If you've been watching this channel
for a while, you've probably seen
this strange device before.
It's called a monitor light bar
and it's perfect for students
or anyone reading, writing, drawing
or building things at their desk.
Now, it's no secret that I really do love these things.
I mean, it just makes the entire desk experience
a little bit nicer.
So there's no glare on the screen,
there's no weird shadows
when you're trying to write
and it also takes up less desk real estate
than a dedicated desk lamp.
And if you want to know more
about monitor light bars in general
and their health benefits,
I have a separate video on that topic
that I will link down below.
But for this video, I'm going to be reviewing
this newly released product from BenQ
and it has a really, really cool feature.
It's called the ScreenBar Halo,
and it's essentially just a light bar
but it also has something very unique on the back.
It's actually a back light
that illuminates the wall behind your monitor.
This provides something called bias lighting
and it's actually an extremely effective method
to reduce eye strain and headaches
from staring at a screen too long.
It raises the level of light behind the screen
so that your eyes aren't just staring
at a single bright source of light coming
from the monitor with a dark background.
And because the light source originates behind the screen,
you get all the benefits of increased light in the room
without the problems of glare or light shining directly
into your eyes or onto the screen.
This also increases the contrast of the screen
and improves colors and image quality
because there's no light going directly
onto the screen and diffusing all of the colors.
Now, personally, I have my home office
relatively well lit at night
but I still use a ScreenBar with bias lighting.
You'll also notice,
I have no overhead lighting.
The ceiling light is completely switched off
and this is to prevent any light
from spilling onto my monitor screen.
Again, this ensures color accuracy
and just makes the screen look nicer.
I find that this particular setup
actually helps reduce eye fatigue
after staring at a screen for hours and hours,
at least for me personally,
and in this specific room.
So how does the bias lighting
on the ScreenBar Halo work in real life?
Honestly, it works pretty good
because up until now,
I've had to kind of jerry-rig my own bias lighting.
Typically, I would get a cheap LED strip
from Amazon or eBay,
stick it to the back of my monitor.
It was a real pain in the arse to set up
and then not to mention,
actually changing the color temperature and the brightness.
That was very, very difficult.
This product just makes it so much easier
because it's all built it
and also, it comes with a wireless controller
that actually lets you change all of the settings.
This controller is powered by three AAA batteries
and allows you to change every feature
of the light bar by simply hovering your hand over it
for a second to activate it
and using the dial to change
whatever setting you've selected.
You can adjust brightness, color temperature,
let the controller set these things automatically,
depending on ambient light
or even set a favorite setting
with the heart icon.
And yes, you can turn each individual light on or off
but you can't adjust individual brightness
or color temperature.
For example, you can't have a really bright front light
and a dim back light,
which I found to be annoying.
My only major complaint with this controller
is apart from the rotating dial on the side,
everything else is touch sensitive.
Personally, I prefer physical buttons
and on the Halo controller,
it can be quite awkward switching between settings,
especially because you can't easily see
the other settings icons
when they're not illuminated.
I think the BenQ ScreenBar Plus controller
does this much better.
But the Halo controller does look very premium
and the wireless capability is a game changer compared
to having another cable hanging off my desk.
Moving on to build quality
and it is exceptional.
Now, it is mostly made of plastic
but it still looks very, very premium
and it also just feels really, really solid.
You can obviously adjust the angle of the front light
to ensure zero screen glare
and the top mounting bracket has foam protectors
to ensure the top of your monitor is not scratched
and the whole device sits firmly attached.
And yes, you can easily attach this ScreenBar
to curved monitors,
BenQ even includes a little adapter to help
for the really curvy ones.
Ideally, you'd plug the little USB power cable
into the back of your monitor
if it also has a USB port.
But if not, any kind of powered USB port will work.
Okay, so let's have a quick chat
about pricing because this product is not cheap.
This version, this ScreenBar Halo
is currently 179 US dollars
verus 129 and $99 for the other BenQ variants
without the back light
or even just 50 bucks for a budget option from Baseus.
So this is definitely a premium device
and it really comes down to how badly you want
that built-in bias lighting at the back.
Now, for me personally,
like I said before, I spend a lot of time at my desk,
typically when it's nighttime.
So I can justify this cost,
especially if I keep this device
for about 5 to 10 years.
But for other people, maybe not so much.
And in that case, of course,
you can just stick with one of the budget ScreenBars
that will cost three times less than this one
but won't have obviously cool features
like built-in bias lighting
or a control puck.
Okay, so overall, guys,
despite the price tag,
I think it's a pretty solid device.
There are some negatives.
I do wish that you could adjust the color temperature
and the brightness of the individual lights.
Also, with the controller, I wish that these buttons
weren't quite as finicky
but overall, if you're going to be using this every day
for 5 to 10 years at your desk,
especially at night like I do,
I think it's a pretty solid investment.
But apart from that, guys,
thanks for watching this video
and I'll catch you in the next one.