Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra review: 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 nicely. 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 digicam.

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

Most of the units we characteristic in our listing of the best webcams step down significantly in value—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 digicam presenting you at your greatest. What this webcam doesn’t do, nonetheless, is provide Windows Hello capabilities through a depth digicam, so that you’ll have to make use of your PC’s default mechanism to log you in. (We have an inventory of the best Windows Hello webcams, too.)

Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra: Features

From a options standpoint, the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra can document 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 digicam additionally offers choices to document video in HDR, although your body price will slip by an undisclosed quantity should you select this feature, Razer warns. The Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra additionally features a microphone able to recording at 16bit/48KHz, although you’ll most likely discover {that a} good laptop computer’s stereo mics sound higher.

You might want to set up the Razer Synapse app to regulate the webcam, nonetheless, which requires roughly a 550MB obtain. (The app additionally controls every other Razer {hardware} you could personal.) You don’t have to register the Razer Synapse app, which saves your settings to the cloud, so as to use it; merely conform to sign up as a visitor as an alternative. 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 remember to set your video choices in Teams/Zoom/Google Meet to make use of the suitable digicam, and choose the very best audio, too. (We’d suggest utilizing Zoom’s “test microphone” characteristic within the settings to check each mics.)

Mark Hachman / IDG

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

Though chunky, the digicam is just not notably heavy, so that you shouldn’t have to fret about your show tipping over. An peculiar clamshell laptop computer, nonetheless, will most likely battle to carry up the digicam with out the show reclining involuntarily, until you place the display to counterbalance it. A pill with a kickstand shouldn’t have any hassle. In normal, nonetheless, clipping the Kiyo Pro Ultra to the highest of a monitor positions the digicam at eye degree or barely dealing with down, which helps preserve 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 digicam mount. A 4.9-foot (1.5m) braided cable connects the digicam (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 digicam; an older 5Gb/s USB-A port (discovered on older PCs) received’t provide sufficient bandwidth. Consult your PC’s handbook should you’re unsure.

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 it’s also possible to 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 digicam 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 turn into synonymous with YouTube streamers, the information, and extra. They connote an air of professionalism, authority, and superstar, and there’s a little bit of a thrill to see your personal face in the identical gentle. In 2020, we highlighted the webcams on the Microsoft Surface lineup as a number of the greatest within the enterprise, with 1080p decision and strong shade stability and distinction. The Pro Ultra simply places them to disgrace—its digicam sensor contains a 2.9 μm pixel dimension, 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 kind of gauzy, ghosty impact, partly due to the decrease decision, slower body price, 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 could decrease the decision or compress the stream, so you could look a bit worse.

The digicam had no drawback auto-focusing on me (or my son, when he poked his head inside a couple of inches of the digicam) and dealt with odd lighting conditions very nicely, 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 throughout the Synapse Streaming tab on the very high: All of the choices are typically nicely organized underneath Camera, although you’ll discover the decision and body price inexplicably tucked contained in the Processing tab.

Many of the out there choices you possibly can go away on the default settings, and there are a ton of them: every part from low-light compensation to dynamic noise discount to lens distortion compensation and extra. You most likely received’t wish to regulate any of the Image settings for brightness, distinction, and so on., in any respect.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The principal 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 digicam adjusts for lighting in your face or simply the scene itself.

About the one apparent omission is a piece on high of the Camera tab, which gives handbook pan and zoom. According to the settings, the digicam can zoom as much as 4X (digitally, it seems). When zoomed, the digicam may be panned left and proper. What we’re left questioning is, if the digicam can already observe your face to regulate the lighting, why can’t it pan and zoom mechanically, too? Webcams within the Surface Pro 9 (5G) and Samsung’s Galaxy Book3 series use {hardware} AI to realize this through Microsoft’s Windows Studio Effects, and so does the Dell UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022), this digicam’s closest competitor. It virtually looks as if one thing Razer may 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 think about it an funding, and one which isn’t completely fairly as skilled as we’d like.