Topics
Guides and shortlists for working from home in a small space: lighting that does not glare on the screen, stands that bring a laptop to eye level, and how to arrange a desk that doubles as a dining table.
Review · Home office
A 50 cm bar that clamps to the top of a monitor, lights the desk in front of it without reflecting in the screen, and — this is the Halo part — throws a second, tunable light onto the wall behind the monitor so a dark room stops being a dark room. A wireless dial runs both. BenQ's own figures, what it leaves out, and who should buy the plain ScreenBar or a desk lamp instead.
Shortlist · Home office
Most desk lamps are chosen on looks and then blamed for glare. These six differ in the ways that actually matter at a small desk: how much light lands on the surface, whether the colour can shift from daylight to evening, how much desk they take, and where the power comes from — a USB port, a plug-in adapter or an ordinary bulb.
Shortlist · Home office
The HSE's advice for screen work is one line long — top of the screen level with your eyes, about an arm's length away — and a laptop on a desk fails it by 15 to 25 centimetres. A stand fixes that, but only with a separate keyboard, and only if it lifts high enough. Six stands compared on how high they go, how they adjust, what they weigh and whether they fold into a bag.
Comparison · Home office
A light bar clamps to the monitor, takes no desk space, runs from a USB port and lights exactly the patch of desk in front of the screen. A desk lamp lights whatever you point it at — including paper, the shelf and your face on a video call — and needs a socket and 10 by 16 cm of desk. Which you need depends on one question: is the screen the only thing you look at?
Guide · Home office
A box room, a living-room corner or the end of the kitchen table can be a desk you sit at for eight hours without hurting — if four things are right. The HSE gives the first in one sentence. This guide takes the rest in the order they matter, with the products that solve each one and the reasons they might not be for you.
