The Konftel Cam10 might not be a well-known name immediately, but it certainly has all the proper ingredients to form it one among the simplest webcams currently available on the market – especially for anyone looking to form sustainable hardware choices.
In fact, the most important criticism we will provides it is that the eye-watering tag of $130 / £120 / around AU$170, which sadly makes it an unaffordable choice for many folk looking for a basic webcam which will see them through the workday. Which may be a real shame, because the Konftel Cam10 is great at the fundamentals. the general design is analogous to other webcams: a horizontal bar-shaped camera that sits atop your computer or laptop display, with a mattified black plastic theme.
The build quality is solid and hard to scratch, so dropping it or transporting it around during a laptop bag shouldn’t convince be a problem. The 1080p resolution is fairly standard for many webcams now and 30 frames-per-second (or FPS) is quite adequate for smooth video across most applications like Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
While the microphones built into most webcams usually leave something to be desired, the twin mics on the Konftel Cam10 are quite sufficient. we might still suggest employing a decent USB microphone or combi-headset to avoid echo, but regardless, the audio is obvious enough for casual conversations.
You’re also getting a couple of quality of life features like an inbuilt privacy filter, which is toggled via a physical turn on the highest of the webcam, and therefore the ability to use the Cam10 with a standard tripod stand if required. The cable is unfortunately integrated with the device and can’t be removed, but it does use the widely-available USB-A type connection and measures around 60-inches (150cm) long.
A nice touch not usually included in webcams marketed outside of a streaming environment is that the wide 90-degree field of view, allowing much wider shots of your office if you would like to incorporate quite one individual on the decision.
This also makes it a viable choice for streamers looking to incorporate more background in their videos, but you’ll find the shortage of other features relevant to platforms like Twitch or YouTube a tad frustrating, especially given you’ll buy something just like the Logitech StreamCam or Razer Kiyo for alittle additional sum.
In fact, the Logitech C920 (one of the simplest selling webcams of the last decade) is currently $90 / £90 / AU$136 – which is technically a price that was inflated during the webcam shortage created by the Covid-19 pandemic – and still manages to be a cheaper purchase than the Konftel Cam10.
Konftel also doesn’t sell the Cam10 directly on its own website, so you will need to travel to an inventory of approved retailers, which suggests there is no guarantee you will find it at MSRP.
This high price might be explained by Konftel’s great environmental ethos given most products in its catalog are certified in line with the Climate Neutral standard, with even webcam’s packaging being constructed from minimalistic recycled cardboard.
We love the thought that the upper selling price is to offset things like greenhouse emission emissions but there’s not anything to obviously justify the value of the device.