For those of us who are camera-shy and self-conscious, like myself, the Dell Pro Webcam box has a scary warning: “2K QHD video.”But when you open the box, all you see is a black cylinder with a cable sticking out of one end and a magnetic lens cap on the other. Then it wasn’t so scary. But the thought that he might turn on the video and see a landscape of deep scars and wrinkles was still there.
Dell Pro Webcam: Description
Look. In today’s tech-obsessed world, if you want to be among the best MacBook webcams or the best webcams overall, you can’t be afraid of vain people’s worries about their ageing faces and wrinkles. And if you’re really smart, you find ways to make those same self-conscious manbabies feel good about themselves.
And the Dell Pro Webcam has done just that. As was already said, the Dell Pro Webcam is a black cylinder that doesn’t look like much. On the front, there is a large Sony STARVIS lens with a magnetic lens cap that protects against dust, sun, and scratches. On the back, there is an attached cable with a USB-A connector that works with any USB-A 2.0 port or higher.
Dell Pro Webcam: Pros and Cons
Pros
- Sharp 2K video
- Clear audio
- HDR is decent in low lighting
- Looks and feels high-quality
Cons
- Recordings lack detail
- Far too much noise
- There are better ‘pro-level’ webcams out there
- Noisier than it should be for the resolution
Dell Pro Webcam: Specifications
Zoom | 4x digital |
Autofocus | Yes |
Connection | USB-A |
Weight | 0.34lbs / 155g |
Software | Dell Peripheral Manager |
Special Features | AI Auto Framing |
Design and Features
The Pro Webcam from Dell has a smaller version of the UltraSharp Webcam’s pipe-like design. It’s a 3.5-by-1.7-inch (HW) black plastic cylinder with a magnetic lens cap that sticks to the back of the camera when you’re using it. It’s not as sleek as the UltraSharp Webcam, but it’s light and easy to use.
The clip is built into the cylinder as a foot that you can flip down. This foot has a rubber coating to protect your PC or monitor, and the hinge is strong enough to keep the camera in place at a wide range of vertical angles. The Pro Webcam can’t be turned left or right, just like the UltraSharp Webcam.
On the bottom of the adjustable foot is a place to mount a tripod. It connects to your computer or hub using USB-A, so it might not work with devices that only have USB-C ports. The Pro Webcam is cheaper than the UltraSharp model because it gives up a few features.
The webcam can record video at up to 2K QHD (2,560 by 1,440) resolution at 24 or 30 frames per second, or at 1080p or 720p at up to 60 frames per second, with a field of view of 65 or 78 degrees, depending on the setting. It can’t record 4K video and can’t be seen from 90 degrees like the UltraSharp, but those are reasonable trade-offs.
The Pro Webcam has a microphone, which the UltraSharp doesn’t have. When making video calls, you don’t have to buy a separate microphone, use a headset, or rely on the microphone on your computer. The camera’s mic picks up voices clearly, but it sometimes picks up echo and doesn’t sound as good as a dedicated USB microphone.
Dell Pro Webcam: Image Quality
The design of the Dell Pro Webcam isn’t really why you’d want to buy it. It’s because of how good the pictures are and how smart it is. When you set up the Dell Peripheral Manager that comes with the computer, you’ll look your best on your web calls. One thing I liked about the Dell UltraSharp 4K webcam is that it works well with both dim and bright light.
On sunny days, my webcam feed is often too bright and blown out because a window is behind me. Most of the time, I don’t mess with the lighting or try to fix the problem by closing blinds or moving curtains. Instead, I let the webcam do it for me. But the Dell Pro Webcam can do the same thing, and it costs a lot less.
The HDR support and software can make you look good in any lighting situation, so the image quality is very good. Most of my sample pictures show me looking sharp, clear, and crisp, and the resolution is so good that I could even point out the dust on my Mets hat.
But the Dell Pro Webcam can do the same thing, and it costs a lot less. The HDR support and software can make you look good in any lighting situation, so the image quality is very good. Most of my sample pictures show me looking sharp, clear, and crisp, and the resolution is so good that I could even point out the dust on my Mets hat.
The webcam got the best picture in the last one. It was taken in the evening, when it was getting darker and I had turned off the lights in my room. I also had autofocus and AI auto-framing on, and the settings were changed so that exposure was the most important thing. This image has the least noise and was evenly lit, showing that the webcam can work in low-light settings.
Performance and video quality
One of the most interesting things about the Dell Pro Webcam is that it can supposedly shoot in 2K, which is a big step up from the 1080p standard that most webcams in 2022 use. I had a hard time finding footage that showed that 2K claim to be true.
First of all, you can’t see any of the details you might expect from a 2K stream. The Pro Webcam’s footage, on the other hand, has a softer look because the device focuses more on getting the right colors than on getting the fine details. The Dell Pro Webcam does a good job of keeping everything bright enough so that people on the other end of the call won’t say they can’t see you.
This is especially true when HDR mode is turned on. Even when I turned off the lights in my home office, the Pro Webcam still gave me a sense of being separate from what was behind me.
The main problem with the Dell Pro Webcam, though, is that it makes a lot of noise when it’s being used to film. The amount of noise onscreen will depend on how much light you have, but I couldn’t get rid of it completely in almost every situation, and it wasn’t long before I longed for the much better, but more expensive, Insta360 Link.
When I tried out the noise reduction microphone on the webcam, I had a better time. The mic does a pretty good job, as its name suggests, of focusing on your voice and blocking out background noise. If you want crystal clear audio, though, I’d recommend getting a dedicated mic instead.
Dell Pro Webcam: Price and availability
At the time of this writing, the Dell Pro Webcam is on sale at Dell.com for $99. You can buy it today for $134.99. The Dell UltraSharp 4K, which costs $199.99 or $189.99 when on sale, is a slightly more expensive version of this webcam. You can find this one at Dell.com and other places like Amazon.
Final Words
The Dell Pro Webcam has a high-quality build that makes it one of the most stylish webcams on the market. It’s clear that it wants to be great, but its overall performance keeps it from being great.
Even though it says it can record in 2K, the footage isn’t very polished and there’s way too much noise, even in brighter places. If you want a high-end webcam that doesn’t let you down, you should choose the Insta360 Link.
FAQs
Is Dell Webcam good?
The Dell Pro Webcam is a very good webcam with a 2K resolution. It has a lot of smart features, such as AI Auto framing and noise reduction, and the Sony Starvis Sensor makes the pictures look great.
What quality webcam do I need?
The sharpness of a webcam is limited by how many pixels its sensor can resolve. 1080p is a pretty standard resolution for a good webcam, but a 4K webcam is what we recommend if you really want to improve your picture quality (or crop your frame and keep it sharp).