Some technologies seem to have been completely abandoned. There is very little innovation when it comes to webcams. If you are looking for a 1080p 60fps webcam, you will notice that most of the products that you find are old and had almost no revisions in years. Even the most notorious manufacturers that have the biggest market share when it comes to webcams did very little to improve their products. All had the same passive stance on webcam except for a few such as Razer. The Razer Kiyo is one of the few webcams that manage to tick a lot of boxes.
Clever Features
The first thing that is noticeable about the Kiyo is that it is not a regular, dull 1080p 60fps webcam. It has a different design that incorporates a webcam, microphone, and a spotlight. Everything is packed in a small form factor and has a premium build quality that makes it an appealing product. Things get even better once you start fiddling around with Synapse 3. The software offers simple controls over saturation, contrast, brightness, and sharpness. It has advanced controls as well and it offers a simple way to turn on or off the spotlight.
Video Quality
The video quality is certainly better than most other webcams. While competitor webcams priced the same offer lackluster video quality, the Kiyo does manage to impress, especially when there is a decent amount of ambient light in the room. Image quality is crisp and clear with very little noise or scatter.
When it comes to low light conditions, the webcam does struggle a bit. For a 1080p 60fps webcam it still offers great image quality. However, it is inferior to a regular digital camera that can be used as a webcam as well. Regardless, once you turn the spotlight on, the image quality improves significantly. Even if the background may still be fuzzy or unclear, the spotlight will make it so that what is directly in front of it is easily visible.
Sound Quality
The built-in microphone that the Kiyo comes with is decent. It does not have a reliable ambient noise-canceling feature but for the most part, it works. For someone that uses the webcam alone in a room, it is good enough. If you value sound quality, you may want to get a dedicated microphone as it will certainly outclass the microphone that is built into the webcam.
Should You Get It?
The Kiyo is one of the best cameras one could get in this price range. For superior video quality, one of the options that you have is to just get a DSLR or digital camera with a better image sensor. If you do not want to keep things simple, the Kiyo is a great 1080p 60fps webcam that offers all the features one would expect.
Besides the reasonable video quality and sound quality, the webcam does stand out for its built-in spotlight. Paired with the Razer Synapse 3, the webcam seems to cater mostly to the ones that are not technical experts and just want something that works well straight out of the box.
