I overview a whole lot of dwelling workplace gear for my job, which implies my workstation is in flux. A brand new desk as we speak, one other workplace chair tomorrow—you get the thought. The one fixed during the last three years? The BenQ ScreenBar. You’ll 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, however it brings me a whole 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 it is best to in all probability get one on your dwelling workplace.

Let There Be Gentle

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 presents a backlight that pushes mild behind the monitor if you’d like mild in your desktop and the wall behind your pc display screen. The Plus is similar as the usual ScreenBar, however it has a separate dial attachment to manage the sunshine’s settings moderately 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. Once 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 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 screen. That mentioned, the one time I’ve seen a glare on the display screen 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 all types 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 valuable 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 when you’ve got a ScreenBar on high of a monitor? Properly, I used to have my webcam barely off-center, however it 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.

Depart No One Behind

The ScreenBar is pointless if you do not have a pc monitor at your workstation. However if you happen to solely 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 screen 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 connected, 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 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 nighttime. The lamp comes with a carrying case, may be dimmed, and presents heat or cool shade temperatures.

All of this will sound a bit of 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 nighttime (I discovered her cooking at nighttime 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 glad at my workstation, particularly within the months when the skies get darkish a bit of after 4 pm.

It is little, cozy issues like this that make working from dwelling such a pleasure. And never having to alter into work garments. Or commute. Or pack lunch. Properly, you get it.