Unless you plan on conducting all of your virtual meetings at arm’s length or from the end of a selfie stick, an excellent webcam is a home office essential nowadays — and a must-have accessory for your setup if you plan to stream or create content online.
While practically every laptop offers a built-in webcam, OEMs rarely deliver an impressive camera as standard. Sure, the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro’s 12MP Center Stage camera proves there are exceptions. However, generally speaking, your default webcam likely isn’t cutting it.
If you’re tired of falling back on your grainy, dimly lit, and low-resolution stock webcam, then it’s time to invest in an external webcam to look and sound your best with sharper, richer audio and visual flair.
From an affordable all-rounder like the Logitech HD Webcam C920, perfect for meetings and video calls, to the advanced flexibility of the Insta360 Link 2, ideal for content creation or hosting presentations, our roundup of the best webcams offers some genuinely fantastic options for laptops and desktop computers alike.
The quick list
1. Logitech HD Webcam C920
Best overall
This is the best webcam out there for most people. The image quality blows away anything you’ll get in a laptop, and it’s available for well under $100. The Logitech HD Webcam C920 decimates the competition, and once you try it, it’s unlikely you’ll regret it.
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Best premium webcam
The Insta360 Link 2 offers 4K capture with robust software that features AI tracking to deliver production-level results with DSLR quality, ideal for content creation or presenting at a professional level.
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Best travel webcam
The Opal Tadpole is a diminutive webcam that provides stellar video quality when traveling. As we’ve noted before, laptop webcams are terrible, but most external webcams are too big to fit easily in your laptop bag. Enter the 4K clip-on Opal Tadpole.
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Best midrange webcam
The Anker PowerConf C200 is a good value. It delivers high-quality imagery for a fraction of the cost of many other webcams and conference cams. Bonus: It comes with a physical shutter to keep the creeps out, which is great for home office users.
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5. Logitech MX Brio 4K webcam
Best 4K webcam
The Logitech MX Brio 4K webcam delivers sharp video and stills with vivid colors. Its large 8.5MP Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor ensures excellent image quality in any setting.
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Best overall
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The $60 Logitech HD Webcam C920 was an easy favorite. Images we took with the 1080p camera were sharp, color-accurate, and crystal clear. The C920’s 78-degree field of view could comfortably fit two people in the frame for a teleconference. The software with the C920 lets you implement filters, adjust the angle, use the webcam as a security camera, and take photos to save to your hard drive.
This is by far the best webcam out there, and there’s no way any reasonable person could return to the terrible webcams attached to a standard laptop. The Logitech HD Webcam C920 smashes the competition, and once you try it, you’ll unlikely regret it. Additionally, it’s excellent value. $60 for a webcam isn’t a steep price for a future of crisp and clear images.
See our Logitech HD Webcam C920 review.
Best premium webcam
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While the webcam that tops our list is a great option suitable for everyday use, the Insta360 Link 2 goes above and beyond, cramming an impressive amount of features and configurability into its typical $199 price tag.
The most stand-out feature is the Link 2’s unique dual-axis gimbal design, which allows the 4K webcam to turn and tilt, ensuring you’re framed and in focus at all times with its AI tracking, even while moving.
It’s ideal for content creation and presenting at a high standard, with the camera also able to snap focus and crop the image to capture whiteboards, or spin down to DeskView for more technical or hands-on demonstrations.
Thanks to an improved 1/2-inch sensor, the Link 2 works excellently in low-light conditions, but when paired with the right lighting setup, you’ll capture richly detailed and crisp images that are comparable to DSLR alternatives.
See our full Insta360 Link 2 review.
Best travel webcam
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Sure, your laptop’s webcam is probably terrible, most are, but are you going to bring a big external webcam with you everywhere? As a remote worker, I’ve faced this decision many times, and I virtually never take one with me and make do with subpar image quality. The Opal Tadpole webcam is finally the solution to this issue that so frequent travelers have been waiting for.
The Opal Tadpole will remind you of the old clip-on iPod Shuffle, and it is as dead simple to use as the Shuffle, too, with plug-and-play using the built-in USB-C cable. Opal Camera sells a $25 “yoyo” travel case that can fully secure the Tadpole, but its cable can also be used to loop it on your bag. It’s so tiny you will never notice it in your bag, but you’ll be thrilled you have it when you see the crisp, clear image on your video call instead of the noisy, garbled mess of your built-in webcam.
If you don’t ever travel, then by all means, go with another option on this list, like the Insta360 Link webcam above. Thanks to a larger sensor, you’ll get more features and a better overall image, but when it comes to a travel-friendly go-anywhere webcam with quality that will blow your laptop webcam away, the Opal Tadpole is it.
See our full Opal Tadpole review
Best midrange webcam
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Anker’s PowerConf C200 2k webcam is stylish, sturdy, and affordable ($69.99). It also has a physical shutter to keep the creeps out. What’s wonderfully disturbing about this Anker webcam is that it is on par with or superior to many of the far pricier webcams I have reviewed in the past two years.
The Anker PowerConf C200 is a bargain that delivers high-quality images and video for a fraction of the cost of many other webcams and conference cams. For $69.99, you get a webcam that provides crisp, color-accurate images in normal and low-light conditions with super-fast autofocus.
See our full Anker PowerConf C200 review
Best 4K webcam
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If you’re looking to prioritize a quality 4K image, the Logitech MX Brio 4K is the way to go. It’ll cost you $200, but if you’re willing to dish out the extra money, it’s a level up from the more affordable options thanks to its 8.5MP Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor.
Not only will this yield a better image in good lighting, but if you don’t always have perfect control of your lighting, it will hold up better than the competition in less-than-ideal lighting conditions.
While Logitech’s AI tracking is not bad, we would still recommend something like the Insta360 Link 2 if tracking movement or more dynamic content is a high priority for you. The built-in mic could also be better, but it’s a definite improvement over your laptop mic, and its 4K resolution offers incredibly sharp images that can track your face, body, whiteboards, and even your desk.
See our full Logitech MX Brio 4K webcam review.
Feature comparisons
Webcam | Resolution | Frame rate | Built-in Mic | Autofocus | Gimbal | HDR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Logietch HD Webcam C920 | 1920 x 1080 | 30 fps | Stereo mic | Yes | No | No |
Insta360 Link 2 | 3840 x 2160 | 30 fps @ 4K, 60 fps @ 1080p | Noise-cancelling pinhole mic | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Opal Tadpole | 3840 x 2160 | 30 fps @ 4K | MEMS directional mic | Yes | No | No |
Anker PowerConf C200 | 2560 x 1440 | 60 fps @ 2K | Dual-stereo mics | Yes | No | No |
Logitech MX Brio 4K | 3840 x 2160 | 30fps at 4K, 60fps at 1080p | Dual Beamforming mic | Yes | No | No |
Recent reviews
Not every webcam we review makes it to this list, but that’s not to say they aren’t worth looking into. While some of the following webcams may not be the best in their category, that’s not to say they aren’t fantastic options.
How to find the right webcam
Regardless of the specs, the most important focus (pardon the pun) for a webcam is the crispness of its image and video quality. Combine this with the product’s price, and you have an essential checklist of webcam priorities. However, there are a few other things to consider.
Perhaps you want your webcam to be as portable as possible. The Opal Tadpole would be a perfect choice for that purpose. If you need something high-end with excellent features like a noise-canceling microphone and AI Tracking, the Insta360 Link is a great pick.
Alternatively, you might desire cheap and high-quality, so the Logitech HD Webcam C920 (~$60) could be worth it for those needing a solid camera on a budget. Don’t mind spending up? You can invest in a Logitech Brio 4K Pro Webcam for around $200. Although expensive, its incredible image quality could more than compensate for it if you’re interested in professional streaming.
FAQs
What webcam features do you need to look for?
If you’re using your webcam for video calls, virtual presentations, or live streams, the key features will be resolution and frame rate. The higher the resolution, the better the image quality. Regarding frame rate, while 60 fps is ideal at max resolution, a 30 fps 4K webcam is more than adequate for most video calls and streams.
If you use your webcam in dimly lit spaces or while moving around, you may want to look for advanced features like HDR and AI face tracking.
What webcams are best for streaming?
While many of the top Twitch and YouTube content creators use mirrorless cameras for their streams, any of our top Webcams will work fine for casual streams. Unless you plan to make your reaction feed the highlight of your stream, you just need a decent FHD (1920 x 1080p) webcam for most streaming purposes.
How to set up a webcam?
Every webcam is different, but generally speaking, you’ll connect it to your laptop or desktop and then make sure your operating system recognizes it. You may need to update or download drivers or specialized software to get the most out of your webcam’s range of features.
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