Less Webcam And More Unwanted Ornament. (Labtec Webcam)

Member Name: boredindunoon

Product:	Labtec Webcam
Date:	16/07/09 (84 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Low Price, Easy To Set-Up & Use.

Disadvantages: Very Pure Picture Quality, No Built-In Microphone, Cheap Build Quality. Poor Stand.

I remember being in primary school when my mother bought me a new pair of trainers. She told me that they were "Nikes" and as I had never had a fashionable pair of trainers before I was really exited and looking forward to getting them. Sadly I soon discovered to my disappointment that she had in fact bought me a pair of "Nicks" which were cheaper, didn't look as good, last as long, and weren't as comfortable. At the time I was heart broken, and became ridiculed by my peers for having a rubbish pair of trainers. I imagine by now you're probably asking yourself what on Earth this has to do with the webcam I'm reviewing?

It's simple - a few days ago a friend told me that he bought me a new and really good Logitech webcam, maybe I offended him somehow because in fact he had got me the cheapest costing Labtec model that I know of. While the price and the fact that it was a Labtec and not a Logitech model alone wasn't enough at the moment to break my heart (again) I was soon to discover that in many ways Labtec was to disappoint me to the same degree that the Nicks trainers did all those years ago.

The biggest and most obvious failing to this webcam is the fact that the image quality on the camera is dire. Even at the now rather low resolution of 320x240 the picture looks very grainy and pixelated meaning you have to shrink the window down to the size of a thumbnail for anything half decent. Even the refresh rate is very slow, I could stand up and leave my chair, and it would take between three and five seconds for the camera to catch up with me. During the day the picture quality is rather dark in terms of brightness, and at night time regardless of how much artificial light you throw at it, the picture looks even worse and to be honest isn't even worth switching on. I would therefore forget attempting to take any still photos with this webcam.

The next disappointment came when I found out that this webcam doesn't have a built in microphone. No wonder it was so cheap, it means that you have to buy one separate and thus add to the cost and clutter on your computer desk. Thankfully I had a microphone that I could use along side for the time being. Sound quality is rather average, the clarity is perfectly acceptable at low volumes, but as soon at you touch that slider switch it degrades rapidly. While I can't be sure if this is down to having a poor and rather old microphone, or in fact is a result of the webcam, but I wouldn't advise splashing out on an expensive mike just in case it's the latter.

The webcam sits on an adjustable stand that for some reason only allows you to move it up and down and not left to right as well. A clear flaw as it means that you have to move the entire camera with you if your dare to move sideways.

Sadly the final and (I admit) rather shallow nail in the coffin for me was the design and build quality as it's cheap in both construction and in looks. It's so light that anytime the USB cable moves, it takes the camera with it. To me at least the dated and tasteless plastic body makes this something you would want to hide when not in use.

It wasn't all bad, the camera was quick and very easy to both setup and to use. It's just a matter of putting in the provided installation CD, following the onscreen instructions and then plugging in the camera. All of which only took a few minutes at most.

While this webcam is very cheap (usually less than five pounds) I can't really recommend this item to you based on that alone. At the end of the day I feel that this webcam fails in its primary task, and for a little more cash you can get something so much better, such as the Microsoft LifeCam VX-1000 for £11.99 (price from Amazon.co.uk) which is far superior and does have a built in microphone.

I have awarded this item two stars based mainly on the low cost and ease of use otherwise it would have been destined to that shamefully one star status.

(I'm a reviewer on Amazon, and some my reviews are copied from there to dooyoo. Please feel free to check out my Amazon profile under my real name of Mr Andrew M Kerr.)

Summary: Thanks For Reading.

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