These Brilliant BenQ ScreenBar Lights Are My Favorite WFH Accessory

I update a lot of home office gear for my job, which means my workspace is flexible. A new desk today, another office chair tomorrow—you get the idea. What has been constant over the past three years? BenQ ScreenBar. You may have heard of BenQ before—the Taiwanese company makes excellent monitors and projectors—but this lamp is my first work-from-home device.

ScreenBar doesn’t take up any desk space, because it hangs over your computer monitor and illuminates the desktop brilliantly. It’s a simple little thing, but it brings me a lot of joy, and the company has been iterating on it, with the latest version being ScreenBar Pro. I’m here to tell you that you should get one for your home office.

Let there be Light

ScreenBar comes in several flavors: ScreenBar, ScreenBar Halo, ScreenBar Plus, and ScreenBar Pro. I tested the original ScreenBar and the Pro—the Halo offers a backlight that pushes light behind the monitor if you want to illuminate your desktop. again the wall behind your computer screen. The Plus is similar to the regular ScreenBar, but has a separate dial attachment to control the brightness settings rather than the touch controls on top of the lamp.

You can set these lights to your preferences by changing the color temperature and brightness or even changing the automatic brightness function to match the ambient light in the room. But what sets the latest ScreenBar Pro apart from its siblings is the motion sensor. Now, a few minutes after I leave my desktop, ScreenBar Pro shuts down. When I come back, it lights up my desktop—it’s like turning on my battle station. Rad.

These ScreenBar lights are designed to have minimal bleed so those LEDs don’t burn out your eyes, though you’ll want to make sure your monitor is at eye level to avoid them. And there’s not a ton of minor bleeding on the monitor screen. That said, the only time I’ve seen a light on the screen is when I’m watching anything with dark content, like a dynamic video game or movie. This is when I turn off the ScreenBar to enjoy my OLED monitor’s richness and depth of contrast.

I’ve had no problems using these on all kinds of monitors, including my current curved Alienware AW322QF 32-inch curved gaming monitor. The best part is that you don’t have to use the precious USB-A slot on your PC or laptop to keep the lights on—I just plug the ScreenBar directly into the monitor’s USB port for power. Make the cable neat again.

So where do you put the webcam if you have a ScreenBar on top of the monitor? Well, I used to have my webcam a little in the middle, but it took some financial and software adjustments in the field of view to make it look OK. A better solution is to simply get the BenQ Webcam Accessory. This attaches to the top part of the ScreenBar and you can adjust your webcam to the top. It puts the webcam quite high up, but I was able to angle my MX Brio just right so it doesn’t look awkward.

Leave No One Behind

ScreenBar makes no sense if you don’t have a computer monitor at your workstation. But if you only work on a laptop, BenQ hasn’t forgotten about you! Last year, I tested the LaptopBar, which sits behind a laptop screen to light up the keyboard and workspace for those late-night days at the office.

There are some trade-offs in this version. You need to attach a magnetic sticker to the back of your laptop, which is how the LaptopBar stays on. If you don’t have a LaptopBar attached, there is a permanent magnet ring on the outside, which is not very visible. The LaptopBar is also battery powered and can last about two hours at full power, but you can plug it into your laptop to keep it running longer (this will drain your laptop’s battery).

Still, it’s a small light on the go, perfect for anyone who regularly writes in the dark. The lamp comes with a carrying case, is dimmable, and offers warm or cool color temperatures.

All of this may sound silly—it’s just a light bulb! Who cares! I know, I know. But the unique looking ScreenBar series really saves space on my already crowded desktop. I also like light—I’m the one who likes the light in the house while my wife likes to stay in the dark (I caught her cooking in the dark once, which is just crazy to me). So blasting my desktop with as much light as I want makes me feel happy in my workspace, especially in the months when the sky gets a little dark after 4 pm.

It’s the little, cute things like these that make working from home a joy. And you don’t have to change into work clothes. Or go away. Or pack a lunch. Well, you get it.