Hardware is so back!

Hardware is so back!

By Dee Miller

Hardware is back.

Welcome to 2026, where the hyper-fixation on screenless AI hardware is turning retro nostalgia into high-margin entrepreneurship.

Gen-Z wants to "aura farm" like a 2007 C-suite executive. Boomers just want their physical buttons back.

As Steve Jobs put it, "Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have." Sometimes it's just about strapping futuristic intelligence to a form factor everyone already misses.

The Minimal Phone: An E-Ink QWERTY handheld oozing peak mid-2000s BlackBerry energy. High-contrast display, zero blue light, offline-first architecture, multi-day battery life. It removes algorithmic distractions while letting creators execute. Trend Insight: it turns modern doom-scrolling into intentional micro-tasks.Cost: $449.99 / £332.

The Pocket AI: Think dictaphone, but super-charged. This sleek magnetic device snaps to the back of your phone, using dual microphones and ambient sound-mapping to passively transcribe, index, and action-item every meeting or coffee shop brainstorm you have in real time. Cost: $139 / £103.

Plaud Note Pro: Plaud took Pocket's concept and raised the stakes for the executive suite. Four beamforming mics, an aluminum-alloy body, and cross-model AI under the hood. ISO 27001 and HIPAA-grade encryption justify the higher price tag for boardrooms and lecture halls that need enterprise privacy, not casual convenience. Cost: $189 / £140 for the device (subscription plans layer on top for heavier transcription use).

Brick: Ever had to deactivate your Instagram for a week? Or further back, remember turning your BBM photo black to go off-grid? Brick brings that back physically. It's a literal magnetic block that uses localized NFC to lock selected addictive apps at a system level until you physically tap the hardware again. Software cancellation, engineered for deep work. Cost: $59 / £44, one-time.