Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra evaluate: Quite possibly the best webcam, period

Price When Reviewed

$299.99

Best Prices Today: Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra

Does the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra justify its $300 price ticket? That was our query, and undoubtedly yours as effectively. Our reply? If you personal an older laptop computer, completely. But the 4K-capable Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra additionally gives a noticeable improve in comparison with even the newest webcam {hardware}. You’ll appear like a professional whereas utilizing this digital camera.

Razer’s Kiyo Pro Ultra claims to supply DSLR-like picture high quality, and its huge 2-inch-diameter lens actually reminds you of that proper out of the field. In apply, the webcam holds as much as its claims. Simply bear in mind that it doesn’t do fairly every thing, and one shortcoming specifically would possibly go away you questioning why.

Most of the units we function in our record of the best webcams step down significantly in worth—as does this webcam’s predecessor, the 1080p, $199 Razer Kiyo Pro. The Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra is for these individuals who wish to appear like they’re on a professional-quality YouTube stream, with the digital camera presenting you at your best. What this webcam doesn’t do, nonetheless, is supply Windows Hello capabilities by way of a depth digital camera, so that you’ll have to make use of your PC’s default mechanism to log you in. (We have a listing of the best Windows Hello webcams, too.)

Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra: Features

From a options standpoint, the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra can file in varied video resolutions as much as 4K: 4K at 30 FPS (4K30), 1440p30, 1080p60/30/24, and 720p60/30. Images are captured at as much as 8.3 megapixels, which is nearly smartphone high quality. The field-of-view varies between 72 levels and 82 levels, relying on the decision. Manual pan and zoom can be found. The digital camera additionally offers choices to file video in HDR, although your body charge will slip by an undisclosed quantity when you select this selection, Razer warns. The Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra additionally features a microphone able to recording at 16bit/48KHz, although you’ll in all probability discover {that a} good laptop computer’s stereo mics sound higher.

You might want to set up the Razer Synapse app to manage the webcam, nonetheless, which requires roughly a 550MB obtain. (The app additionally controls every other Razer {hardware} it’s possible you’ll personal.) You don’t have to register the Razer Synapse app, which saves your settings to the cloud, as a way to use it; merely comply with sign up as a visitor as a substitute. Razer additionally means that you can obtain a “virtual ring light” app, which makes use of your monitor as a supply of white gentle to light up your face. Just just be sure you set your video choices in Teams/Zoom/Google Meet to make use of the applicable digital camera, and choose the best audio, too. (We’d suggest utilizing Zoom’s “test microphone” function in the settings to check each mics.)

Mark Hachman / IDG

The Kiyo Pro Ultra measures about 3 inches deep, relying on how the digital camera is oriented. The lens mount is effectively designed; the adjustable L-shaped joint merely hooks over the entrance of your laptop computer show or monitor.

Though chunky, the digital camera will not be notably heavy, so that you shouldn’t have to fret about your show tipping over. An peculiar clamshell laptop computer, nonetheless, will in all probability battle to carry up the digital camera with out the show reclining involuntarily, except you place the display to counterbalance it. A pill with a kickstand shouldn’t have any hassle. In common, nonetheless, clipping the Kiyo Pro Ultra to the high of a monitor positions the digital camera at eye degree or barely dealing with down, which helps keep eye contact.

In the case of a laptop computer, the clip additionally folds again to function a standalone mount, or you possibly can even screw it in to an peculiar digital camera mount. A 4.9-foot (1.5m) braided cable connects the digital camera (USB-C) to your PC (USB-A). Be warned, nonetheless, that Razer asks you to make use of a 10Gb/s USB-A port to attach the digital camera; an older 5Gb/s USB-A port (discovered on older PCs) gained’t supply sufficient bandwidth. Consult your PC’s guide when you’re undecided.

Interestingly, the removeable clear plastic protector that the Kiyo Pro Ultra shipped with didn’t impede the lens whereas offering scratch safety. However, the webcam additionally ships with a devoted lens cowl that may be fitted to the entrance of the webcam. That serves as one privateness choice when not in use, and you may also use a separate privateness dial on the webcam’s barrel to shut a bodily shutter. Just bear in mind that the small white LED on the digital camera itself signifies that it’s receiving energy, and not that the webcam is in use. Close the webcam shutter, and the LED will stay lit.

Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra: Video high quality

For higher or worse, high-resolution cameras with good shade capabilities have change into synonymous with YouTube streamers, the information, and extra. They connote an air of professionalism, authority, and celeb, and there’s a little bit of a thrill to see your personal face in the similar gentle. In 2020, we highlighted the webcams on the Microsoft Surface lineup as a few of the best in the enterprise, with 1080p decision and stable shade stability and distinction. The Pro Ultra simply places them to disgrace—its digital camera sensor includes a 2.9 μm pixel measurement, capturing 3.9x extra gentle in comparison with different webcams, Razer claims.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Put merely, this webcam is excellent. Colors pop, although not overwhelmingly, and there are picture presets (together with “cool,” heat,” and “vibrant”) if you wish to emphasize these. Many laptop computer webcams have a form of gauzy, ghosty impact, partially due to the decrease decision, slower body charge, and poor shade stability. You’ll see none of that right here. You’ll look alive and authoritative. Just remember the fact that any videoconferencing app you utilize might decrease the decision or compress the stream, so it’s possible you’ll look a bit worse.

The digital camera had no downside auto-focusing on me (or my son, when he poked his head inside a number of inches of the digital camera) and dealt with odd lighting conditions very effectively, together with backlit lamps that blew out a relatively poor 1080p webcam on one other laptop computer. Maybe as a result of I’m used to a sure “look,” turning on HDR didn’t do something for me and arguably made the picture worse.

All of the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra’s controls are discovered inside the Synapse Streaming tab at the very high: All of the choices are typically effectively organized below Camera, although you’ll discover the decision and body charge inexplicably tucked inside the Processing tab.

Many of the obtainable choices you possibly can go away on the default settings, and there are a ton of them: every thing from low-light compensation to dynamic noise discount to lens distortion compensation and extra. You in all probability gained’t wish to alter any of the Image settings for brightness, distinction, and many others., in any respect.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The fundamental Camera settings, although, are the place you’ll have the choice of choosing how autofocus works, whether or not it’s passive or lively, and the way the digital camera adjusts for lighting in your face or simply the scene itself.

About the solely apparent omission is a bit on high of the Camera tab, which gives guide pan and zoom. According to the settings, the digital camera can zoom as much as 4X (digitally, it seems). When zoomed, the digital camera may be panned left and proper. What we’re left questioning is, if the digital camera can already monitor your face to regulate the lighting, why can’t it pan and zoom mechanically, too? Webcams in the Surface Pro 9 (5G) and Samsung’s Galaxy Book3 sequence use {hardware} AI to attain this by way of Microsoft’s Windows Studio Effects, and so does the Dell UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022), this digital camera’s closest competitor. It nearly looks as if one thing Razer would possibly even add in a firmware replace, although that’s simply hypothesis on our half.

With all that stated, Razer’s Kiyo Pro Ultra is an outstanding webcam, one which we’d wholeheartedly suggest. Just contemplate it an funding, and one which isn’t completely fairly as skilled as we’d like.