If I have to pick one gadget that made the most impact to my day to day life, it would have to be the monitor light bar. The Quntis ScreenLinear Radar Pro+ Monitor Light Bar got me all excited to upgrade from my existing setup.
A few months ago I reviewed the Quntis Monitor Light Bar Pro+ which I have been content with. The minimalist remote puck without any markings took some muscle memory to get used to, but overall it has been a solid performer.
As the name implies, this latest Quntis ScreenLinear comes with a radar. A radar in a consumer grade device!
It’s Not Your Great Grandpa’s Radar: A Brief and Incomplete History Lesson
A very primitive form of radar help the English win the Battle of Britain. It play a crucial role by picking up incoming enemy aircraft at a range of about 128km.
It started as a ground based technology, but that as all technology progression goes, it got better, smaller, more portable, more useful.
We have benefitted from the invention of radar technology for decades. Weather prediction, whilst arguably is still a dark art, has relied on radar to track storm movements.
Many cars now have radar to assist with maintaining separation between vehicles whilst on cruise control.
And of course, this is not the first time radar has appeared in a consumer grade device. Google famously has the Soli integrated short-range radar sensor in the Pixel 4. Ultimately Google did nothing useful with it, but the concept was there.
Bonus fun fact, radar calculations was one of my weakest subjects at uni.
What’s the Quntis ScreenLinear Radar Pro+ Monitor Light Bar
It is a 20.1″ asymmetric LED monitor light bar that leverages radar motion sensing technology to detect presence within fifty and seventy centimetres of it.
The asymmetric part refers to the directional LEDs which prevents the light from casting onto your screen and creating reflected glare.
Why fancy radar when we have PIR (Passive Infra-Red) technology?
There’s a few good reasons.
PIR is great for detecting movements going across the sensor, but not so much if you are heading towards it front on. It also cannot detect fine movements.
In contrast radar can detect movement from a much wider field of view, including head on approaches. It can also detect subtle movements – such as a person sitting at a desk and typing on a keyboard.
Setup and Controls: Intuitive Design and a Marked Remote Puck
Just like the previous lightbar I had from Quntis, they have now integrated the lightbar and the monitor mount in one piece. There is a small removable block to account for bezel thickness.
Power is provided via USB-C, and I was happy to see Quntis has included a cable with a right-angle USB-C connector which will help reduce the chance of accidental damage.
There is also no counterweight on the mount, replaced with a longer, two segment bracket that can be adjusted to follow the contours of your monitor. An Allen key is provided to adjust the screws holding the bracket together.
It sits atop my Dell 24″ monitor and is very stable to touch, not that I have any reasons to touch it given there are no controls on the light bar itself.
All the controls are on a remote puck that is powered by three AAA batteries. There is no guesswork here with all the controls clearly marked.
- Power is in the middle
- Slider dial around the top half of the puck
- Around the bottom half from left to right are:
- brightness
- light sensor
- radar human body sensing
- colour temperature
Real-World Performance: Automatic Lighting That Just Works
I won’t go too much into the details of the light itself. The Quntis has plenty of experience in delivering excellent light bars. Similarly the remote puck is a known quantity.
More importantly I want to cover off the “radar human body sensing” feature.
To activate this feature, you have to press on the button which looks like a person with wifi. When activated, the light will blink once and the blue indicator LED on the light bar will flash five times. Turning the feature off will have the light bar blink twice.
And does it work? Absolutely. It works really really well.
My workspace is in the corner of the living room, and to approach it I come from behind and to the side of the desk. Within the range of 50 to 70 cm, it picks up my movement and the light will turn on. I can’t tell you how much fantastic this is.
Often I would leave my desk to “quickly do something” and not come back because I ended up doing something else, distracted or changed my mind. Then I come close by only to realise I have left the light on but nobody was home.
With the ScreenLinear Radar Pro+ Monitor Light Bar, the light will automatically turn off after five minutes of no activity detection. It then turns back on when it detects proximity movement, ready for you to work.
Despite the calling it “radar human body sensing”, it will trigger on movement in general. Like when my cats comes and use my notebook as a bum warmer and a sleeping spot, it will trigger the light to come on.
However, the radar is not sensitive enough to register breathing movements so after five minutes it will turn off again. Similarly at night I occasionally kick back with my feet on the table for a few minutes of gaming on my mobile, I am still enough for the light to turn off. Guess that’s my cue that my break time is over.
Minor Gripes: What Could Be Even Better
The adjusting of the brightness and temperature range can be a little stubborn on occasion. If you try to change it too quickly too often it does not always respond.
However as you are unlikely to constantly change this setting in normal use, I don’t consider it to be an issue.
I would like the controller to remember the radar setting after the unit is turned off. It’s a minor thing but it would be a nice touch.
Final Verdict: Is the Radar Pro+ a Worthy Upgrade?
Overall I think the Quntis ScreenLinear Radar Pro+ Monitor Light Bar is a worthy upgrade. I really dig the radar feature, knowing that it will auto turn off the light when it is not needed. It saves both power and the lifespan of the light bar.
It is available directly from Quntis and also from Amazon Au. The RRP is A$135 but it’s down to A$110 on the Quntis website. If you nab it from Amazon though, there is a 15% off coupon on Amazon at time of publishing which brings it down to A$93.49 which is excellent value.
DRN would like to thank Quntis for providing the review unit.
