This innovative $90 webcam goes toe-to-toe with $300 rivals

Price When Reviewed

89.99

Best Prices Today: EMeet Piko+

$89.99

Not all of us favor or have the chance to work in a spacious, well-lit workplace. And when you don’t, you’ll want a webcam that compensates for that. eMeet’s Piko+ 4K webcam does, and does so marvelously.

It was a chilly, darkish February day once I unboxed the Piko+ webcam. I purchased my residence in California for a lot of causes, however none of them included the quantity of sunshine within the spare bed room that serves as my workplace. In winter, not an entire lot of daylight reaches my desk. Add rain to the equation, and my workplace was simply plain gloomy.

But once I plugged within the Piko+, I really swore. This 4K webcam’s capabilities, particularly in low gentle, are revelatory. I simply want it got here a standard webcam clip.

But at about $90, wow! That’s a incredible value for every little thing that the Piko+ offers you. And if that’s an excessive amount of, you possibly can go for the basic Piko, a $69.99 version of the 4K digital camera with a smaller 1/2.8″ sensor as an alternative.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

eMeet+ Piko+ webcam: specs and options

eMeet’s Piko+ boasts not one however two sensors: a 1/2.55″ 4K sensor which rivals these in midrange smartphones, and a second, “portrait” sensor. This second sensor is designed to assist rapidly autofocus, however particularly to detect and compensate for low gentle. Both work in unison, just like how smartphone cameras can help each other.

eMeet mounts the 2 sensors subsequent to one another, like two eyes; the zoomorphic design is deliberate, and complemented by the magnetic webcam cowl that has the looks of a panda’s face. A small blue LED lights up, like a small mouth, when the digital camera is in use. While that didn’t make an impression, my spouse instructed me that she discovered it cute.

From there, I’ve to go on to what I don’t like concerning the eMeet Piko+. For one factor, there’s the field: it took me a minute to determine the right way to get it open. Am I simply dumb? Perhaps, however eMeet really features a slip of paper inside it with diagrams on the right way to re-box the digital camera and its tripod, which I’ve by no means seen earlier than! If it’s important to clarify the right way to get the field open and closed, maybe it’s time for a distinct design.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Otherwise, the Piko+ is easy sufficient: it measures a comparatively tiny 5.83 x 3.94 x 2.2 inches, with a prolonged USB-C cable that stretches a bit greater than a yard. The rear of the webcam has a USB-C connection. The different finish of the cable has a devoted USB-C connector as nicely, with a passive USB-A sleeve that may accommodate older laptops.

There’s one factor I actually hate concerning the Piko+, and that’s the truth that it has no laptop computer mount. Instead, the webcam screws in to a really abysmal tripod that’s about 5 inches excessive, with an adjustable gimbal that may be loosened or tightened by way of a screw. The tripod isn’t extensible, which means that you just’ll must prop it on one thing to get the peak you need. The tripod legs don’t lengthen with sufficient firmness to carry it in place, and the twine tends to overbalance the entire association. Each axis of the digital camera should be finely adjusted to make sure that your picture is correctly aligned — after which any little vibration or swipe or wandering cat implies that it’s important to begin over from the start.

I don’t thoughts webcams with screw mounts to accommodate a tripod. I don’t thoughts a tripod-forward method. But I’m additionally tempted to only shut the tripod legs and duct-tape the entire association to the again of my show or laptop computer as an alternative of coping with re-adjusting every little thing often.

Like most webcams, eMeet’s Piko+ is plug-and-play. But most of the configuration choices are solely unlocked by putting in the corporate’s utility software program, eMeet Studio. Most apps (I exploit Windows Camera for testing features) lets you alter the decision, from 4K at 30 frames per second all the way down to 1440p30 to 1080p at both 60 or 30 fps. (Interestingly, I solely noticed the 60Hz possibility utilizing the Windows Camera app.) If you dial down the decision, you can too slender the sector of view by basically zooming in, to 51 levels.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

Although eMeet Studio’s model quantity signifies that it’s gone by a number of revisions, a take a look at laptop computer (utilizing an AMD Ryzen 300 AI-class processor, if it issues) very slowly put in the software program. Rebooting and disconnecting the laptop computer from exterior shows appeared to unravel the issue.

The Studio app can’t be resized, and takes up a small window in your desktop. The UI might positively be tweaked for these of us with glasses! Some of the choices (equivalent to altering the decision, and a few display screen filters) are solely obtainable by way of a slideout extension to the window that’s triggered by a miniscule “Preview” toggle.

The app contains some good choices, together with the flexibility to focus in your face, higher half, or full physique. But I used to be unable to allow that possibility, and a pair others, equivalent to the flexibility to lock on to your face — had been apparently designed with Copilot+ PCs and their strong NPUs in thoughts. (The Ryzen laptop computer I used had the NPU chops to qualify as a Copilot+ PC, nonetheless.) An automated setting to detect after which optimize the picture for backlighting arguably made the image worse. There’s no HDR functionality, both.

I believe that whereas the eMeet Studio app does unlock some good choices, nonetheless, it’s not completely mandatory. Some functions (equivalent to Windows Camera) enable fine-grained controls, and Zoom’s video possibility lets you choose an “HD” feed. If you’re a Teams person, although, you’ll in all probability want the app.

eMeet’s Piko+ webcam: pattern photographs

The proof of a high quality webcam, nonetheless, is within the pictures themselves. For years, I’ve regarded the webcams in Microsoft Surface webcams as a number of the greatest, and I nonetheless assume that holds true. But like different webcams, they function greatest in brilliant gentle. Compare the pictures captured by the Surface Laptop Studio 2 with the eMeet webcam, just about facet by facet in dim lighting.

I’m clearly not probably the most photogenic particular person, however the eMeet webcam definitely captured the lighting nearly precisely completely, with the positive element of my face and shirt besides. (One notice: I don’t use a hoop lamp, nor am I utilizing one right here. I do seize photographs with a digital camera app open in my monitor, however I often have gentle projecting from a laptop computer.)

Weirdly, the webcam doesn’t do as nicely with a photograph taken upstairs, in additional pure however facet lighting. I do just like the element, and I believe the colour is captured extraordinarily nicely in each pictures. I’d have favored the eMeet Piko+ to do a bit higher right here, nonetheless.

Mark Hachman / Foundry

This isn’t at all times the case, however a bigger digital camera sensor usually results in higher shot. Razer’s Kiyo Pro Ultra webcam is likely one of the greatest, if not the most effective, webcam for picture high quality. (The solely cause that it doesn’t play into our picks for the best webcams is its $299 price ticket.) Its 1/1.2-inch sensor definitely contributes. The OBSBOT Tiny 2 PTZ 4K, with its 1/1.5-inch sensor, additionally produces sharp, stellar pictures. You would assume that the 1/2.55-inch sensor contained in the Piko+ would decrease the picture high quality, but it surely definitely doesn’t appear to. At all.

The audio high quality is subpar. eMeet’s webcam contains three built-in sensors, which function in considered one of three modes: regular, a noise discount mode, and a streaming mode. The regular mode lets some background noise bleed in, just like the background music I play to check the noise filtering.

The noise discount mode permits background noise in if it performs first. After I started talking, the mics would filter all the music out solely — till I started talking, when it will report my voice in addition to the music. The music was recorded at a decrease quantity. I’m unsure what the streaming mode is suppsoed to perform, however the filtering didn’t differ that a lot from the noise-reduction mode, however with the music recorded at a louder quantity.

Conclusion

Should you purchase the eMeet Piko+ webcam? Almost positively. Compare the 2 webcams that I spotlight above: the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra prices $300. SO does the OBSBOT Tiny 2. eMeet costs $90. That isn’t finances territory, with its $30-$50 value tags. But that’s miles away from the premium class, too.

I completely don’t just like the tripod setup, nonetheless. I’m positive these of you with neat and tidy desks will incorporate the Piko+ into your setup. I’ve too many cables snaking about, with modifications made to my desk on the every day. I want a webcam that sits up and out of the best way and that I don’t should be continuously readjusting.

This downside can in all probability be solved with no redesign, with a sleeve or pouch accent that could possibly be caught to or in any other case clipped on to a laptop computer or monitor. I additionally assume that the eMEET Studio app might undergo one other design iteration.

Otherwise, this can be a barely unpolished webcam that delivers premium capabilities for neatly $200 lower than the “true” premium webcam distributors cost. That’s price recommending, and it appears possible that I’ll add it to our list of the best webcams within the close to future.