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In the event you want extra mild the place you’re employed, it is unlikely that your first thought will likely be to purchase one which shines down onto that glassy, reflective monitor of yours. But BenQ’s Screenbar Halo sits atop that monitor, it shines down – and it is glorious.

It is an adjustable mild within the sense that you could alter the brightness and bodily tilt it to keep away from glare. Even with none adjustment, the impact is that the ScreenBar Halo creates a pool of sunshine in your desk, no matter dimension desk or monitor you will have.

With out reflecting on the display screen, the sunshine nonetheless makes every part notably vivid proper beneath it, the place you will have your keyboard. The sunshine then will get progressively dimmer away from that central level, if subtly.

On murky days, any papers you are working from on the desk are actually completely clear and usable.

Within the evenings, whenever you most likely should not nonetheless be sitting at your desk, the ScreenBar Halo retains you centered and concentrating. On the identical time, it retains you feeling comfy, even cozy.

There is a sense of you and your Mac being in a bit of bubble, separated from every part round you.

Extra particularly, maybe extra quantifiably, it additionally appears to cut back eye fatigue from display screen glare. A part of which may be from the diffuse rear mild pointing from the ScreenBar Halo to behind the desk, which creates a cocoon feeling.

What’s supplied

The BenQ ScreenBar Halo arrives in just a few elements. There’s the sunshine itself, a USB cable connecting the unit to your Mac or an influence supply and a separate, wi-fi distant management.

This wi-fi distant is the clearest distinction between the ScreenBar Halo and its predecessor, the ScreenBar. That older mannequin featured a dial bodily linked to the sunshine by a cable.

That is all meant for use at your desk as an alternative of midway throughout an workplace, so the wired-in dial management with its quick cable was wonderful. However the wi-fi distant one is handier as a result of you possibly can extra simply push it apart whenever you’re not going to be utilizing it.

Controls

That new wi-fi distant is the one approach to management the sunshine. Powered by three AAA batteries, the distant is a dial with a contact panel entrance.

To make use of the distant, you first hover your hand above the machine, which activates a single purple mild. Then tapping that purple mild switches on the ScreenBar Halo.

Tapping it additionally briefly lights up different management choices. There are buttons to do with brightness, temperature, and storing your favourite mixture of those.

It isn’t simple to see any of the buttons till you faucet on them as a result of that is mainly after they mild up. Nevertheless, you get used to the place they’re – and apart from the central one, you will not have a tendency to make use of the controls fairly often.

If you do, although, one side will preserve throwing you. There’s a collection of purple dot lights across the circumference of the distant’s face, however they’re indicators moderately than controls.

The extra purple dots you see, the brighter the ScreenBar Halo’s mild is. However whereas every part else on that face is touch-controlled, the way in which you handle the sunshine degree is to twist the highest of the distant bodily.

Positioning the ScreenBar Halo

The ScreenBar Halo is designed to sit down atop a monitor, and it goes throughout that high like a small saddle. There may be the primary mild in entrance of the display screen, an adjustable connecting bar, and a counterweight behind the display screen.

In concept, this implies you possibly can modify the ScreenBar Halo to suit onto any monitor. In follow, it simply appears to suit anyway.

Even with a curved monitor, the ScreenBar Halo balanced with out adjusting.

It may be so easy to simply pop the sunshine on high of the display screen that you simply miss that there is extra to its again than simply having a counterweight. The again of the ScreenBar Halo features a second mild.

That second mild is a diffuse, stubby block moderately than a second elongated bar. It does not must be switched on, and it is not by default, however relying in your atmosphere, it may be an excellent addition.

The backlight shines out onto no matter is behind your desk. In the event you’re in a shared workspace, which will imply shining into somebody’s face, however when it is a wall or a shelf, the shining second mild casts a moderately comforting glow.

Fundamental lights

That essential mild that shines right down to your desk from above the monitor is the important thing. In use, you are inclined to overlook in regards to the backlight in the event you ever select to make use of it.

The entrance one can take extra adjusting to get proper. That might, in fact, be the case with any mild, as it’s important to determine how vivid you need it and whenever you need it to be that vivid.

With the ScreenBar Halo, although, there’s another side. The sunshine itself connects to your Mac with a USB cable and USB-A connector, and it really works finest when it is straight plugged in, not by way of a router.

It does not sound like there might be any such factor as working finest, not with a lightweight both on or off. However when first linked, attempting out completely different brightnesses raised a problem.

Though YourNextApp has not been capable of replicate this downside since, at first, there was a faint flickering to the sunshine. It was positively one thing to do with the connection and the brightness ranges as a result of it vanished as quickly as we adjusted the latter.

Do you have to purchase

So long as your Mac setup is ever in a fair barely darkened atmosphere, the BenQ ScreenBar Halo lifts your desk and lifts your temper.

In the event you solely ever work 9 to five in a company workplace with vivid lights, this is not of any use to you.

It is also not price upgrading from the earlier model of the ScreenBar. The important thing distinction between the 2 is that the brand new ScreenBar Halo’s management is a wi-fi one, and that is helpful, however not enormously so in comparison with the earlier mannequin’s wired one.

For the reason that mild is linked into the Mac, it is a disgrace that you could’t make the most of that and use it in Shortcuts. It could be useful to set off a Shortcut that turned on Do Not Disturb, turned on the ScreenBar Halo’s mild, and opened a specific Pages doc that wants your consideration.

The ScreenBar Halo is, although, significantly better than a desk lamp. The place its illumination could be the identical, the ScreenBar Halo takes up no desk area in any respect.

Execs

• Offers a soothing pool of sunshine that helps you focus
• Matches atop even curved screens
• The brightness and temperature are simple to regulate

Cons

• Can solely be operated by way of its personal wi-fi management
• It takes some time to get used to that wi-fi management

Score: 4.5 out of 5 stars

The place to Purchase

The ScreenBar Halo is out there from Amazon for $179, or direct from the maker.