The BenQ ScreenBar is a Monitor Light which attaches to the top of your monitor or laptop, looking after your eyes by optimising the light whilst you work.
💲 Buy on Amazon: https://geni.us/BenQ-ScreenBar / https://geni.us/BenQ-ScreenBarLite
BenQ sent over both the ScreenBar and the ScreenBar Lite – for a Desktop computer monitor and a Laptop respectively. They both feature a monitor light strip with an auto-dimming feature which detects the ambient light in your workspace and boosts it to 500 lux, which is the light level recommended by The American National Standard Practice for office lighting. In a darker room (under 50 lux) it adjusts to 300 lux, to avoid feeling too bright.
The ScreenBar range promises to help relieve the discomfort of eye strain and irritation caused by spending long hours sat working at a computer. It does this by gently illuminating your whole working environment to the perfect light level, based on current ambient light detected by the built-in sensor, reducing the contrast between your bright computer screen and the rest of your desk environment which will be especially useful at night or in poorly-lit environments.
You could, of course, just turn the light on but something like this will provide a gentler, more focussed light which will be less harsh than turning the main room light on. And, one of the things that appeals to me most is that it’s like having a desk lamp but without the extra clutter of a stand taking up space on your desk. And it looks really neat, too – it’s easy to forget it’s even there. I aspire to have a clean, tidy and minimalistic setup but struggle with clutter so anything which helps with that gets a thumbs up from me!
There are only 4 buttons and they’re very self explanatory; you can control the brightness, and colour temperature with the two buttons on the left, and on the right you can press the auto brightness button and then next to that there’s the power button to turn it on and off. The desktop version has a patented clamp design which will fit to any monitor (including a curved monitor) and both monitor light versions are extremely easy to set up and use.
Despite what its name might suggest, the ScreenBar Lite, designed for laptops, is actually a bit more feature rich coming with an optional software app which you can install and the option to save your favourite settings. As well as that, the app also adjusts your laptop’s own screen brightness as well, in conjunction with the ScreenBar’s light levels when you select auto, giving you – in BenQ’s words – “the ideally lit workspace”. That’s a really nice touch, and I’m not sure why the app couldn’t also work with the Desktop version, but sadly it doesn’t.
Both the ScreenBars that BenQ sent to me work well and did a good job of lighting up the work area to a comfortable level, whether that’s my desk or elsewhere with my laptop. The light is soft and gentle, there’s absolutely no flicker or glare and it was nice having my desk space lit up – even though my multi-monitor setup spans a larger space than most!
Now, BenQ did ask for an honest review, and there are some negatives to share with you. Firstly, there’s no Chromebook support for the app on the Lite version, so you can’t use it unless you’re on either Windows or MacOS – which admittedly is most people, and the key functionality is accessed via the hardware buttons anyway, but as someone who occasionally uses a Chromebook as well as my Windows laptop that would have been nice to see. I’d also like to see the app work on the Desktop version as well, as I’ve already said.
Secondly, you need to turn the Desktop version off separately after shutting down your PC if USB power is persistent. That’s probably a very lazy complaint, though, as you’d only have to do the same with a desk lamp too. I do quite like the Desktop version and I think I’ll carry on using it, but my biggest negative really with the Lite version – despite having held it physically in my hands and used it, so I can see it is a great product – is that I can’t really see myself ever actually using it on my laptop. It is a good product though, and it’s nice how it comes with a carry case as it’s obviously a bit fragile and you wouldn’t want to break it.
I definitely like the idea and the theory behind the product… The Desktop one is especially nice and I can really see the advantages of a, lighting up your environment and b, not having a traditional desk lamp taking up space on your desk. The ScreenBar Lite is a harder sell though if you ask me. Would I really carry it around with me? I don’t think so, but maybe that’s because I don’t do that much proper work on a laptop – I’m in the habit of using my Desktop for that. So, I love the Desktop version, and the Lite version is good – just not for me personally.
Is this something you’d use? Would you carry the Lite version around in your laptop bag? Let me know in the comments, and if you’ve found this video helpful please give it a thumbs up and think about subscribing to the channel if you haven’t already.
More info from BenQ’s Website:
ScreenBar: https://bit.ly/2SL7rA9
ScreenBar Lite: https://bit.ly/3uZfnMg
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