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

Verdict

What it is

The front light

Every ScreenBar’s argument is the optics: an 8-section reflector, twelve lenses and an 18-degree cut-off so the light lands on the desk and not on the screen or in your eyes. BenQ rates the Halo 2 at more than 1000 lux at the centre, 50 cm below the bar, and 500 lux across 85 × 50 cm — the 500 lux being the office-lighting level its auto-dimming mode targets. Colour temperature runs from 2700 to 6500 K and brightness is stepless. Colour rendering is Ra ≥ 95 and Rf ≥ 96, and BenQ cites IEEE PAR 1789 for flicker and IEC TR 62471 for blue-light hazard, both passed.

In practice that means a keyboard, notebook and hands lit to something like the screen’s brightness, which is what stops eyes tiring in the late afternoon. It does not light the room, the shelf beside the monitor or a document held up to read; a lamp does those.

The backlight — why “Halo”

Behind the monitor, a second strip of LEDs washes the wall. On the first Halo it was small and fixed-colour; BenQ says this one covers 423% more area and tunes across the same 2700–6500 K as the front, so the wall can match the desk. The point is contrast: a bright screen against a dark wall is the tiring arrangement, and a lit wall behind it is the fix that bias lighting on televisions has used for years. If your room has daylight or a ceiling light on while you work, you will barely use it. If you work into the evening in a room lit only by the screen, it is the reason to buy this bar.

The controller

A rechargeable wireless puck with a dial and a numeric touch panel showing brightness, colour temperature and backlight level; BenQ says up to three months per charge, and one controller can run two Halo 2 bars on a two-monitor desk. It replaces the wired puck of the first Halo and the touch keys on the plain ScreenBar, and it is the part that makes you actually adjust the light through the day rather than leaving it on one setting.

Auto-dimming and the presence sensor

One press sets the front light to bring the desk to 500 lux and hold it there as daylight changes. An ultrasonic sensor, 50 cm above the desk, watches for movement within about 60 cm and turns the bar off five minutes after you leave; it comes back when you sit down. Both are conveniences that stop mattering once you forget they exist, which is the compliment.

Fit and power

Monitors from 0.43 to 6 cm thick, flat or curved between 1000R and 1800R, which covers almost everything current including thin-bezel and curved panels the plain ScreenBar (1–3 cm, flat or curved) cannot hold. The bar is 50 cm wide, so on a 24-inch monitor it reaches nearly edge to edge. Power is the catch people miss: 5 V at 3 A is a phone-charger’s job, not a monitor USB port’s, so budget a 15 W USB-C adapter or a dock port.

What BenQ does not say

No lumen figure — BenQ specifies lux on the desk, which is more useful but not comparable with a desk lamp’s lumens. No warranty term on any of BenQ’s UK pages for this product, only its general European terms; ask the retailer. And no laptop mount: like every ScreenBar, it needs a monitor.

Who should buy it

• A monitor in a room that is dark by five o’clock: the backlight earns its price.
• A thin, thick or curved monitor the plain ScreenBar cannot clamp.
• A shallow desk where a lamp base has nowhere to go.

Who should not

• A laptop-only desk: a light bar cannot mount; the desk lamps in our roundup can.
• A bright room on a standard monitor: the plain ScreenBar lights the desk for 5 W from the monitor’s own USB port.
• Anyone who needs to light paper beside the monitor or the room itself: a lamp.

Sources