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Home office

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

BenQ ScreenBar review: the original monitor light bar, its 1–3 cm clamp, and the 5 W it runs on

BenQ's original ScreenBar is a 45 cm bar of LEDs that hangs on top of a monitor, lights the desk in front of it to office level and keeps the light off the screen. It runs from a USB port at 5 W and takes no desk space. It fits fewer monitors than buyers expect. This review reads BenQ's specification to set out what it does, what it cannot clamp to, and when the Halo 2 or a lamp is the better buy.

Updated 9 November 2026

Comparison · Home office

Folding or fixed laptop stand? Nexstand K2 against Rain Design mStand

Both lift a laptop screen towards eye level so you can work with a separate keyboard, which is what the HSE's display-screen guidance asks for. One is a 234 g nylon frame that folds into the laptop bag and adjusts from 14 to 29 cm; the other is a 1.46 kg slab of aluminium fixed at 15 cm. Which to buy depends on whether your desk is always the same desk, and how tall you are.

Updated 4 November 2026

Review · Home office

BenQ ScreenBar Halo 2 review: a monitor light bar for a dark room

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.

Updated 25 September 2026

Shortlist · Home office

Laptop stands for working from home: portable, fixed and adjustable, and which one gets the screen to eye level

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.

Updated 25 September 2026

Comparison · Home office

Monitor light bar or desk lamp: which do you need? BenQ ScreenBar against a 750-lumen Lepro lamp

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?

Updated 25 September 2026