BenQ ScreenBar Review

The ScreenBar created this product category, and there are now many cheaper versions of the same idea. That makes the useful question not “is it good” but “what does the premium actually buy”.

The core idea, which everyone now copies

Mount a light above the screen, pointing forward and down, with a reflector shaped so nothing goes backward onto the panel. Because the light source sits in front of the screen, glare is geometrically impossible rather than merely minimised — which is the whole of the light bar’s case against a desk lamp.

Every bar in the category does this. It works. A conventional lamp has to be positioned and angled to get close; the lamps that manage it best use asymmetric optics of their own.

What the premium buys

Better-executed optics. The cutoff between “lit desk” and “unlit screen” is sharper, which matters most at higher output — cheaper bars tend to start spilling onto the panel when you turn them up.

The wireless control puck. This sounds like a gimmick and is not. Controls mounted on the bar itself require reaching over or behind the monitor, and the practical consequence is that people set the light once and never touch it again. A puck on the desk means the light gets adjusted as the room changes, which is the entire point of having adjustment.

The rear backlight on the Halo version (at Amazon, opens in a new tab), addressing the dark wall behind the monitor — the second-largest dark area in your field of view after the wall itself, and what the desk lighting guide calls bias lighting.

Where it is beaten

Price. A clone at a fraction of the cost — the cheaper bars in our monitor light bar roundup — does the core job well, and if you are finding out whether a light bar suits you at all, that is the sensible first purchase.

Fit on curved and very thin monitors remains the category’s weak point, and BenQ is not exempt.