I overview a number of residence workplace gear for my job, which implies my workstation is in flux. A brand new desk right this moment, one other workplace chair tomorrow—you get the thought. The one fixed during the last three years? The BenQ ScreenBar. You could 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 does not take up any desk area, 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 a number of pleasure, and the corporate has been iterating on it, with the newest model being the ScreenBar Professional. I am right here to inform you that you must in all probability get one in your residence workplace.
Let There Be Mild
The ScreenBar is available in a couple of 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 would 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 regulate the sunshine’s settings quite 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 operate in order that it matches the ambient mild within the room. However what units the newest ScreenBar Professional other than 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 be certain your monitor is at eye stage to keep away from them. There’s additionally not a ton of sunshine bleeding on the monitor display. That mentioned, 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 straight into my monitor’s USB port for energy. It makes the cable neat too.
So the place do you place a webcam in case you have a ScreenBar on high of a monitor? Nicely, I used to have my webcam barely off-center, but it surely took some finagling and software program changes to the sector of view for it to look OK. The higher answer is to simply get BenQ’s Webcam Accent. This sticks to the highest a part of the ScreenBar and you’ll stability your webcam on high. It does put the webcam fairly excessive, however I used to be capable of angle my MX Brio properly in order that it does not look unusual.
Depart No One Behind
The ScreenBar is pointless if you do not have a pc monitor at your workstation. However should you solely 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 must 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 hooked up, there is a everlasting magnetic circle on the outside, which does not look nice. The LaptopBar can be battery-powered and might final round two hours at full brightness, however you possibly can plug it into your laptop computer to maintain it working for longer (it will drain your laptop computer battery).
Nonetheless, it is a tiny little lamp on the go, good for anybody routinely typing up in the dead of night. The lamp comes with a carrying case, will be dimmed, and gives heat or cool colour temperatures.
All of this could sound a bit foolish—it is only a lamp! Who cares! I do know, I do know. However the unique-looking ScreenBar sequence genuinely saves area 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 in the dead of night (I discovered her cooking in the dead of night 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 satisfied at my workstation, particularly within the months when the skies get darkish a bit after 4 pm.
It is little, cozy issues like this that make working from residence such a pleasure. And never having to vary into work garments. Or commute. Or pack lunch. Nicely, you get it.
