Kantek MAXVIEW LCD Monitor Magnifier for 15-Inch Monitors (Measured Diagonally) (MAG15L)

I'll start this review by saying that no plain sheet of plastic is worth $130. So let's get it out of the way that this is ridiculously overpriced. For the amount you pay for this, you're already a third of the way to what it costs to buy one of the cheaper ultra-wide monitors, which would serve you better if you are desperate for some relief for your eyes. But all of that being said, if you can't afford to drop at least $300 dollars, this works in a pinch.Now as to the reason why I bought this, and how it worked for me: After suffering through one-too-many work meetings where someone was sharing their screen and I could barely make out what was being shown, I bought this item, and it did help. In response to some complaints I have seen in other reviews, I'll say that yes, there are circular grooves in it, but you get this on all magnifying sheets of any size, so I think it may just be something that is necessary for magnification through a flat surface, and it was easy enough for me to just "tune them out." Yes, it does reflect light, and I had to start keeping my window blinds barely cracked open, in order to avoid a glare on the plastic. And yes, it might fall off if you are doing aerobics next to your screen or something and happen to knock it, but if you're just being still while you work, that won't really be a problem. Or at least it wasn't in my experience.The biggest problem I had with this item was that when I would work standing up to avoid sitting stiffly in a chair all day, I would have to tilt my monitor to face up, and the angle of the magnifier made me have to hunch to be able to see through it , and I started getting back pain from this. So this could be a problem for anyone else who likes to stand at intervals during the day, and this was what eventually drove me to just buy an ultra-wide monitor so I could stop having to deal with that pain.So all of those are things to consider for anyone who may have a similar situation to mine. Overall, I would say that this is not an ideal solution, but it will work as a stop-gap if you are desperate to alleviate eyestrain, and are willing to put up with a few inconveniences and an overinflated price tag until you can get something better.

I bought a similar, much smaller, less expensive magnifier at Half-Price Books for my mother to use around the house. It is flexible, 8-1/2" x 11" and must be held parallel to whatever it is you are reading. The nice thing about that is that you can adjust the distance of the magnifier from the reading material and increase or decrease the level of magnification--not significantly, but enough to make a difference. The problem with that, though, is that it requires using one hand to hold it as well as the fact that, although it is much larger than a hand-held magnifying glass, it's still smaller than the computer LCD screen so you must move it around to read the whole screen. I figured that this Kantek LCD Monitor Magnifier Filter would be much better. Not so. It's fixed distance magnifies only slightly. The box it came in claims it magnifies computer font size by more than double. I totally disagree. I'm returning this item tomorrow to get a full refund. The price of the magnifier from Half-Price books was, get this, $3.99. My mom likes it much better. I like the price much better.

It's pretty good. The magnification is helpful. The whole frame is very, very flimsy. The arms do not lock in place so the slightest bump (like if I reach across my desk) knocks to whole contraption out of place and I have to reposition all over from scratch. I'm keeping it, but not overwhelmed by the construction.

I want to try to clarify on some things I have read about this product in the reviews.The first thing is the magnifier just sits/hangs on your monitor on metal arms. It is not fastened permanently to the monitor. It is easy to take off and clean that way. If you bump your monitor or desk a lot then I can see where you would have trouble getting it to stay on.The next is it depends on how bad your eyes are as to how helpful this product would be. My Mom quit driving about a year ago and she loves it. She watches a lot of YouTube videos and this helps her see things better. I do not wear glasses and if I had to look through it it would make me crazy, but I do not need it. I think there is a window between good eyes and eyes too bad for anything to really help that this would be useful for a person with failing eyes. My Mom had been getting shots for about four or five years now and as I said earlier she quit driving a year ago if the timeline helps anyone.It is light, it does what it is supposed to do, and the arms are adjustable for height and to a lesser extent how far away from the monitor it hangs. It magnifies 2x and that is a lot more than I thought it would be. If it becomes less effective in time you might be able to make new arms to extend it further from the monitor and maybe magnify more but I have not had to try that. What you see might get soft or out of focus looking if you extend it too far.All in all this is a good product that is designed to work in a certain way and it does what is intended.