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redmi-note-10-pro-review:-the-unbeatable-budget-phone?

Redmi Note 10 Pro review: The unbeatable budget phone?

(Pocket-lint) – Redmi is fast becoming a key disruptor in the affordable phones market. The company’s Note 10 Pro, as reviewed here, makes it clear to see why: it’s dripping with specification that puts it a cut above its nearest of competition.

The brand name might not be instantly recognisable to all – Redmi is an offshoot of Xiaomi, hence no surprise the Note 10 Pro is like a watered-down Xiaomi Mi 11 in many respects – but when affordability is your main goal, and it simply functions as well as this, that’s not going to be a major barrier.

So if you’re seeking a phone that costs around a couple of hundred, is the Redmi Note 10 Pro appealing enough to knock the likes of the Motorola G30 out of contention?

Design & Display

  • 6.67-inch AMOLED display, 1080 x 2400 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate
  • Finishes: Onyx Gray, Glacier Blue, Gradient Bronze
  • Dimensions: 164 x 76.5 x 8.1mm / Weight: 193g
  • Side-mounted fingerprint scanner
  • IP53 splashproof design
  • 3.5mm headphone jack

Upon pulling the Redmi Note 10 Pro from its box – here in “Onyx Gray”, which has a soft, almost blue hue about it – it’s comes across as a pretty good-looking slab of glass and plastic. There’s Gorilla Glass 5 to protect the front, and not a mass of bezel cutting into the screen either.

What is cutting into that screen more prominently than most is the punch-hole camera. It’s not even the scale of it – it’s a smaller diameter than you’ll find on recent Motorola handsets, for example – but because it’s got a silvery, shiny ring that can catch light and is a bit distracting. We’d rather it was pushed to the left side, more out of sight, and darkened please.

The Note 10 Pro’s rear is plastic, but not in a budget-looking way. Indeed it catches fingerprints in a similar fashion to glass, but it’s easy enough to wipe clean. And Redmi has chosen some pretty classy colour options too – none of the “Pastel Sky” (read: pink and mud-green) nonsense that Motorola opted for with the G30.

The only bother of the rear is that protruding camera bump. Not only is it large, it’s off-centre and, therefore, the phone wobbles about all over the place when laid upon a desk. Not that the main goal of a phone is to use it flat on a desk – you’ll normally have it in the hand – but it’s still a bugbear. A different camera enclosure would have negated this little aspect of the design.

The Note 10 Pro’s side-mounted fingerprint scanner is very neatly integrated, though, and we’ve found it to function very rapidly for logins. There’s also face unlock by using that front-facing camera, should you prefer. Oh, and if you’re still part of the wired headphones gang then the 3.5mm jack will prove a point of appreciation for you too.

And so to the screen. This is one aspect of the phone that really helps to sell it for a number of reasons. First, it’s large, at 6.67-inches on the diagonal. But, more important than that, it’s got a Full HD+ resolution that puts it a step beyond many of its near competitors. Motorola, for example, has dropped to just HD+ in its lower-end Moto G family (so around 50 per cent fewer pixels).

The Note 10 Pro’s screen is AMOLED based, too, meaning it can have an always-on display activated – which illuminates the edges in a subtle fashion when there’s a notification, as one example – for visuals to be available without actively needing to turn the display on.

That screen tech also means deep blacks, while colour is decent. As the software allows a brightness selection for night use we’ve not found the auto-brightness to be of any bother here either – which is refreshing, as it’s been a pain in basically every other MIUI software-based handset of recent times.

The other big feature of this screen is that it offers a 120Hz refresh rate. The theory here is that it can run at double the rate – 120 refreshes per second – to give a smoother visual experience. That can often be the case, too, just not in every single aspect of use. That’s the oddity of higher refresh rates: if you don’t have the hardware-software combination to handle it, then it’ll come a cropper. Thankfully it’s not too bad here, but there are some moments where the ultra-smooth swiping in, say, the Photos app gets stuttery when moving over to a different app instead.

Faster refresh is one of those nice-to-haves, sure, but 120Hz it’s not on by default – and even when you do go to activate it, MIUI describes it as a “medium” level refresh. It’s “low” for 60Hz, apparently, despite that being perfectly fine. And, um, there is no “high” – so the scale doesn’t make huge amount of sense. But it’s all a distraction really, from what’s an otherwise perfectly decent screen.

Performance & Battery

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 732G platform, 6GB RAM
  • 5,020mAh battery, 33W fast-charging
  • MIUI 12 software (over Android 11)

Even with the 120Hz refresh rate activated, the Redmi Pro doesn’t suffer from limited battery life. We’ve been using the phone for the week prior to the launch event as our own device – and in that time there’s usually 50 per cent battery remaining by bedtime. That’s 16 hours a time, so it’s on the edge of being a two-day laster.

The battery capacity is large, which is part of the reason for this longevity, but there’s also the instance of the processor and software combination. With Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 732G platform under the hood the Redmi hits that sweetspot of reasonable performance, limits overheating, and there’s no 5G possibility to grind it down either.

As chipsets go, the SD732 is capable of handling multiple apps, including games without particular graphical insufficiencies, meaning whether you want to run Zwift on your phone, dabble in a bit of PUBG Mobile, or hit some South Park: Phone Destroyer, it’s all within the Redmi Note 10’s reach.

The only slight stutters – and we mean very slight – tend to appear when jumping between apps. That’s when you can visually see a lowering of the frame-rate, hence the question over whether 120Hz is actually all that important here.

Running everything is Xiaomi’s MIUI 12 software, skinned over the top of Google’s Android 11 operating system. We’ve had very mixed experiences with this software in the recent past – with the Xiaomi Mi 11 it was limiting, in the Poco M3 it was irksome – but, oddly, in the Redmi Note 10 it’s caused us no significant issues. We’ve previously criticised Xiaomi’s software for being wildly inconsistent between devices (sometimes even on the same software version), but at least the Redmi gets the upper hand here.

That said, MIUI 12 does need some ‘training’, if you like. By default it battery limits every app, which you need to dig into in individual settings to rectify and ensure there’s no issue with limiting what an app can do and when, or how much power it can or can’t use in the background. However, even with the default option selected we’ve not had notification delays like we did have with the Xiaomi Mi 11. So there’s greater stability here.

In the past there’s been criticism for targeted ads in Xiaomi software, but that’s no proven a bother in this Redmi setup either. Yes, there’s still a separate Xiaomi store in addition to Google Play – which sometimes means apps will update from one, some from the other – but it’s enough in the background and out of the way that you basically needn’t worry about it.

So while we’d usually be criticising the software experience as the thing to hold a MIUI handset back, the Redmi Note 10 Pro actually fares well. In combination with its hardware loadout that makes for a generally smooth experience, too, plus a long-lasting one. Can’t say much better than that.

Cameras

  • Quad rear camera system:
    • Main: 108-megapixel, 1/1.52in sensor size (2.1um pixel size), f/1.9 aperture,
    • Wide (118-degree field of view): 8MP, f/2.2
    • Macro: 5MP, f/2.4, autofocus
    • Depth: 2MP, f/2.4
  • Punch-hole front-facing camera:
    • 16-megapixel, f/2.45 aperture

In terms of cameras the Redmi Note 10 Pro features what it calls a quad rear setup. That’s a bit of a stretch, really, as the depth sensor isn’t really needed or useful at all. And the ultra-wide angle isn’t the best of quality. But that’s most of the bad news out of the way.

The 5-megapixel macro sensor that’s on board is, just like that of the Mi 11, rather good fun. It’s not wildly accurate with autofocus, but at least it offers some. And sharpness isn’t pristine either – but it’s far better than what we’ve seen from umpteen lower-resolution so-called macro sensors on other phones.

The real take-way of the setup, however, is the 108-megapixel camera. If you can really consider it as that. While most makers use a four-in-one pixel methodology to gather more information and produce an image a quarter the size of the headline resolution, this Redmi goes with a nine-in-one pixel method. That means you’ll get 12-megapixel results as standard instead.

By using these nine pixels – think of it as a three by three row in a square – there’s the prospect of adding lots of comparison, more colour data, all of which can be processed into a sharp looking shot. Even in low-light conditions the Redmi Note 10 Pro’s results hold up well. We’ve been impressed.

There are limits though. As there’s no optical image stabilisation here, you’ll need a steady hand. And the Night Mode – which uses long exposure to combine multiple frames into one ‘brighter’ shot – doesn’t work well as a result. Without the stabilisation here things just don’t line-up well, making for soft, ‘mushy’ results. MIUI

No, there’s no zoom lens, so you don’t get any optical zoom fanciness, and the camera app is a bit compartmentalised in its approach, but the overall take-away from the Redmi Note 10 Pro’s camera is that the main lens delivers a lot from an affordable device. You could do a lot worse elsewhere.

First Impressions

As we said up top, Redmi is becoming a key disruptor in the affordable phone market. The Note 10 Pro makes it clear to see why: this device doesn’t just have a decent specification, it comes good on delivery too.

There’s more resolution here than on close rival Motorola handsets, the software is more stable than we’ve seen from other MIUI 12 handsets (although Motorola’s approach is clearly better), and that main 108-megapixel camera is most capable unit (although it does output at 12MP by default).

The shortcomings are only few and far between – that punch-hole camera is weird, the lack of optical stabilisation is a shame, and the camera bump (which causes ‘desk wobble’) jars somewhat – making the Redmi Note 10 Pro the most accomplished affordable phone we’ve yet seen in 2021.

Also consider

Moto G30

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Motorola always delivers better on software experience – and it’s the same here – but you’ll have to accept a lower-level processor and less attractive overall design as part of this otherwise well-priced budget handset.

  • Read our review

Writing by Mike Lowe.

moto-g30-review:-low-price-but-all-high-praise?

Moto G30 review: Low-price but all high praise?

(Pocket-lint) – Motorola is really, really good at making affordable phones. That, ultimately, is its bread and butter. So when, for 2021, it decided to rejig its Moto G family – although not by much, it now takes on a bigger-number-equals-better-features approach – the arrival of the Moto G30 looked like a familiar success story.

But with the Moto G10 appearing alongside it, at a slightly lower price and slightly watered-down spec, is the G30 the obvious winner? With a more powerful processor and faster refresh-rate screen being more or less the only differences, we’d say so – especially if you’re looking for an outright buy for the £/$180 mark – but what shortcomings might you expect?

Design & Display

  • Display: 6.5-inch LCD, HD+ resolution (720 x 1600), 90Hz refresh rate
  • Finish options: Phantom Black, Pastel Sky
  • Build: Glass front, plastic frame and rear
  • 3.5mm headphone jack
  • Rear fingerprint sensor

As you can see from the specification skinny listed above, Motorola has got, um, ‘creative’ with its colour palette offerings. The model you see here on review is called Pastel Sky. That’s a totally non-descript duo of words for describing any colourway, really, and perhaps that’s for the best – because the two-tone mud-green and sparkly-pink that is its reality is, frankly, ghastly to the eyes.

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Pop a case of the G30 and you needn’t break a sweat though – although the one in the box is translucent though (uh oh). Or just buy the Phantom Black model so you won’t need to hide it from any curious onlookers (they won’t be thieves, that we can assure).

From the front, however, the Moto G30 cuts a familiar standard. The bezel around the screen is kept reasonably minimal. The teardrop notch to the top – where the selfie camera lives – is neatly done. By default the Android 11 software offers gesture navigation, so there’s not too much invading the bottom edge of the screen either.

Pocket-lint

Plus, Motorola being knowledgeable of what people want in this category, the G30 comes complete with a 3.5mm headphone jack, an on-board microSD card slot for expanding storage, and a neatly integrated fingerprint scanner to the rear that’s well positioned this time around (that wasn’t the case for the G9 Power). There’s even a Google Assistant button – hence the trio of buttons to the side – to play nice with Android 11 and voice commands, if you so wish.

As we pointed out up top of this review, the G30 comes equipped with a 90Hz refresh rate screen. That betters the 60Hz panel of the Moto G10. Which sounds all well and good – because that’s a 50 per cent improvement in cycles per second, for a smoother visual experience – but, actually, it would have made more sense for this model to have featured extra resolution.

Pocket-lint

While the HD+ panel here is totally fine – you’re not going to lose an eyeball due to any jaggies – given the total power available it can’t always keep up to speed with its 90Hz refresh logic. So, we say, resolution over refresh rate would have been the better shout.

Motorola has got better with managing brightness, too, so although auto-dimming is still relatively dog-with-a-stick keen, you won’t feel as though a dark veil has unnecessarily shrouded your smartphone world. Colours remain perky too.

Performance & Battery

  • Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 platform, 4GB RAM
  • 128GB storage, microSD expansion slot
  • 5,000mAh battery, 20W fast-charging
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  • Android 11 software

Which leads us to the innards of this phone. There’s a Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 platform on board here, along with 4GB RAM, which is a couple of steps down the Qualcomm ladder (800 series at the top, 700 series is still used in many flagships, so this is the next in the line-up).



Best smartphones 2021: The top mobile phones available to buy today


By Chris Hall
·

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That processor choice is why, hands down, the G30 makes a lot more sense to buy than the G10 (which has a Snapdragon 460). Not just because of the logic of smaller-number-must-be-worse thinking, but because of the practicalities in use.

For example: we had a G10 hang when opening Google Photos and then crash. The G30 hung around a bit, sure, but wasn’t totally gazumped by the experience, and eventually clicked into play and was on its merry little way.

Gaming, too, gets the upper hand from that better platform: yes, there are some slight pauses or stutters from time to time, but it’s not constant, meaning the G30 is good enough to dedicate to some medium level tasks. It’s got us through South Park: Phone Destroyer battles and even connected Zwift cycling sessions. We just don’t think the G10, by comparison, can offer the same quality of experience.

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As is often the case at this price point you don’t get the fastest ever storage or Wi-Fi systems available, so downloads and installs will take a little longer than some devices higher up the flagship food chain. In isolation you won’t notice it though.

The choice of that processor also plays very nicely with the large-capacity 5,000mAh battery that’s on board. We’ve found the Moto G30 to push through a day – with several hours of screen time, some of which has been gaming – and still be at half empty (no, not half full) by bedtime.

Indeed, as we write this review it’s sat with 20 per cent remaining after 28 hours of not seeing a plug socket. So it’s a borderline two-day phone, especially if you’re fairly light with use (which we are not).

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In terms of software, there’s Google’s Android 11 on board. That’s backed up by just the one auto-installed Moto app, adding some handy tips, display, gestures, and gaming controls. It’s worth playing around with these settings, whether to enable a do-not-disturb during a gaming session, or for the screen to remain on when you’re looking at it. It’s not an intrusive app, just a nice little bonus.

Android 11 does default to gesture navigation though, which may be new to you. It involves swiping in different directions to perform different tasks and, as a system, can be decent – but can feel a little laggy in the Moto G30, presumably the result of available power. Here we’ve been happier to live with on-screen Android softkey navigation instead.

Cameras

  • Quad rear cameras:

    • Main: 64-megapixels, f/1.7 aperture, 0.7um pixel size, phase-detection autofocus (PDAF)
    • Ultra-wide (118-degrees): 8MP, f/2.2, 1.12um
    • Macro: 2MP, f/2.4
    • Depth: 2MP, f/2.4
  • Front-facing punch-hole selfie camera:
    • 13-megapixels, f/2.2 aperture, 1.12um pixel size

The Moto G30’s rear camera protrusion isn’t to excess; it’s a neat bump to the upper corner on the rear. Despite this small scale it houses four cameras within – a 64-megapixel main, 8MP ultra-wide, and pair of 2MP sensors for depth measurement and macro close-ups.

Pocket-lint

Sadly, however, the case for four cameras comes under the same scrutiny as so many other phones over-selling the numbers for the sake of it. The depth sensor has no real use, the macro sensor is basically a write-off – images are small, quality is poor, and colour balance all over the place – and even, in this instance, the wide-angle camera’s quality is questionable.

Yikes. That’s three out of four down, then. But, fear not, the main camera’s output on the G30 is pretty decent. The camera app is rather slow, mind, on account of the overall processing power, but with some artificial intelligence (AI) smarts aiding with scene detection – you can see the colour balance, saturation and enhancements pop into view after a little delay – shots in good light retain enough clarity.

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Don’t expect computational photography prowess here as you may find elsewhere – the night mode, for example, is average and nothing like, say, Google’s excellent mode on the Pixel series – but there are enough automated modes, including HDR (high dynamic range) to help results along. Low-light isn’t this sensor’s best friend, but it’ll be able to deliver shots from the main sensor if you hold it nice and steady.

Verdict

Although the Moto G30 takes its share of criticism – three of the four cameras are poor (two a total write-off), the Pastel Sky finish is questionable (and that’s being kind) – in the interests of context there’s little else out there at this price point that can even compete.

So, really, the G30 is all about expectation. It delivers a lot for the money – and a generally smooth user experience thanks to Android 11 software – in a long-lasting package that can handle apps and games reasonably well too.

In many ways the presence of Motorola’s G10 makes the G30 all the more appealing – as for a little extra you get the step-up in processing power, which makes the performance ample enough to recommend it as the choice.

Rivals, such as Realme and Redmi, sometimes offer more in raw specification but – as we’ve so often found from use – they just can’t touch the Motorola when it comes to core software-based user experience. So the Moto G30 is solid is a rock when it comes to standing out on its own.

Also consider

Pocket-lint

Redmi Note 9

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It’s almost the same price, but brings a bump in resolution and some other features that might make it more attractive. However, as we’ve said already, the software experience just isn’t as fluid – with the Motorola running just that much better.

  • Read our review

Writing by Mike Lowe.

razer-kiyo-pro-webcam-review:-a-new-hardcore-standard

Razer Kiyo Pro Webcam Review: A New Hardcore Standard

Our Verdict

The Razer Kiyo Pro trades the original Kiyo’s ring light for HDR, a fancy light sensor and 1080p @ 60 fps recording, but you’ll pay a hefty premium for those features.

For

  • Light Sensor makes room lighting easier
  • HDR
  • 1080p @ 60 fps recording
  • Three different FOVs
  • Heavily customizable through software
  • Clear audio on microphone

Against

  • Costs as much as a 4K webcam
  • Doesn’t look its best out-of-the-box
  • Some features locked behind obtuse software

Razer hasn’t released a webcam since the original Razer Kiyo back in 2017, but with the pandemic has come a new demand for productivity tech. That demand has seen Razer veering outside of its typical hardcore gaming device lineup lately, with devices like the Razer Pro Click and Razer Book 13. And now it’s time for webcams to join the family. The Razer Kiyo Pro is the follow-up to the Kiyo, and with a new design that puts the Pro’s specs front and center and ditches the built-in ring light, it’s clear that it’s going for a more mature, less toyetic vibe.

Of course, the Razer Kiyo’s ring light didn’t just give it gamer style. It also gave it genuinely useful lighting to help make your face more visible in low light. But the Kiyo Pro’s approach is to instead use a light sensor, the Sony IMX327 CMOS with Starvis technology, which comes from surveillance cameras. When combined with the Kiyo Pro’s f2.0 aperture size, this sensor supposedly allows the camera to adjust its light capture to make sure your shots are perfectly lit without the need for a ring light.

There’s also plenty of brand new features on the Kiyo Pro, from a digitally adjustable field of view to HDR to the ability to record at 1080p @ 60fps, that make it enticing to game streamers, office professionals and even amateur filmmakers alike. Alongside those features also comes a new $199 price tag, though, which far eclipses both the $99 Razer Kiyo and the $79 Logitech C920 that we currently recommend as the best webcam for most people. Do those features make the new price worth it, or is this a niche luxury?

Out-of-the-Box Image Quality of Razer Kiyo Pro 

Much of the Razer Kiyo Pro’s customizability lies buried away in the Razer Synapse software, but Razer told me on a video call that it’s also proud of the device’s plug and play ability. That’s probably because, as the company told me, it’s hoping to attract more than gamers to the Kiyo Pro, and Razer Synapse still has a certain…Mountain Dew and Doritos vibe to it.

So to test Razer’s claims, I compared its out-of-the-box functionality against the best 1080p webcam I have on hand, the Logitech C920. As usual, I took my test shots in standard mid-day lighting conditions, low light conditions and overexposed conditions.

Logitech C920

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Razer Kiyo Pro

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

In my room’s usual lighting conditions, the Kiyo Pro’s out-of-the-box shots look significantly warmer than the Logitech’s. While the Logitech renders its shots a little on the cooler end of the spectrum than I’d like, I would say that the way I look on the C920 is probably more true-to-life than the somewhat uncomfortably tanner appearance I have on the Razer Kiyo Pro. 

However, shots were also plenty detailed, with the Kiyo Pro capturing arguably more texture information than the C920 and not displaying any noticeable grain. The warmth is also nowhere near as aggressive as I’ve seen on cheaper competitors. The camera’s default wide-angle field of view also showed off more of my background than the Logitech C920’s, although it also warped around the edges like a fish eye lens.

Logitech C920

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Razer Kiyo Pro

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

You could really see the Kiyo Pro’s light sensor at work when I closed my room’s blinds and turned off all light sources except for my main computer monitor. While the Logitech captured my face, almost everything else was bathed in shadow. Meanwhile, the Kiyo Pro brightened up my background to display color information that’s imperceptible in the Logitech’s photos. While both cameras’ shots are on the grainy and harsh end of the spectrum, I wouldn’t believe you if you told me that the Kiyo Pro shot was taken in a lampless room with the curtains drawn. It’s here that the Kiyo Pro makes it clear that losing its ring light doesn’t leave it weaker than its older sibling (although I do wonder what could be done if the light sensor were combined with a ring light).

Logitech C920

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Razer Kiyo Pro

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Finally, I tested the Razer Kiyo Pro in both highly-lit and overexposed conditions, where I pointed the camera directly at or close to my window. Normally, this test is where most cameras show their weaknesses, and while the Kiyo Pro somewhat followed that trend, I was impressed by what I got out of it.

Finding a good angle to take these shots can be difficult, and I often end up just holding the camera and adjusting it in my hand until I find the least blurry position I can. But the Kiyo can be tilted to the side when mounted to a monitor, which gave me such a great 3/4 angle shot of myself that I couldn’t not include it in this review. But even beyond the ease of use, the Kiyo Pro’s light sensor again showed its strengths here. While the handheld shots I took with it suffered the same out-of-focus, blurry issues as my handheld Logitech shots, the Kiyo Pro had no issue depicting what was outside my window rather than the standard sheet of white I’m used to seeing when pointing webcams out of windows.

That’s an impressive feat, and while the Kiyo Pro can still definitely suffer when not lined up perfectly with a naturally lit window, it makes it much more appealing to those working in brightly-lit environments or even considering using the Kiyo Pro to take outdoor shots.

Razer Synapse Software and the Kiyo Pro  

While I was impressed by how well the Kiyo Pro handled low-light and heavily lit environments, I still didn’t love the out-of-the-box shots I got of my room in what I would consider normal lighting conditions. They were too warm for me, and the fish-eye effect on the edge of the shots was too distracting. However, this is where the Kiyo Pro’s software comes into play, which is a first for me in my webcam reviews.

Being a Razer product, the Kiyo Pro is fully compatible with Razer Synapse, which rather than adjusting the webcam’s nonexistent RGB lighting, adjusts settings like brightness, contrast, saturation and white balance. You can also use Synapse to toggle between HDR and SDR capture, swap from autofocus to a digital manual focus and select from 3 different fields of view (80 degrees, 90 degrees and 103 degrees, which are dubbed Linear, Medium and Wide).

To get you started, there are four built-in presets (default, cool, vibrant and warm) as well as a custom mode and an advanced settings tab with even more options. 

While some of these customization options, like brightness and white balance, will look familiar to anyone who’s used OBS to apply post processing to a webcam image, I found that Razer’s post processing tended to look more natural than what I’ve gotten from other encoders. For instance, the brightness slider in Synapse appears to light up the area behind my back, while the brightness slider in OBS looks evenly applied across the image.

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The OBS post processing was also far more aggressive on the Logitech C920 than either the Razer Synapse or OBS post processing was on the Kiyo Pro.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

After toying with the presets enough, I found that the vibrant preset was closer to what I would have liked from the out-of-the-box photos. Here, I struck a good balance between warm and cold colors that looked both realistic and flattering, and when combined with a different field of view option, finally gave me shots that I felt were capable of competing with the Logitech C920.

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

While I would have preferred not to dig through software to get these shots, I recognize that photography is subjective and different people will have different tastes and needs. It’s helpful to be able to customize your images to your liking. But this is where I might suggest Razer build its own app for the Kiyo Pro, as only a certain clientele is likely to consider adjusting a webcam in Razer Synapse, and the only indication that so many features are locked behind Synapse is a short sentence at the end of the device’s 2 page instructions.

That’s a shame, because while Synapse support complete with manual focus has come to the original Kiyo since its launch, the Kiyo Pro has additional features beyond post-processing not present on the original device that are locked behind the app, like its HDR toggle and its multiple fields of view. These are big, back-of-the-box selling points, and it strikes me as odd that the camera’s packaging and instructions tone down how I actually access them.

Special Features of The Razer Kiyo Pro

There are a couple of special features on the Kiyo Pro that everyone will get access to right off the bat, like its light sensor and its wide angle lens. But hidden inside its software is the ability to swap to a different field of view (the 80 and 90 degree options eliminate the fish eye effect that you’ll see on out-of-the-box Kiyo Pro photos), enable HDR recording and even swap from autofocus to a manual digital zoom. The Kiyo Pro has yet another special feature, though, which you’ll need to turn on in whatever recording software you use.

That feature is 1080p at 60 fps recording. While not necessary for telecommuting, photography or even most prerecorded video work, this feature hearkens back to Razer’s roots as a gaming peripheral maker. Though not considered necessary, some game streamers prefer to record their facecams at 60 fps to match their gameplay footage. This isn’t to capture high-octane real life stunts, but rather so that their viewers don’t get disoriented from looking at two different frame rates at the same time.

Again, you’ll have to activate this feature in your recording software. I chose OBS, and was able to turn it on by clicking on my “video capture device” tab and changing my fps to 60 in a drop down menu. 

It’s important to note that any HDR recording will not work at 60 fps.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The 60 fps recording was plenty noticeable once it was on, and to my eyes, was about as smooth as 60 fps video game footage. I wasn’t able to stream using a live service due to embargo, but I did save several 60 fps recordings to my PC, and the frame rate carried over to them without raising the file size or presenting any noticeable loss in image quality due to file compression.

Speaking of compression, Razer advertises that the Kiyo Pro has “uncompressed 1080p 60fps” video, which we’re assuming means it feeds uncompressed video to your recording software. Otherwise, you’d fill up your hard drive or eat up your internet bandwidth very quickly. This seemed to be the case for me at least, as OBS still prompted me to compress my video footage when saving.

We’ve reached out to Razer to see what exactly the company means by “uncompressed,” and will update this review if we hear back.

Build Quality of the Razer Kiyo Pro

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The Razer Kiyo Pro is a solidly built, hefty and modular device that feels pleasant in the hand and looks premium despite the use of hard plastic in its shell as opposed to metal. It also doesn’t have any aggressive Razer branding, aside from the company’s name being emblazoned on the front and an uncolored version of its hydra logo being hidden away on the webcam’s monitor mount. That kind of restraint has been rare from Razer in the past but is becoming more common as it breaks further into the productivity hardware space. That leaves the camera’s usability to shine here, and the Kiyo Pro is a plenty usable device.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The actual webcam component of the Kiyo Pro is connected to its monitor mount through a screw, meaning that you can unscrew it to place it directly onto a tripod or any other mount. That’s convenient for anyone planning not to use the Kiyo Pro on a monitor, but the monitor mount is still impressive in itself. It can swivel completely downward and about 5 degrees upward, plus the screw mount holding the webcam in place makes it easy to twist the camera from side to side. There’s a flathead screw bottom with an optional manual lever for tightening the screw as needed, as well as a tripod hole on the bottom of the monitor mount itself should you want to mount the webcam and tripod together in one piece.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The Kiyo Pro also connects to your device through a removable, 59 inch, braided USB-C cable that gave me plenty of room to work with. There’s also a separate cover that you can place over your webcam when it’s not in use, and an LED turns on at the top of the webcam when you’re recording.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Of note is the Kiyo Pro’s built-in omnidirectional microphone, which while not advertised on the box, was easily on par with the gaming headset boom mic from the Sennheiser Game One that I use as my daily driver.

The ring light from the original Kiyo is gone here, which some users might miss, both for usability and aesthetic purposes. However, that camera’s circular design remains here, and does give the Razer Kiyo Pro a charming and unique silhouette.

Bottom Line

The Razer Kiyo Pro is easily the most advanced webcam I’ve reviewed yet, but that doesn’t make it a great buy for every user. At $200, It’s also the most expensive webcam I’ve reviewed, and its much-touted HDR and 1080p @ 60 fps recording features will likely only appeal to a specific group of content creators. 

It also touts a new light sensor that’s genuinely impressive and will probably put you at ease if your recording environment is dark or inconsistently lit, but you’ll still probably need to tune that sensor’s results through post-processing software to be fully satisfied. 

For most people, cheaper cameras like the $79 Logitech C920 will do most of what the Razer Kiyo Pro does while cutting away what you don’t need. For amateur streamers, the original Razer Kiyo also has much of the same image quality and uniquely has a ring light that helps offset the loss of the Kiyo Pro’s light sensor by still effectively illuminating the face.

For the addition of $100, I’d hope that the Kiyo Pro would find a way to maintain the ring light Razer offers on the original Kiyo, as I have no doubt that it could work with the light sensor to produce impressive results. As it is, the Kiyo Pro is a strong contender, but unless you need multiple field of view options, heavily customizable post processing, HDR or 60 fps live action footage, you’ll be just fine pairing a cheaper alternative with modest external lighting solutions like well-placed lamps or LEDs.