At a look

Expert’s Rating

Pros

• Great worth
• Robust bodily design
• Integrated ring mild
• Macro lens genuinely appears helpful
• Useful distant management in field

Cons

• Not fairly 4K (however shut sufficient)
• No 60fps possibility
• No AI pan or zoom, although guide zooming is allowed
• Legacy USB-A connector
• Separate privateness shutter

Our Verdict

BenQ’s almost-but-not-quite 4K webcam affords a considerable quantity of worth, delivering each as an on a regular basis webcam in addition to a specialised device for streaming and shows.

Price When Reviewed

$199.99

Best Prices Today: BenQ IdeaCam S1 Pro

$199.99

$199.99

On paper, BenQ’s IdeaCam S1 Pro definitely seems too far out of attain of most shoppers hoping to select up a reasonable 4K webcam. But BenQ’s three-in-one webcam affords a ton beneath the hood, even when a few of the core options barely underdeliver on their guarantees.

BenQ’s IdeaCam S1 Pro jogs my memory of the CA Essential Webcam, which might flip ahead and level down to raised seize an indication, equivalent to frosting a cake or soldering a PCB. It lacks CA’s massive telescoping arm, nevertheless. What it does add is a separate 15X “zoom,” or macroscopic lens, which can really feel a bit gimmicky. The one side I used to be shocked by, nevertheless, was the sophistication of the non-obligatory BenQ EnSpire software program utility. It’s price downloading.

Typically, I say a 4K webcam ought to reproduce the decision of a 4K monitor, or 3840×2160 (or 8,294,400) pixels. BenQ’s webcam affords a most photograph decision of 3264×2448, or 7,990,272 pixels. Its video decision maxes out at both 1836p in a 16:9 ratio, or 2448p (3264×2448, or 7,990,272 pixels) in a 4:3 ratio. Inside the S1 Pro is a Sony 8Mpixel sensor, nevertheless, which produces some very good photographs, proven additional under. BenQ features a (indifferent, sadly) magnetic shutter lid for privateness, and a hoop mild that encircles the lens. There’s even a distant management!

In different phrases, this isn’t a real 4K digital camera, but it surely’s fairly shut. BenQ doesn’t provide a 60fps possibility, both. However, in our reviews of the best webcams, preferring these premium choices can push costs into the $299 to $329 vary! The IdeaCam S1 Pro, then, is an attention-grabbing compromise.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The bodily design of BenQ’s IdeaCam S1 Pro affords two issues I don’t typically see whereas reviewing webcams: a chunky mount that serves as a counterweight to the the webcam itself, in addition to a locking mechanism to safe it additional. If you ceaselessly transfer issues round in your desk, as I do, this can be a helpful characteristic. The result’s that the webcam stays locked in, even on a thick show, till you select to take away it — which you may!

The digital camera attaches to the mount through a “tooth,” which slides right into a corresponding notch within the webcam’s physique. A prolonged twine terminates in a legacy USB-A connection.

Mark Hachman / IDG

I actually like the photographs that the BenQ IdeaCam S1 Pro produced, at the very least in good mild. The digital camera produced photographs with terrific coloration steadiness and high-quality element, and the autofocus locked on my face very properly. This is likely one of the few webcams that I’ve examined that may decide up the main points of my hair. Yes, that’s a bit useless, however isn’t that what a webcam is meant to do?

The solely quirks I observed are the variations within the 4:3 and 16:9 photographs the digital camera captures: Changing the decision additionally adjustments the digital zoom, so you might have to readjust the digital camera’s positioning. (The 16:9 mode zooms in essentially the most, which I’ve all the time most popular.) The EnSpire app additionally permits you an excessive amount of leeway to regulate the zoom additional, manner nearer than you may suppose.

The IdeaCam S1 Pro doesn’t provide any digital pan or zoom capabilities, in contrast to rivals just like the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra.

Upstairs, although, I closed the drapes in our household room, and it was right here that the IdeaCam S1 Pro began to disappoint. In poorer mild, the colours seem dingier, and the webcam’s picture appeared to get fuzzier, too. It’s right here that I turned on the ring mild, although that isn’t mirrored in picture under. It actually didn’t make a lot of a distinction. I sometimes examine a webcam with the default digital camera of the laptop computer I’m utilizing; on this case it was Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio 2. I’ve to admit: In dimmer mild, I favored the Surface’s default picture higher.

Mark Hachman / IDG

As famous above, the BenQ IdeaCam S1 Pro additionally flips ahead in demonstration mode. This isn’t good. Since the lens extends simply an inch or so in entrance of your monitor, you might find yourself with one thing aside from a 90-degree, perpendicular view. BenQ’s IdeaCam S1’s software program does robotically flip the picture into the right orientation, nevertheless, and the Enspire utility features a keystone operate to align the picture accurately, like a projector. Both options turn out to be useful.

What could be good could be an improved bodily design that will permit you to level the digital camera on the ceiling in case you forgot to affix the lens shutter. Maybe subsequent time.

Otherwise, BenQ argues that the S1 Pro is fully appropriate as a “handheld” webcam. (Like just about all webcams, it features a threaded gap for a tripod mount, which you should buy individually.) For no matter cause, BenQ included a “macro,” or “zoom,” lens that permits you to zoom in for element work.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The lens magnetically attaches to the webcam, and there’s a plastic cylinder that presumably might be used to imprison a small insect for additional research. Initially I felt like this characteristic was supplied extra as a child’s toy than an precise presentation assist till I began twiddling with some ports and connectors on my laptop computer, and realized that this may work very properly for a detailed PCWorld build video.

The macro lens works properly, with some limitations. The IdeaCam S1 Pro already affords autofocus capabilities, which appear a bit wobbly when paired with the macro lens. The macro lens cylinder, nevertheless, helps implement a strict fastened distance from the digital camera’s topic, so switching on the EnSpire utility software program and switching to a fixed-focus mode (which may be adjusted manually) helps considerably, enabling some quite gross pictures of my laptop computer keyboard.

Mark Hachman / IDG

I’m not a fan of compelled downloads of utility software program, partially as a result of I’m a bit leery of downloading untrusted software program to my system. BenQ’s EnSpire software program (which is linked to within the product documentation) does add a big quantity of worth, although.

EnSpire not solely permits you to manually change varied controls equivalent to distinction and brightness — which, to be honest, the Windows Settings do too — but additionally permits you to flip the autofocus on and off, “freeze” the picture after which ink on it, and apply the keystone adjustment.

The most attention-grabbing characteristic, nevertheless, is a superimposed “ruler” that can be utilized to measure distance, diameter, and the arc of a curve. Using my ruler, it seems to measure millimeters within the screenshot under, and fairly precisely, too, from my very own measurements of my laptop computer keyboard. I nonetheless wouldn’t belief it utterly, but it surely seems to offer a very good estimate of the space.

Mark Hachman / IDG

BenQ’s noise-cancelling mics additionally outperformed the Surface Laptop Studio 2’s default configuration. I check audio by recording my voice on Windows’ Sound Recorder app, and put my cellphone taking part in Spotify shut by. I may faintly hear the background monitor utilizing the Surface, and under no circumstances whereas utilizing the IdeaCam S1 Pro’s default mics. (I didn’t have the SLS2’s Windows Studio Effects turned on, nevertheless, which performs AI filtering utilizing the built-in NPU.)

But wait, there’s extra!

One of the value-added options of the BenQ IdeaCam S1 is a well-engineered puck-like distant management that jogs my memory very a lot of the Surface Dial, full with the flexibility to rotate the distant’s outdoors ring to zoom out and in. The distant is powered by a pair of AAAA batteries that BenQ offers, and connects to the digital camera and your PC through an old-school USB-A dongle. Between the webcam’s USB-A cable and the distant’s dongle, you might run out of USB-A ports, presumably necessitating a USB-C dongle.

The distant affords controls for digital zoom, switching between guide and automated focus, “freezing” the display, taking a screenshot, and muting the mic. It seems like a $50 peripheral that BenQ contains as a part of the webcam’s value.

Is the BenQ IdeaCam S1 is price it?

Give BenQ’s IdeaCam S1 Pro sufficient mild, and it delivers in spades. But in the event you want a dimmer workplace, you may want some supplementary illumination (if not a vibrant, white monitor) to offer the picture some further oomph. The digital camera slots into type of a “tweener” value level that’s halfway between a extra typical webcam and one that provides top-of-the-line premium options — and provides some further worth that these webcams lack, too.

That wins my endorsement: strong engineering, total competence, and a few value-added options that ship. This could be greater than you’re anticipating to pay for a webcam, however the BenQ IdeaCam S1 Pro is price what BenQ asks for it.