grocery list at any time is a game changer. People aren't taking advantage of that feature as much as they should IMO.

My 486. With colour screen and speakers!

A Fujitsu Lifebook U9310x convertible laptop.
It's my main computing device, which doubles as a tablet.
It's light enough to take anywhere, has over 12h of battery on Linux, and holds up better mechanically than my Thinkpad.

Smart oven + meal plan: My spouse bought me one for my birthday (a Tovala) and I have to admit I was skeptical at first but hot diggity damn does it make fresh cooked meals easy. We very rarely order out now and the meals are usually very good (stay away from the burgers though, their bread usually sucks).