AVerMedia PW515 4K Ultra HD Webcam Review: High Quality, High Functionality

With the PW515 4K Ultra HD Webcam, AVerMedia ships what claims to be the “World’s Most Intelligent 4K Webcam.” Nevertheless, with high quality comes expense. Right here, we’ll break down the PW515 so you may inform it aside from the competition.

Whereas visually unassuming, the PW515 is a swiss military knife of a webcam. It packs a middle-of-the-road microphone and stellar 4K Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor right into a glossy gray and black exterior. In case your workplace setup is missing a webcam, this can be a excellent place to start out.

Out Of the Field

The PW515 is available in a small cardboard field about as tall and huge because the webcam. Included inside, you’ll additionally discover a 2m (6.56ft) USB-A to USB-C cable. On the underside of the field’s lid is a useful little quickstart information. Establishing the PW515 is fairly self-explanatory—the rear of the digital camera has a transparent slot for the USB-C cable to connect with your laptop.

For mounting, you may both use the built-in common mounting clip or a quarter-inch threaded stand. Each the screw and clip mounts have protecting rubbery pads to forestall scratching. Sadly, it doesn’t include a desktop stand, so that you’ll must buy a quarter-inch stand individually to suit your wants.

The AVerMedia PW515 doesn’t really feel significantly extravagant; the digital camera itself is encased in an oblong, plastic exterior that appears and feels properly sufficient and appears decently sturdy. Nevertheless, for $249, I anticipated extra. It comes with an connected view blocker when not in use, however that’s so far as the bells and whistles go.

General, I’d say that the construct is completely serviceable. It’s not too spectacular however doesn’t appear like the form of finances webcam you’d discover on digital retailer cabinets, both. At somewhat over 5-inches huge, 2-inches deep, and 2-inches excessive, it’s wider than it’s tall. Sadly, the digital camera’s low peak makes it a bit irksome to make use of freestanding, so that you’ll need to clip it to your monitor or stand.

A Aggressive Digicam

The PW515 packs a mighty 4K Extremely HD digital camera that makes use of a 4K Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor, which mechanically brightens and filters noise to provide an astoundingly correct picture. This webcam has a large discipline of view at 100-degrees and, when tested on a Windows 10 PC, produced crisp, clear pictures even in low gentle.

RELATEDHow to Test Your Webcam on Windows 10 or 11

The colours really feel pure, and even when the PW515 captures in a darkish room, it retains issues surprisingly clear. It positively options some spectacular 3D noise discount; I needed to intentionally litter the picture with completely different gentle ranges and reflections to get the standard to dip. The PW515 tries to search out and focus in your face, so if you happen to’re sitting entrance and middle as you’ll in a convention name, you shouldn’t see any points. However if you happen to’re in a bigger, dimly lit house, issues begin to get muddier—even then it’s not by rather a lot.

Particularly spectacular is the way it does this while not having to open up additional software program. The PW515 does include AVerMedia’s CamEngine, however you’ll solely should work with it if you wish to customise your expertise. I discovered the default settings to work properly, however extra choices are at all times good to have.

AVerMedia’s CamEngine

AVerMedia’s CamEngine (accessible on Home windows and Mac) gives a primary host of choices with some wiggle room for extra skilled customers. Notably, this system is linked to AVerMedia’s free membership service, so some choices, particularly Digital Backgrounds and ePTZ (Digital Pan Tilt Zoom), are blocked off.

Whereas the membership doesn’t price something, these choices needs to be accessible to anybody who bought the product within the first place—particularly ePTZ. With out an account, you may’t modify your shot in any means. The PW515 can digitally pan, zoom, and tilt, however you gained’t have the ability to try this with out giving Avermedia extra of your info.

Except for that, you’ve all the pieces you’d anticipate finding: superb management over the main target, brightness, and structure of your webcam’s seize, together with a smattering of filters and backgrounds—the form of stuff you’d discover on Snapchat or any variety of video companies.

Whereas CamEngine is completely serviceable, companies like Zoom already present loads of the background choices you’ll discover right here. If you should create a two-screen structure in a pinch, CamEmgine is nice. However, as talked about earlier than, loads of the performance right here can be discovered within the video chat companies you’re going to be utilizing. So there’s some redundancy.

A Middling Microphone

The PW515 has a built-in microphone with acoustic noise discount, however it’s not spectacular. This mannequin makes use of twin omnidirectional stereo microphones, which suggests it’ll decide up noise from throughout it versus the house straight in entrance of it as a cardioid mic would. These audio system are discovered on high of the webcam.

For a webcam, a unidirectional microphone is most well-liked as a result of you’ll doubtless be sitting straight in entrance of it. With the omnidirectional microphone, your webcam will decide up any random noise outdoors your window.

The precise audio high quality is equally unimpressive. Voices come by means of compressed and considerably crunchy. It doesn’t really feel like an enormous bounce over the typical microphone, although even having one is a serious profit to those that want it.

AVerMedia PW515 4K Extremely HD Webcam: A Stable, Multipurpose Buy

When you’re out there for a high-quality net digital camera, the PW515 is a strong selection. The standard of the digital camera alone provides rather a lot to its worth, however it’s controversial that the addition of a microphone pushes its value a bit too excessive for individuals who don’t want one. Compatibility with each screens and digital camera stands is an enormous profit that goes an extended option to making certain it suits in your workplace.

It’s additionally absurdly low-hassle; simply join it to your laptop and it really works. The built-in firmware manages the picture properly sufficient, however if you happen to’re upset with the image for any motive, you may modify it your self by means of CamEngine 4.

As regards to negatives, the PW515’s clip isn’t the strongest. It could fall off of my monitor on occasion, and having to provide AVerMedia your info to unlock digital camera features is irritating however isn’t that massive of a problem.

Altogether, the AVerMedia PW515 is a high-quality net digital camera that won’t solely produce skilled, high-quality pictures but additionally serves as a good microphone. When you want a 4K webcam and don’t have already got a microphone, you’d do properly to choose this up.

xmlhttp.open("GET", 'https://px1.lifesavvy.com/rm/814976/' + to + '/feedbasket/' + htg, true); xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function() if (xmlhttp.readyState === 4) self.location = e.target.href;

xmlhttp.send();