Summary
- The BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light illuminates a 2.8 x 1.6 ft workspace.
- The light features 18.5 inches of LED lights using asymmetrical lighting, providing bright, glare-free illumination.
- The ScreenBar Pro offers easy placement on most monitors, has touch controls for brightness and color, and good heat management.
From bad ergonomics to poor lighting, some of us put up with more discomfort in our respective workspaces than we often realize. The BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light helps to fix the latter with a focused just-the-basics approach to brighten your workspace.
BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light
The BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light features an asymmetric optical design that illuminates your desktop without causing screen reflection.
- Provides bright, focused desktop lighting
- Motion detection works well
- Auto-dimming works well in dark environments
- Self-contained functionality
- No rear lighting
- No RGB color lighting options
- Limited features compared to other monitor lights
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Price and Availability
The BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light is available from Amazon or direct from BenQ for $140. In the box is the light bar, USB-C AC adapter, and paperwork. It illuminates up to a 2.8 x 1.6 foot workspace area.
Design and Hardware: Quality Basics
The ScreenBar Pro features roughly 18.5-inches of downward-facing LED lights using what BenQ refers to as its third-generation asymmetrical lighting. In the simplest terms, this means that even though it’s meant to mount on top of your monitor, it provides bright, flicker-free, and reflection-free lighting where it’s supposed to, which is just on your desktop workspace.
The USB-C cable is roughly 5.9 feet long and hardwired to the ScreenBar Pro. You can use the included USB-C AC adapter to power the monitor light, but it’s efficient enough that any minimum 5V 1.7A USB-C power source will work just as well. In my case, I just used a free USB-C port on my laptop’s ThinkPad docking station.
The ScreenBar Pro’s adjustable clamp can fit any flat or curved monitor with a thickness between 0.17 – 2.56 inches. This means it can fit on top of all but the absolute thinnest or thickest outlier monitors.
The only additional fit requirement to note is that there’s a clamp overhang of roughly 0.22 inches on the front of the monitor. As such, you’ll want to make sure that your monitor’s display area has a sufficient top bezel so it doesn’t encroach on your viewable space. Again, most monitors will easily meet this requirement.
For those concerned about losing a center-mounted external webcam on their monitor when using the ScreenBar Pro, BenQ sells a Webcam Accessory for an additional $20. This adjustable accessory fits different types of webcams and attaches with an included magnetic sticker.
The ScreenBar Pro, with its mix of aluminum and zinc alloys, plastic, and polycarbonate, feels like a solid, premium product, which is good considering its price point. Eight touch-sensitive controls on the front of the monitor light are the sole way to control all functions.
Starting from the left, the touch controls are presence detection, brightness, color temperature, brightness or color temperature intensity down, brightness or color temperature intensity up, favorite, auto-dimming, and power. A center indicator between the two intensity touch controls shows either current brightness or color temperature level.
Functionality: Comfort Lighting
I was able to use the ScreenBar Pro on three different monitor setups on two different desks without issue. These monitors include the INNOCN Ultrawide 40-Inch 40C1R and INNOCN 49Q1R 49-Inch OLED Curved Gaming Monitor on a Vari L-Shape Electric Standing Desk, as well as dual ThinkVision T24v-20 monitors side-by-side on a small FlexiSpot desk.
Whether on the very large curved gaming monitor or sitting in-between the two side-by-side ThinkVision displays, the ScreenBar Pro fits securely. More importantly, none of the monitors picked up any glare when in use, instead providing bright, even lighting on my respective desktop area.
On the FlexiSpot desk, I actually have a laptop sitting under the two monitors. Even with that configuration, the laptop display remained reflection-free.
One of my favorite features is ultrasonic presence detection. With this feature on, any motion within a few feet will activate the light. I really like it when I go up to my chair and the light comes on exactly as I previously set it.
The auto-dimming option works well in dark environments, but I didn’t really care for it during the day. With this feature 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 avoid excessive screen contrast.
Unfortunately for me, as a person who likes lots of light, I found the auto-dimming option to be too conservative during the day, mixing in warmer, more yellow light, with the cooler and brighter white light, making it barely noticeable at times. Instead, during the day, I turn off auto-dimming, and set the light to its whitest and coolest brightness, which peaks in the center at an impressive 1000lux, which is at least double that of many competing options.
While I typically leave the light at its maximum brightness during the day, there are actually 16 levels of brightness and eight color temperature settings to choose from. You can set a single favorite brightness and color temperature combination using the favorite touch control.
The ScreenBar Pro does a good job with heat management. Even after being on for more than 10 hours, I only detected some warmth from the rear right side. Every other part remained cool.
Even though I genuinely consider the ScreenBar Pro a valued light source for my workspace, there’s no avoiding the inevitable comparison to other monitor-mounted lighting solutions like the Razer Aether Monitor Light Bar. Although the Razer Aether requires a mobile app for setup and usage, and a Windows app for advanced features, for $10 less than the cost of the ScreenBar Pro you get more functionality, including rear-facing RGB lighting that’s fully configurable and responsive to various actions and programs.
While the Razer Aether is more complex, more power-hungry, can sometimes have unreliable connectivity, and has two fewer inches of front light width with lower peak brightness, it’s hard not to say it’s the better value for many use cases. And even if you do prefer the just-the-basics approach of the ScreenBar Pro, it’s also impossible to ignore the relative value of off-brand options, which, while not as well-designed or with the same peak brightness, provide similar features for a fraction of the price.
Should You Buy the BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light?
Even though there’s a good case to be made that the BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light is overpriced in comparison to other options, that doesn’t make it a bad product. In fact, quite the opposite, as it’s very good at its intended purpose. It’s well-constructed, the lighting is bright and focused, it has minimal power demands, and its self-contained functionality is easy-to-use.
If your desktop workspace is too dark, then the ScreenBar Pro provides a viable, and simple, solution. Thanks to its excellent motion detection and auto-dimming, the latter of which works particularly well for dark environments, the ScreenBar Pro makes for a no-fuss workspace enhancer with a wide coverage area.
BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light
The BenQ ScreenBar Pro Monitor Light features an asymmetric optical design that illuminates your desktop without causing screen reflection.
