BenQ Laptop Bar Evaluation

The BenQ Laptop Bar is a nifty new lighting product from BenQ.

It is designed to solve the problem of inadequate lighting when you're using your laptop in a situation where the lighting is compromised (e.g. in a studio, or at night).

Even with niceties like backlit keyboards, laptops can soon be problematic and uncomfortable - and potentially unhealthy - to use due to the excessive contrast between the bright screen and low ambient light. 

This new BenQ product elegantly solves this issue and is another example of the really high level of quality and finesse these BenQ consumer electronic products are now reaching.

They call it a 'Laptop Bar' but it's also usable as a portable reading or print viewing light, as discussed below.

The first thing I did was charge up the device - but the battery in mine was pretty much full when I received it anyway.  I plugged it into a USB-C port on my PC using the supplied cable, but you can use any USB-C charger wall-wart you have, if you prefer (note that a wall charger is not included).  There are 4 little lights on the side of the unit next to the cable entry port, so it's easy to see how full the battery is.  Even from flat the battery is quick to charge with a suitable power supply.

From there, installation is very easy.  You need to apply the magnetic mounting patches to your laptop (or tablet, or whatever...).  This is a simple process of first cleaning the surface, then just peel and stick, and wait for 20 minutes for the bond to firm up.  The adhesive used is promised not to leave a mark, and is removable later - basically, just like those 3M adhesive hooks so popular in the rental house market.

You get two of these mounting patches, so you can set up for use in two scenarios.  Note that the adhesive is not re-usable - so make sure you choose your scenarios carefully, and place the patches carefully (pro-tip - I used Blu-tack to mock things up first - and note that the piece of paper that you get these mounting patches on is actually also a placement template - I only realised this afterwards, although it is shown in the the instructions - this just didn't click in my brain at the time!). 

(I suspect if you do find you need to re-apply these mounting patches at any point later, you could just get some 3M adhesive strips from your local hardware store, and use those - but of course I can't promise they're quite the same thing and therefore 100% safe for your laptop!).

Once your mounting patch is installed, the lamp base itself then attaches magnetically to it, and in turn the lamp head mounts to this base.  It's very easy, and there are subtle lines on the lamp body to make sure you mount it at the best height. 

As long as your laptop isn't the super flimsy ultra-book type (I presume, I don't have one) - it's very stable once mounted.  I tried it briefly on a Macbook, and more extensively on my own Microsoft Surface Laptop.  On both, there was no issue with the weight (about 140gms apparently) - or stability - indeed, it looked very nice and was very easy to put on and take off as needed, and there was no issue with the screen hinges not being able to take the weight or anything like that.  It 'just worked'.

Actual use of the light is very simple.

The controls are all touch - and of course long term readers will know I really don't like touch controls! To be fair, though, these controls are well designed and worked well in practise.  To turn it on and off you simply wave your hand over the top.  This worked consistently as expected, and I only occasionally triggered it by accident.

With a variety of gestures, you can easily control both the brightness (although the brightness range could be wider), and the colour temperature (from as warm to cool as you're likely to want or need). 

There is also an automatic mode, where the lamp balances automatically with the ambient light as it changes.  This automatic mode is even programmable - you can set e.g. a target brightness and it will take that into account when balancing.  This is the mode I found myself using in practise.

The lamp itself can also be adjusted physically - you can pivot the head to just the angle you need, and there's a 'low' (AKA arm folded) mode and a 'high' (AKA arm extended) mode - where the lamp is extended to a higher offset using a swinging arm.  Basically the choice is between a more concentrated light immediately over your work area, or a more broad light that illuminates a bit of the surrounds as well.

Personally, I definitely prefer the high/extended mode - I found the low mode a bit too intense (also because the minimum brightness is still relatively bright).

In all, I found it effective and comfortable - the result is much less contrast in a dark environment, and this is much less tiring on the eyes.  It worked very effectively - indeed, pretty soon I just forgot about it really, it soon seemed completely natural and comfortable.   You will definitely notice the difference in eye comfort after a long session in poor lighting.

(Side bonus - several people noticed and admired the BenQ Laptop Bar while I was using it - I think it makes your set-up look distinctly more professional somehow!)

Whilst the BenQ Laptop Bar is primarily designed for use with a laptop or tablet, it can of course also be used simply as a stand alone light, or attached really to just about anything you like, and then simply used as a small, high quality, adjustable lamp.

In these scenarios, the lamp body, with the weight of the battery, can simply be used as the base of the light.   However, I think in this context the result is a lamp that is simply a little too low, and even at low brightness, a bit too bright, for this to be really practical - and if you're just after a reading lamp, there are much better options that are considerably lighter, more effective and cheaper - this would only factor in as an occasional supplementary use, I think.

That said, there are a number of alternative use scenarios that do make sense.  For example, used as a light for a music stand, or used as a simple print viewing light.  In these cases you might apply a mounting patch to your music stand, or to e.g to something near your desk. 

The light quality, with a Colour Rendering Index (CRI) of Ra>95, is (as always with the BenQ lamps) - very good indeed, and thus these lamps are suitable and effective for print viewing and colour assessment to the levels required for typical home/small studio work. 

In this context, though, the lack of real buttons becomes a lot more of a practical issue - you can't set the lamp to a specific desired output level and colour temperature, e.g. it would be great to be able to dial up, say, 400 lux at 30cm, with a 5000 cd/m2 whitepoint.  The area lit is also relatively small, so whilst it handles A4 easily, A3 print viewing is already a stretch.

So it works, and if you're careful about how you set it up, it can be effective, but again it would only be a secondary/supplementary use and not a primary reason to buy this lamp (if print viewing is the primary goal, then Ilford's Ilfolux is a much better solution, or a BenQ Wit lamp if you want something that is both stylish and can be used for larger prints).