Recently chemists discovered how blue light from digital devices speeds blindness. How do you avoid the monitor blues?
Avoid The Monitor Blues
After I read the article from Physics.org about how blue light causes retinol to destroy photoreceptors in your eyes, I went hunting for a better monitor. Too much blue light from digital devices (and the sun) can lead to macular degeneration. Once you get past 50, your eyes just can’t replace the cells that blue light are poisoning.
Several monitor manufacturers produce the new eye care monitors. And they’re now quite affordable. Just three months I had a client want one of these eyecare monitors, 27″ model, and it was close $500. Now Benq has a 27″ model for $250.
I got the 24″ Benq GW2480 Eye Care Monitor for $195. Very pretty screen even after you turn on the blue light reduction feature. And you do have to turn on this feature by working those buttons on the bottom of the monitor. The quick start guide didn’t advise that a) you have to turn on this feature and b) provide any guidance on the buttons on the monitor.
First you have to access the Eye Care menu and turn on the Bright Intelligence. Next in the menu you have to choose Picture Advanced, Picture Mode and Low Blue Light. Then you have to choose between Multimedia, Web Surfing, Office, and Reading Mode. Each of these modes makes the screen duller but still easy to work with. I’m using the Office Mode most of the time. On Multimedia mode you can barely tell the difference from the regular bright mode. But your eyes can tell the difference. I noticed within a day that my eyes were less tired at the end of the day working with this monitor.
Tech Specifications
The Benq GW2480 model comes with HDMI, Display Port and VGA ports. Very thin bezel so it doesn’t take up too much more room than my old 22″ monitor. Also has builtin speakers which are okay for webinars, kind of tinny sounding for music and movies. When you use the HDMI connector, Windows 10 helpfully makes the monitor speakers the default, you might have to switch that back to your computer speakers if you want to listen to music or watch a show.
Added bonus is the cable management feature. Clients always complain about all those cables. The Benq eyecare monitors come with a builtin cable management feature. See the pictures.
Save your eyesight. Save your employees’ eyesight. Invest some eye care monitors and avoid the monitor blues.
