Monitor lamps are among the best solutions for discreetly but efficiently illuminating the workplace. The narrow cylinders, often almost half a meter long, are clamped onto the monitor and direct their light onto the desk. Benq is one of the first companies to successfully place a monitor lamp on the market with the Benq Screenbar (test report) from 2017. The screen bar is so well thought out and successful that it is still being sold today, seven years later. With the Benq Screenbar Halo (test report), Benq is bringing its successor onto the market in 2023, which makes improvements in a few places. For example, it comes with an ambient light and a remote control.
Conclusion
The Benq Laptopbar is the best notebook lighting we know. It is manufactured to a high quality, well thought out and flexible in its use. It adheres magnetically to the notebook via a glued-on metal plate and casts a bright light onto the keyboard and, if desired, onto part of the surrounding area. The battery life could be a little longer. Some users may also be bothered by the reflection of the light on the keyboard.
The Benq laptop bar is expensive. However, if you’re willing to spend a lot of money on it, you’ll get the best mobile notebook lighting currently available.
Preis
The Benq Screenbar costs 140 euros on Amazon. In our experience, you don’t need to rely on big discounts or price fluctuations with Benq products. Alternative notebook lighting is available in large numbers on Amazon starting at 10 euros. However, they do not offer a comparable level of comfort and functionality as the Benq laptop bar.
processing
The Benq laptop bar is thoughtfully designed and optimally processed. There is never any concern that something could break. It consists mainly of a matt, dark plastic. Components such as the fold-out arm that are subject to higher loads are made of metal. The Benq laptop bar comes with a bag and a USB-C cable.
It sticks magnetically to the laptop. To do this, one of the two coin-sized metal plates with a matt silver and gray coating must first be glued to the back of the notebook display. A template is included for correct placement.
service
The almost 24 centimeter long laptop bar adheres magnetically to the battery unit, which also hangs magnetically on the glued-on metal plate. The cylindrical light unit can be adjusted in angle. The Benq laptop bar also comes with a fold-out arm to adjust the distance between the display and LEDs. With the arm raised, the laptop bar mainly illuminates the keyboard. If the arm is pointing upwards, a good part of the desk is illuminated.
The laptop bar detects your hand without contact via a motion sensor and switches itself on and off. There are touch-sensitive buttons on the front for adjusting the brightness and color temperature from 2700 Kelvin to 5700 Kelvin in seven levels. An LED strip indicates the selected option. There is also the option for the laptop bar to automatically adapt to the ambient light. All of this works excellently.
battery pack
We cannot find any information about the capacity of the Benq Laptopbar battery. At full brightness it lasted a good two hours in the test. Using the USB-C cable, it can be kept in operation and charged using a notebook or a power bank with up to four watts. When turned off, it will be full again in about two hours.
Licht
In order to be able to compare the light output with the other lights for monitors we have already tested (theme world), we also measure here with a smartphone and app at a distance of 50 centimeters. In practice, the distance to the keyboard is significantly smaller at around 20 to 30 centimeters. The app displays a maximum of 710 lux at 50 centimeters. This makes it darker than many of the large monitor lights. This is hardly surprising, since the laptop bar comes with a battery and is much more compact. At 30 centimeters we measured 960 lux, at 20 centimeters almost 1400 lux. This means that in practice the laptop lamp is as bright as the brightest monitor lamps.
Overall, the Benq Laptopbar spreads its light far enough to illuminate not only the keyboard, but also a good part of the table. The beam angle is wide at around 180 degrees and sharply defined at the edges. The light from the notebook lamp does not dazzle the display.
However, we find the reflection on the black keyboard of our Macbook Air unpleasant. If you mostly write blindly with ten fingers, this shouldn’t bother you as much. Everyone else should check whether their notebook’s keyboard reflects light strongly before purchasing. Alternatively, you can direct the radiation angle of the laptop bar away from the keyboard and more towards the user.
Alternatives
The Benq laptop bar is really good, but also expensive at 140 euros. There are some alternatives. On Amazon they start at 10 euros. However, these are less flexible, darker and do not have their own battery.
If you are looking for efficient lighting for your monitor instead, you have many affordable alternatives. We have tested a good ten screen bars and show the best in our list of the best monitor lamps.