This is not a comprehensive list of all webcams we’ve tested. We have removed models that are no longer available or do not meet our criteria.
The Logitech Brio 500 is nearly identical to our top pick, except its USB cable isn’t detachable, and it comes with only a one-year warranty (as opposed to the three-year warranty of the Brio 505). The Brio 505’s features make it worth the extra $25 over this model.
Though the Logitech C920s Pro was our top pick for several years, it’s starting to show its age. Its footage looks grainy, and we’ve concluded that if you’re going to buy a webcam in this price range, you’d be better off getting our budget pick instead.
The Logitech Brio 4K Pro Webcam costs the same as our top pick and offers 4K video, but its image quality was not as natural looking as the Brio 505’s. In our photo evaluation for the clearest picture, it scored last, and in our video evaluation it didn’t get a single vote for overall picture quality.
The Logitech C930e is a more expensive version of the Brio 505 that’s aimed at group video-conferencing situations rather than an individual user. It has a wider, 90-degree field of view that can capture large meeting rooms, but that isn’t something most people working from home need.
The Anker PowerConf C300 shares a lot of features with our top pick, including subject tracking, but its output in our tests was over-sharpened. In our photo assessment, the C300 scored last for natural-looking images and second to last for best-looking skin tones. In our video survey, it didn’t score a single vote.
The Razer Kiyo was a popular option in its day, but now its footage looks outdated. Newer webcams, including our top pick and our budget pick, do a much better job of exposing for low light.
We first plugged the Razer Kiyo X, Kiyo Pro, and Kiyo Pro Ultra into a Mac to see how their image quality looked right out of the box, and it was especially rough, with blown-out highlights and white balance so cool that our test scene looked blue. The picture quality improved drastically after we plugged them into a Windows machine to install firmware updates (you can’t update them on a Mac), but we still needed to play with the settings to make them stop overexposing highlights, and the Synapsis software for the settings adjustments was glitchy. When we finally got the picture dialed in, it looked great, but we prefer our upgrade pick, the Insta360 Link, because we didn’t have to download or install any software to get excellent image quality on that camera. The Link is also a quarter the size of the extremely bulky Kiyo Pro Ultra and offers a host of smart features that make it handy for a wider variety of uses.
The Dell UltraSharp Webcam WB7022 shoots 4K video, but its out-of-the-box output was overly contrasty, to the point where dark areas were totally crushed into inky blackness and the overall image looked far too cool. Software for this webcam is available only for Windows, but even after installing it and playing with the settings, we still couldn’t find a decent balance of highlights and dark areas. In our evaluations, this camera failed to score a single vote in any image-quality category.
Footage from the Lumina was unimpressive out of the box, but what really turned us off was the long list of permissions required to use its software. Even after we installed the software and tried to calibrate the Lumina using the included color checker, it still produced footage that was too warm and too soft, especially for a 4K camera. It has other flaws, too, namely a cheap-feeling plastic build and a privacy cap that attaches to the camera with a weak magnet (which we lost just a day after opening the box). Overall, this is not what we expect from a webcam that costs almost $200.
Obsbot is a popular webcam line among certain reviewers, but the warranty oddly covers different parts of the webcam for different lengths of time. We think a company should be transparent about its products and offer clear warranty programs.
The Papalook AF925 lacks a privacy cover, and in our tests it constantly tried to refocus when we moved even a little, which was very distracting. This is likely due to the camera’s proclaimed AI facial-tracking technology.
The Microsoft LifeCam Studio ranked poorly with our panelists in video and image quality, as it produced terribly overexposed output with lots of motion blur. Although it’s an inexpensive webcam, you’re better off using your laptop’s built-in camera.
We considered webcams from AVerMedia but decided not to test them due to the volume of negative feedback about glitchy software or the webcams’ failure to work after just a few months.
This article was edited by Ben Keough and Erica Ogg.
