Best Budget Bias Lighting: The Arvidsson LED Bias Lighting Kit

Hey guys, hope all is well! Sevan here with an unbiased review of what I believe are the best budget bias LED lights on the market. If you’ve ever seen those cool setups with glowing screens and don’t want to sell your kidneys for that Tron-like glow, then this is for you.

23" Dell Monitor with LED Bias Lighting

But first, let's get into what bias lighting is and why it's a good thing to have. Bias lighting is simply a small light source projected behind whatever screen you’re using. The idea is that it’ll create a sort of buffer zone around your bright screen – making it less demanding on the eyes and reducing eye fatigue in the process. 

The reason why this works is because the human eye takes in all of the incoming light from your field of view and adjusts the pupil to accommodate those levels. In the case of using a computer monitor in the dark, you have a bright source of light in the center of your field of view surrounded by a sea darkness. The pupils rapidly adjust during this time, wearing out your eyes and causing MAJOR eye fatigue.

Now, at this point, you might be thinking, "I only use my computer in a brightly lit room with nice windows and a scenic view of a field of lilies and a river that leads to the lost city of Atlantis. I couldn’t possibly need lights behind my monitor!" Even so, I really believe any setup can benefit from some good bias lighting; and here's why: increased contrast perception

Although having a nicely lit room is great, having lights off to the side, pointed at the wall, or even above you, like in a traditional lighting setup, also messes with our eyes – though to a much lesser degree than using a screen in the dark. With a good bias lighting setup, grays and blacks will seem richer due to this thing called the simultaneous contrast illusion. Take a look at the gray bar in the picture below:

Simultaneous Contrast Illusion

The left side looks brighter and washed out when surrounded by a dark background, as opposed to looking darker and richer when surrounded by a light background. The grey bar is the same color throughout, but the changing background creates the illusion to our eyes that make it seem like a gradient. Now that we've covered a bit about bias lighting and it's benefits, let’s move on to the review.

The Arvidsson LED Bias lighting kit includes a small roll of double-sided 3M tape, a usb wall adapter, and the roll of LEDs along with some documentation. The LED strip measures about 35 inches, making it perfect for any screen up to 32 inches. The strip has designated spots for cutting, but you can just bend at these points to cover more area like I did. To give you an idea of how much you can cover, I’m using these on my 23 inch Dell monitor.

Playing The Dark Knight on a 23 inch Dell monitor with the Arvidsson LED kit

Setting it up is really easy. The LED strip has pre-applied 3M adhesive on the back – making it a simple peal and apply job. The in-line on/off switch is tactile and clicky, but if you want the lights to turn on automatically with your screen, you have the option of plugging it into a powered usb slot on your computer or tv.

The in-line on/off switch is tactile and clicky.

5050 SMD LEDs with three LED diodes per housing

With bias lighting, not just any lights will do. You need a light properly calibrated to about 6500 kelvin, and that’s just what these are. They shine really bright, and this is largely due to the 5050 SMD LEDs this thing is packing. All this means is that these bad boys use larger chips than most other LEDs and utilize 3 LED diodes in each housing. The Arvidsson LED strip also carries an IP65 rating, meaning it’s also semi-waterproof (making it a potential candidate for lighting up an aquarium).

All in all, these are a great set of LEDs for the money. I picked up a set for just under $20 at the time of this post, and have been happily using them for over two months now. The combination of quality, high end LEDs, and nice soldering work in an IP65 enclosure really sets this unit apart from the rest...especially for the price. 

You can buy the bias LED lighting kit here: http://amzn.to/2z6Hq0v
(The Arvidsson LED kit isn't available anymore. I ordered a few of these and they work exactly the same for the same price.)

*Link above is an Amazon Affiliate link. It doesn't cost you extra and I get a small percent commission. Thanks!

That’s a wrap for this review, guys. If you have any suggestions for products you’d like to see reviewed, or just content you’d want me to cover, write em down in the comments below and I’ll see what I can do! You can support my work by subscribing to my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5HmiHnZkv8MbNOGWUDRh7A

You can also watch my video review here: https://youtu.be/t2RkkmmP4LE.

Thanks!