BenQ ScreenBar Lite Review

Some months ago, we tried out the original BenQ ScreenBar and were very impressed with its features and light performance. BenQ has now made a smaller version, suitable for your laptop and named it the ScreenBar Lite. They send one over for us to try out so let’s do just that!

Look & Feel

Unlike the original, the Lite version is a single piece of kit, with no assembly required. The light is constructed from alloy and plastic, offering a very light, yet robust product. It’s predominantly black in colour, which is the only available finish and its 260mm in length. There is a clip to the rear, attached to the fitting, which allows you to tilt the lamp up to 85degrees. The lamp itself is LED, with a Ra 88, peak output of 1300 lux, colour temps of 2700 up to 6500k with a 5w max power consumption. The fitting is powered via a pre-wired USB cable, which is only about 30-40cm in length.

That single clip to the rear of the fitting, which once pinched, allows you to clip onto your laptop screen will fit any laptop, with any screen size and screen thickness. If you have a complete bezel’ess screen, the clip may infringe on it. Like the original, the fitting has touch sensitive buttons to the top of it, which allow you to turn the lamp on/off, control the brightness & colour temperatures, and also select a favourite or auto dim option. There is a sensor next to the buttons, for that auto dim option.

Performance

Like it’s bigger brother, it performs exceptionally well. The light output is excellent and at 1300lux, can be somewhat overpowering. The ability to change colour temperatures is a great feature, as colour temp is usually a very personal thing. The light sensor with the auto dimming function works well, when you hit the button you can see the lamp adjusting to suit its surroundings. Whatever angle you set the fitting at, there is zero glare on the laptop screen, thanks to an innovative Obtuse-Angled Projection (OAP) design, which precisely projects the light to the ideal place within your workspace.

The buttons are very responsive and the favourite button is a nice touch. By just touching the ‘heart’ button, it will remember your current settings and save them for next time. A new feature is the addition of the SmartLite app, which is free to use and can be linked up to the fitting, allowing you to adjust the settings via your smart device. It’s a nice feature, it works well but for me, it’s far easier just to tap a button to change a setting.

Two concerns I have with the fitting is the way it’s fitted to the laptop screen. It is just a clip and not overly secure. During testing it did move around a little bit and if you’re too firm touching one of the buttons, you will move the fitting. Also, there are more laptops than ever that are getting bigger & bigger, so the length of the USB cable may be an issue on some of those.

Verdict

It’s the perfect solution for lighting your keyboard & workspace in a dark or dim environment. Yes, there may be a couple of wobbles when clipped to the screen but it wasn’t a big deal while testing.

It currently retails for $99 and can be purchased direct via BenQ or Amazon.