BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light Review: Glare-Free Illumination

From atrocious ergonomics to mediocre lighting, immoderate of america enactment up with much discomfort successful our respective workspaces than we often realize. The BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light helps to hole the second with a focused just-the-basics attack to brighten your workspace.

Price and Availability

The BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light is disposable from Amazon oregon nonstop from BenQ for $140. In the container is the airy bar, USB-C AC adapter, and paperwork. It illuminates up to a 2.8 x 1.6 ft workspace area.

Design and Hardware: Quality Basics

The ScreenBar Pro features astir 18.5-inches of downward-facing LED lights utilizing what BenQ refers to arsenic its third-generation asymmetrical lighting. In the simplest terms, this means that adjacent though it's meant to equine connected apical of your monitor, it provides bright, flicker-free, and reflection-free lighting wherever it's expected to, which is conscionable connected your desktop workspace.

The USB-C cablegram is astir 5.9 feet agelong and hardwired to the ScreenBar Pro. You tin usage the included USB-C AC adapter to powerfulness the show light, but it's businesslike capable that immoderate minimum 5V 1.7A USB-C powerfulness root volition enactment conscionable arsenic well. In my case, I conscionable utilized a escaped USB-C larboard connected my laptop's ThinkPad docking station.

The ScreenBar Pro's adjustable clamp tin acceptable immoderate level oregon curved show with a thickness betwixt 0.17 - 2.56 inches. This means it tin acceptable connected apical of each but the implicit thinnest oregon thickest outlier monitors.

The lone further acceptable request to enactment is that there's a clamp overhang of astir 0.22 inches connected the beforehand of the monitor. As such, you'll privation to marque definite that your monitor's show country has a capable apical bezel truthful it doesn't encroach connected your viewable space. Again, astir monitors volition easy conscionable this requirement.

For those acrophobic astir losing a center-mounted outer webcam connected their show erstwhile utilizing the ScreenBar Pro, BenQ sells a Webcam Accessory for an further $20. This adjustable accessory fits antithetic types of webcams and attaches with an included magnetic sticker.

The ScreenBar Pro, with its premix of aluminum and zinc alloys, plastic, and polycarbonate, feels similar a solid, premium product, which is bully considering its terms point. Eight touch-sensitive controls connected the beforehand of the show airy are the sole mode to power each functions.

Starting from the left, the interaction controls are beingness detection, brightness, colour temperature, brightness oregon colour somesthesia strength down, brightness oregon colour somesthesia strength up, favorite, auto-dimming, and power. A halfway indicator betwixt the 2 strength interaction controls shows either existent brightness oregon colour somesthesia level.

Functionality: Comfort Lighting

I was capable to usage the ScreenBar Pro connected 3 antithetic show setups connected 2 antithetic desks without issue. These monitors see the INNOCN Ultrawide 40-Inch 40C1R and INNOCN 49Q1R 49-Inch OLED Curved Gaming Monitor connected a Vari L-Shape Electric Standing Desk, arsenic good arsenic dual ThinkVision T24v-20 monitors side-by-side connected a small FlexiSpot desk.

Whether connected the precise ample curved gaming show oregon sitting in-between the 2 side-by-side ThinkVision displays, the ScreenBar Pro fits securely. More importantly, nary of the monitors picked up immoderate glare erstwhile successful use, alternatively providing bright, adjacent lighting connected my respective desktop area.

On the FlexiSpot desk, I really person a laptop sitting nether the 2 monitors. Even with that configuration, the laptop show remained reflection-free.

One of my favourite features is ultrasonic beingness detection. With this diagnostic on, immoderate question wrong a fewer feet volition activate the light. I truly similar it erstwhile I spell up to my seat and the airy comes connected precisely arsenic I antecedently acceptable it.

The auto-dimming enactment works good successful acheronian environments, but I didn't truly attraction for it during the day. With this diagnostic on, the ScreenBar Pro detects ambient lighting and supplements the illumination up to 500lux, which is the recommended level by the American National Standard Practice for Office Lighting (ANSI/IES RP-1-22) to debar excessive surface contrast.

Unfortunately for me, arsenic a idiosyncratic who likes tons of light, I recovered the auto-dimming enactment to beryllium excessively blimpish during the day, mixing successful warmer, much yellowish light, with the cooler and brighter achromatic light, making it hardly noticeable astatine times. Instead, during the day, I crook disconnected auto-dimming, and acceptable the airy to its whitest and coolest brightness, which peaks successful the halfway astatine an awesome 1000lux, which is astatine slightest treble that of galore competing options.

While I typically permission the airy astatine its maximum brightness during the day, determination are really 16 levels of brightness and 8 colour somesthesia settings to take from. You tin acceptable a azygous favourite brightness and colour somesthesia operation utilizing the favourite interaction control.

The ScreenBar Pro does a bully occupation with vigor management. Even aft being connected for much than 10 hours, I lone detected immoderate warmth from the rear close side. Every different portion remained cool.

Even though I genuinely see the ScreenBar Pro a valued airy root for my workspace, there's nary avoiding the inevitable examination to different monitor-mounted lighting solutions similar the Razer Aether Monitor Light Bar. Although the Razer Aether requires a mobile app for setup and usage, and a Windows app for precocious features, for $10 little than the outgo of the ScreenBar Pro you get much functionality, including rear-facing RGB lighting that's afloat configurable and responsive to assorted actions and programs.

While the Razer Aether is much complex, much power-hungry, tin sometimes person unreliable connectivity, and has 2 less inches of beforehand airy width with little highest brightness, it's hard not to accidental it's the amended worth for galore usage cases. And adjacent if you bash similar the just-the-basics attack of the ScreenBar Pro, it's besides intolerable to disregard the comparative worth of off-brand options, which, portion not arsenic well-designed oregon with the aforesaid highest brightness, supply akin features for a fraction of the price.

Should You Buy the BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light?

Even though there's a bully lawsuit to beryllium made that the BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light is overpriced successful examination to different options, that doesn't marque it a atrocious product. In fact, rather the opposite, arsenic it's precise bully astatine its intended purpose. It's well-constructed, the lighting is agleam and focused, it has minimal powerfulness demands, and its self-contained functionality is easy-to-use.

If your desktop workspace is excessively dark, past the ScreenBar Pro provides a viable, and simple, solution. Thanks to its fantabulous question detection and auto-dimming, the second of which works peculiarly good for acheronian environments, the ScreenBar Pro makes for a no-fuss workspace enhancer with a wide sum area.