I overview quite a lot of residence workplace gear for my job, which suggests my workstation is in flux. A brand new desk at this time, one other workplace chair tomorrow—you get the thought. The one fixed during the last three years? The BenQ ScreenBar. You might have heard of BenQ earlier than—the Taiwanese firm makes glorious displays and projectors—however this lamp is my primary work-from-home accent.
The ScreenBar would not take up any desk house, as a result of it hangs over your pc monitor and brilliantly illuminates the desktop. It is a easy little factor, but it surely brings me quite a lot of pleasure, and the corporate has been iterating on it, with the most recent model being the ScreenBar Professional. I am right here to let you know that you must in all probability get one to your residence workplace.
Let There Be Gentle
The ScreenBar is available in just a few flavors: the ScreenBar, ScreenBar Halo, ScreenBar Plus, and the ScreenBar Professional. I’ve examined the unique ScreenBar and the Professional—the Halo gives a backlight that pushes mild behind the monitor if you’d like mild in your desktop and the wall behind your pc display. The Plus is identical as the usual ScreenBar, but it surely has a separate dial attachment to manage the sunshine’s settings somewhat than the contact controls on high of the lamp.
You’ll be able to configure these lamps to your preferences by altering the colour temperature and brightness and even toggling on an auto-brightness perform in order that it matches the ambient mild within the room. However what units the most recent ScreenBar Professional aside from its siblings is the movement sensor. Now, a couple of minutes after I depart my desk, the ScreenBar Professional turns off. After I come again, it lights up my desktop—it is as if it is booting up my battle station. Rad.
These ScreenBar lights are designed to have minimal bleed in order that these LEDs do not blast your eyes, although you will wish to be sure that your monitor is at eye degree to keep away from them. There’s additionally not a ton of sunshine bleeding on the monitor display. That stated, the one time I’ve seen a glare on the display is after I’m watching something with darkish content material, like a moody online game or a film. That is after I flip off the ScreenBar to take pleasure in my OLED monitor’s wealthy blacks and deep distinction.
I’ve not had any points utilizing these on every kind of displays both, together with my present curved Alienware AW322QF 32-inch curved gaming monitor. The very best half is you do not have to make use of up a treasured USB-A slot in your PC or laptop computer to maintain the lights on—I simply plug the ScreenBar instantly into my monitor’s USB port for energy. It makes the cable neat too.
So the place do you place a webcam when you’ve got a ScreenBar on high of a monitor? Properly, I used to have my webcam barely off-center, but it surely took some finagling and software program changes to the sphere of view for it to look OK. The higher resolution is to simply get BenQ’s Webcam Accent. This sticks to the highest a part of the ScreenBar and you’ll steadiness your webcam on high. It does put the webcam fairly excessive, however I used to be in a position to angle my MX Brio properly in order that it would not look unusual.
Go away No One Behind
The ScreenBar is pointless if you do not have a pc monitor at your workstation. However in the event you completely work off of a laptop computer, BenQ hasn’t forgotten about you! Final yr, I examined the LaptopBar, which mounts on the again of a laptop computer display to light up the keyboard and work space for these late nights on the workplace.
There are some trade-offs on this model although. You’ll want to stick a magnetic adhesive to the again of your laptop computer, which is how the LaptopBar stays affixed. When you do not have the LaptopBar connected, there is a everlasting magnetic circle on the outside, which does not look nice. The LaptopBar can be battery-powered and may final round two hours at full brightness, however you may plug it into your laptop computer to maintain it working for longer (this can drain your laptop computer battery).
Nonetheless, it is a tiny little lamp on the go, excellent for anybody routinely typing up at the hours of darkness. The lamp comes with a carrying case, could be dimmed, and gives heat or cool coloration temperatures.
All of this will sound slightly foolish—it is only a lamp! Who cares! I do know, I do know. However the unique-looking ScreenBar sequence genuinely saves house on my already packed desktop. I additionally love mild—I am the one who likes to have the lights on round the home whereas my spouse prefers to take a seat at the hours of darkness (I discovered her cooking at the hours of darkness as soon as, which is simply bonkers to me). So blasting my desktop with as a lot mild as I need makes me really feel blissful at my workstation, particularly within the months when the skies get darkish slightly after 4 pm.
It is little, comfortable issues like this that make working from residence such a pleasure. And never having to alter into work garments. Or commute. Or pack lunch. Properly, you get it.
