I overview a variety of house workplace gear for my job, which suggests my workstation is in flux. A brand new desk at the moment, one other office chair tomorrow—you get the concept. The one fixed over the past three years? The BenQ ScreenBar. You might have heard of BenQ earlier than—the Taiwanese firm makes excellent monitors and projectors—however this lamp is my primary work-from-home accent.
The ScreenBar does 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, nevertheless it brings me a variety of pleasure, and the corporate has been iterating on it, with the most recent model being the ScreenBar Professional. I am right here to inform you that it’s best to most likely get one to your home office.
Let There Be Mild
The ScreenBar is available in just a few flavors: the ScreenBar, ScreenBar Halo, ScreenBar Plus, and the ScreenBar Pro. I’ve examined the unique ScreenBar and the Professional—the Halo affords a backlight that pushes mild behind the monitor in order for you mild in your desktop and the wall behind your pc display. The Plus is identical as the usual ScreenBar, nevertheless it has a separate dial attachment to regulate the sunshine’s settings quite than the contact controls on high of the lamp.
You possibly can configure these lamps to your preferences by altering the colour temperature and brightness and even toggling on an auto-brightness operate 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 may need to ensure 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 get pleasure from my OLED monitor’s wealthy blacks and deep distinction.
I’ve not had any points utilizing these on all types of displays both, together with my present curved Alienware AW322QF 32-inch curved gaming monitor. One of the 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, nevertheless it took some finagling and software program changes to the sector of view for it to look OK. The higher answer is to only get BenQ’s Webcam Accessory. This sticks to the highest a part of the ScreenBar and you may 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 does 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 case you completely work off of a laptop computer, BenQ hasn’t forgotten about you! Final 12 months, 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 have 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 also be battery-powered and might final round two hours at full brightness, however you may plug it into your laptop computer to maintain it working for longer (this may drain your laptop computer battery).
Nonetheless, it is a tiny little lamp on the go, good for anybody routinely typing up at the hours of darkness. The lamp comes with a carrying case, could be dimmed, and affords heat or cool coloration temperatures.
All of this will sound just a little 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 sit down 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 completely happy at my workstation, particularly within the months when the skies get darkish just a little after 4 pm.
It is little, comfortable issues like this that make working from house such a pleasure. And never having to alter into work garments. Or commute. Or pack lunch. Properly, you get it.
