TourBox NEO

Andy Westlake tries out a small, affordable editing console designed for Photoshop and Lightroom users

- Andy Westlake

If you spend much time editing images, you probably find this entails a lot of repetitive keyboard and mouse work. The TourBox NEO aims to change all that. It’s an editing console that’s designed to streamline your workflow by providing an array of dials and buttons to select and adjust settings. It’s specifically designed for image and video editing, with profiles for Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Premier all included.

At £149, the TourBox NEO is relatively affordable for this type of device and with a footprint of just 11.6x10.1cm, it won’t take up too much space on your desk. It’s also highly customisable, so you can adjust how it operates to suit your personal preferences or build operating profiles for use with other software. But how well does it really work?

Build and design

In terms of design, the TourBox NEO is a smoothly sculpted black plastic box that’s covered in dials and buttons. The arrangement may look haphazard, but it’s clearly designed to make every control distinguishable by touch. The idea is that you use the device with your left hand, in tandem with a mouse or graphics tablet in your right. It feels solidly built and is unexpectedly weighty, which combined with its rubber feet, means it won’t slide around on your desk. But I do wish the controls weren’t made of the same black plastic as the shell; they can be oddly difficult to make out, especially under artificial light.