Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 - Full Review and Benchmarks

Our Verdict

The Logitech Hard disk drive Pro Webcam C920 takes very clear photos and videos, which makes the photographic camera perfect for Skype chats and conferencing.

For

Sharp, clear photos and video
Long cord
Broad field of view

Laptop Mag Verdict

The Logitech Hard disk drive Pro Webcam C920 takes very articulate photos and videos, which makes the camera perfect for Skype chats and conferencing.

Pros

+
Abrupt, clear photos and video
+
Long cord
+
Wide field of view

With a picture show that's usually grainy and defective item, your laptop's integrated webcam really doesn't cutting it when y'all're streaming on Twitch, Skyping with grandma, or dialing into an important concern meeting. In those cases, we highly recommend the $60 Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920, an affordable external webcam that produces detailed video and photos, and that provides software to fine-tune the picture even further. If you lot're looking for a not bad camera with a wide field of view for chatting, videoconferencing and streaming, this is i of the best choices out there. All these bang-up features are why the Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 is rated number i on our listing of all-time webcams.

Design

Y'all can't miss the C920 when the blackness, chunky device is attached to your laptop or monitor. At its widest, the webcam is 3.7 inches. But all that bulkiness houses a 1080p photographic camera flanked on both sides by LEDs and microphones.

The photographic camera has an arm that hugs the back of your monitor or the lid of your laptop. The C920 also has a hinge to adjust the arm'southward length and a rubber foot to concur the device in place. I had no trouble mounting the C920 on both my piece of work laptop and external displays. If y'all'd rather not have the webcam positioned above the monitor, you can employ the built-in tripod mount to attach the camera to any stand you want.

A 6-foot USB cord hangs from the back of the webcam, which should provide more than than enough length to connect the device to your laptop or desktop.

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Picture and Sound Quality

Later using the Webcam C920, I'yard not sure how I'll ever go back to a crappy laptop webcam. When I took still photos of myself in our brightly lit labs and a pitch-dark, windowless room, I was astounded at the 5-megapixel (5168 x 2907) photographic camera's clarity, detail and color accuracy. In better-lit environments, such as nether the fluorescent lights at my desk, I could hands brand out private hairs on my head and stitches on my shirt.

The camera allows yous to video-conversation at 1080p (Logitech notes that the webcam can support Facetime for Mac only at 720p), and the videos that I recorded came out crystal-clear. The colors weren't every bit accurate as in the photos, and lights were a tad likewise bright, but you lot could however make out a ton of detail in my face and the surrounding room.

The C920's 78-caste field of view is more than plenty to squeeze a 2d person or large object into the frame. Nigh born laptop webcams capture only enough to testify a single person's trunk.

Logitech's business version of this camera, the $98 C930e, offers almost identical performance just has a 90-degree field of view and colors that are more vibrant but less accurate. A photo I took with the 930e made my light red shirt look more like a blood-red red. A cheaper, 720p photographic camera, the Logitech HD Webcam C310, was grainy in comparison and wasn't every bit sharp in low light.

Recorded with the C920's congenital-in microphones, the audio in my sample video was loud and clear, only a little flat. Though I recorded my chat in an open-office setting, in that location wasn't a ton of ambient noise from nearby co-workers. Even so, the C930e had superior noise cancellation, while the C310 didn't practise much to dampen groundwork noise.

Software

The C920 is compatible with Logitech'south Webcam Software for Windows. The company touts support for Mac OS X, Chrome Bone and Android, but those operating systems don't offer this plan. The app allows users to zoom in and out with the camera, too every bit pan left and right. If y'all use this at a desk-bound, you'll likely need to use it only once, but users on the go might notice themselves relying on these framing options more often.

The software features a number of backgrounds and avatars to add together a bit of fun to your videoconferencing. Y'all tin also use the C920 every bit security cam cheers to the motion-detection manner, which can come in handy if you want to keep an centre on your desk.

Unfortunately, I found the plan as a whole to be slow and buggy, hanging betwixt tasks like taking or viewing photos and videos. It occasionally crashed, as well. I quickly discovered that different models of Logitech photographic camera worked to varying degrees with the software. The cheaper Hard disk Webcam C310 can't apply face up masks, avatars or other special effects. The enterprise-focused Webcam C930e isn't designed to piece of work with the software; information technology refuses to accept photo or video at 1080p with the app's congenital-in recorder.

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Lesser Line

The Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920 is an outstanding replacement for your laptop'due south integrated webcam. It takes abrupt photos and videos, which makes information technology ideal for teleconferencing and streaming. It's piece of cake to ready on an external monitor or laptop screen, and information technology works well with Logitech's dedicated, albeit buggy, software.

If y'all want a amend audio experience, yous should consider the $98 Logitech Webcam C930e. This camera has meliorate racket counterfoil and wider viewing angles just doesn't work with the webcam software. All the same, with a street cost of only $sixty, the Logitech C920 is the best external webcam for the money and one of the best at any price.