Best webcams 2023: Top picks and expert buying advice

We’ve replaced the Logitech C920e as our best webcam pick if only because Anker simply offers so much more for less. First off, Anker’s PowerConf C200 provides an upgraded 1440p resolution, better than 1080p to make you look clearer and more professional. Second, this webcam offers an adjustable field of view (65, 78, and 95 degrees) meaning that you can manually crop out portions of the background you don’t want to be visible.

For some reason, Amazon markets this as a “Mac” webcam. Anker provides Windows drivers, so you don’t need to worry about that. However, you will need Anker’s software to take full advantage of all the webcam’s features—e.g, though the USB-A cable makes this a plug-and-play device, the software is necessary to adjust the field-of-view function.

The PowerConf C200 includes noise-cancelling mics and an integrated privacy shutter, which turns off the whole device—a plus, if you’re concerned about a bad guy somehow hacking your mic and listening to your conversations with your family, boss, and pets. You can even adjust the mic pickup to focus on you, versus omnidirectionally.

Reviewers have some concerns about the color accuracy, but the low-light performance makes up for it—you shouldn’t need a ring light. For all this, and for about $60? That’s a solid deal. There’s an upgraded C300 model for an additional $40, but we think this is a better deal.

The 1080p Logitech C920e webcam is the most recent version of the venerable Logitech C920, probably the most iconic webcam of the last few years. Confused about whether you should buy the C920e or the C920s? Logitech describes the C920e as a business camera, and the C920s as the consumer version—they’re otherwise identical, save that the C920e has a three-year warranty versus a two-year warranty, while costing the same. The C920e reportedly offers lighting and color controls that the C920s does not, as well.

Both cameras use a narrower 78.5-degree viewing angle, which focuses on your face better than webcams that use a 90-degree viewing angle. It’s also an autofocus camera, which helps justify its higher price. The C920e connects to your laptop using a USB-A cable measuring 5 feet.

Aside from a lack of 60fps support, this is still a great webcam. We prefer it, in fact, to Logitech’s most recent webcam, the Logitech Brio 305, which is slightly more expensive and lacks the 1.2X zoom the C920e offers.

A number of Asian companies are starting to match what the C920e offers on paper, but its superb video quality could be harder to mimic. You can refer to our Logitech C920 review for more information.

Monoprice appears to have discounted this webcam to $34.99, and for that price it’s hard to pass up. Our review of this webcam, below, points out its flaws: It tends to overexpose the user, even without the integrated ring light, and the mic quality is poor. The DIY privacy shutter is a little goofy but works fine.

Honestly, if you’re the kind of person who can look past a few quirks, there’s a lot to like here. The 2K (1440p) / 30Hz resolution looks even sharper than a 1080p cam, for one. You will tend to look blown out a bit if you use and are lit by an external display. As a plain-Jane webcam that hooks onto your laptop screen, however, the white balance evens out just fine.

The mics are one of its irredeemable flaws, though. If your laptop has an integrated mic, you may find that it’s better than what Monoprice’s webcam offers. After our review, we accidentally flipped it backwards off the display, and it stopped working.

The eMeet SmartCam C960 is the most popular webcam on Amazon at press time, and for good reason—it’s been around since the early days of the pandemic.

The 1080p Smartcam C960 used to be a 1080p, 30Hz webcam that shipped with a small tripod. The upgraded model now offers a “stickum” DIY privacy shutter, which it lacked before.

We test webcams in both a dimmer, basement office as well as in a brighter, upstairs room. We’d recommend the latter as the best environment for using the eMeet SmartCam C960, though you can buy a ring light to help brighten the image. (You can also just use a monitor, and just use a blank Windows Notepad window to generate a bright white box.) This is what a budget webcam gets you: a great price, albeit with compromises.

The price tag on Anker’s premium B600 video bar may cause double-takes. But this webcam packs in the features. Inside is a 2K resolution camera, four-microphone array, speaker, and built-in light that also serves as a privacy guard—and you get a high level of control over all the hardware.

Capacitive buttons on the device let you mute the mic, adjust the intensity of the light, and turn the light on and off. Though a bit fiddly, they work and solidly cover the basics. There’s an LED light that indicates the mic’s status, too.

The companion AnkerWork app expands your settings. Choosing between viewing angles of 65, 78, and 95 degrees is fast, as is downscaling the default resolution from 2K to 1080p, 720p, or 360p. You can also tune the brightness, sharpness, saturation, and contrast of your video feed, alter the light bar’s color temperature, and set the light’s brightness to auto adjust based on ambient conditions.

This webcam is an extremely nice all-in-one solution, so long as you’re parked at a desk. (This video bar and its swiveling mount require a monitor for proper support.) The camera is clear and crisp, the speaker gets plenty loud, the mic holds its own against many laptops and earbuds, and the light is handy in dark rooms or for balancing out harsh backlighting. You can use the B600 as a speakerphone, too, eliminating problems with other callers hearing themselves as they speak.

We originally chose the OBSBOT Tiny 4K PTZ as our best premium 4K webcam, but the Tiny 2 offers substantive upgrades. (If you don’t agree, the Tiny 4K is being sold at a significant discount.)

While the Tiny 2 webcam boasts the same gimbal and tracking features as the first Tiny webcam, OBSBOT used a bigger sensor in the new model that lets in more light and provides a slightly clearer picture. New ISO options are optimized for low light and scenarios where your face is well lit. The latter still overexposes your face by a bit.

We’re less impressed by two other new features: voice commands, which are useful but not necessary, and new “beauty” features that use AI to adjust your face. While the latter features work, we prefer a more natural appearance, flaws and all.

The Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra claims to offer DSLR-quality images, and boy, it comes pretty close! Unfortunately, many webcams have a wispy, ghosty effect when capturing video, and you’ll find none of that here—you’ll look like a professional caught on camera. This is simply one of the best webcams you can buy, though you’ll pay for the privilege, too.

The Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra captures video at 4K at 30Hz or 1080p at 60Hz, using autofocusing technology that does a great job. HDR is also an option, though you’ll probably prefer to turn off this option. The field-of-view varies between 72 degrees and 82 degrees, depending on the resolution. Manual pan and zoom are available, but you might wonder why the camera can’t orient itself toward your face automatically. Otherwise, the Razer Synapse software offers an absolute ton of configurability.

About the only thing that could stand to be improved is the mic—you may prefer using your laptop’s mic instead.

This fixed-focus 1080p webcam captures frames at a smooth 60 frames per second, as opposed to the more standard 30fps. You’ll look smoother and more lifelike as a result. The camera also captures at a 120-degree angle, which might not be ideal for a home user but can work quite well in a living room or conference room. This webcam is very highly reviewed on Amazon, with reviewers praising it for its color balance but criticizing it for its inability to be finely adjusted.

It’s still a fixed-focus camera though—if you want an autofocusing model we’d recommend you pay about $100 for the upgraded NexiGo N680p instead.

If we’re being honest (and price is no object) the Dell UltraSharp webcam above would be our top pick for a Windows Hello webcam — a webcam that not only can show you off on Zoom or Teams, but can also log you in via biometric identification. But Logitech’s also feeling the heat, and it has lowered the price of its Brio 4K as a result. We can’t help but recommend it.

The Brio 4Kstill ranks highly among premium webcams, primarily because it’s one of the few autofocusing webcams that captures in 4K resolution. The Brio includes a ton of features to make you look great, and its Windows Hello support will log you in in a snap.

Our separate story on Windows Hello webcams offers cheaper options than the MouseComputer webcam, but the image quality of the webcam itself appears to be better—or, conversely, the competition is fudging on whether they offer true 1080p resolution. In any event, this $65 or so webcam seems to offer what you’ll need, plus Windows Hello functionality.

Users have complained that you’ll need to make sure Windows is up to date and that your webcam is directly plugged into your laptop. There’s no privacy shutter, unfortunately.

Some webcams can work without a computer, but not all of them. USB webcams, featured here, connect via USB to a computer and require it to operate. USB webcams are most often those used for video chat or live streaming from your computer on websites such as Twitch.

IP webcams however, can connect directly to a network, router, or modem and do not require a computer at all in order to work. IP webcams are most often used as security cameras or for live feeds that upload directly to the cloud. Those are separate products, however, and not the same webcams we’re talking about here.