I review a lot of home office gear for my job, which means my workstation is in flux. Today a new desk, another office chair Yesterday – you get the idea. A constant in the last three years? BenQ Screenbar. You’ve probably heard of BenQ before—a Taiwanese manufacturing company Excellent monitor And the projector-But this lamp is my number one accessory for working from home.
Screenbar doesn’t take up any desk space, as it hangs over your computer monitor and illuminates the desktop beautifully. It’s a simple little thing, but it brings me so much joy, and the company is iterating on it, with the latest version being Screenbar Pro. I’m here to tell you that you should probably get one for yourself Home office.
Let there be light
Screenbar comes in a few flavors: screenbar, Screenbar Hello, Screenbar Plusand the Screenbar Pro. I’ve tested the original ScreenBar and the Pro-Halo offers a backlight that pushes the light behind the monitor if you want light on your desktop. And The wall behind your computer screen. The Plus is similar to the standard ScreenBar, but has a separate dial attachment for controlling light settings instead of touch controls on top of the lamp.
You can configure these lamps to your preferences by changing the color temperature and brightness or toggling on the auto-brightness function so that it matches the ambient light in the room. But what sets the latest ScreenBar Pro apart from its siblings is the motion sensor. Now, a few minutes after I leave my desk, ScreenBar Pro closes. When I come back, it lights up my desktop – it’s like it’s booting up my battle station. Rad.
These screenbar lights are designed to have minimal bleed so those LEDs don’t blast your eyes, though you’ll want to make sure your monitor is at eye level to avoid them. There isn’t even a ton of light blood on the monitor screen. That said, the only time I’ve noticed a glare on the screen is when I’m watching anything with dark content, like a moody video game or a movie. This is when I turn off the screenbar to enjoy the rich blacks and deep contrasts of my OLED monitor.
I’ve had no problems using them on all kinds of monitors, including my current curved one Alienware AW322QF 32-inch Curved Gaming Monitor. Best of all, you don’t have to use the precious USB-A slot on your PC or laptop to keep the lights on—I just plug the ScreenBar directly into my monitor’s USB port for power. It also keeps the cable tidy.
So where are you? Have a webcam Do you have a screenbar on top of a monitor? Well, I used to have my webcam slightly off-center, but it took some fiddling and software adjustments to the field of view to get it to look just right. The better solution is to just get BenQ’s webcam accessory. It sticks to the top of the screenbar and you can balance your webcam on top. It held the webcam quite high, but I was able to angle My MX Brio Well so it doesn’t sound weird.
Leave no one behind
Screenbar is useless if you don’t have a computer monitor on your workstation. But if you work exclusively from a laptop, BenQ hasn’t forgotten about you! Last year, I tested the LaptopBar, which mounts on the back of a laptop screen to illuminate the keyboard and work area late at night in the office.
This version has some trade-offs though. All you need is a magnetic sticker on the back of your laptop, which the laptopbar sticks to. When you don’t have the LaptopBar attached, there’s a permanent magnet circle on the outside, which doesn’t look good. The LaptopBar is also battery powered and can last about two hours at full brightness, but you can plug it into your laptop to keep it running longer (this will drain your laptop’s battery).
Still, it’s a great little lamp on the go, perfect for anyone who regularly types in the dark. The lamp comes with a carrying case, is dimmable, and offers warm or cool color temperatures.
It may all sound a bit silly – it’s just a lamp! who cares! I know, I know. But the unique-looking screenbar array actually saves space on my already packed desktop. I also love light – I’m the type of person who likes to put lights on around the house while my wife likes to sit in the dark (I once discovered cooking in the dark, which is just obscene to me). . So having my desktop as bright as I want makes me happy at my workstation, especially in the months when the sky gets a little dark after 4pm.
It’s the little, comforting things like this that make working from home so much fun. And do not need to change into work clothes. or commute. Or pack a lunch. Well, you get it.
