OBSBOT Tiny 4K Webcam Review: ‘Impressive Auto-tracking in 4K’

OBSBOT TINY 4K WEBCAM REVIEW FOR PC AND MAC.

Following the boom in people working from home, taking up livestreaming as a hobby, and just generally staying inside more often, webcams have become an incredibly popular tool for many. Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen webcams focus on a high-quality 4K output, higher frame rates to pair with high-speed games, and other features/gimmicks. Now OBSBOT is here with its latest webcam offering and it boasts some unique “AI-powered” functionality that is well worth your attention. This is the OBSBOT Tiny 4K webcam review.

Out of the box

The OBSBOT Tiny 4K webcam is well-packaged, which is good for a higher-end webcam as first impressions mean a lot. The box includes a manual, a nifty carrying case, a USB cable, an additional power cable for low-power USB support, a magnetic mount, and the camera itself. It’s nice to have everything included in the box, especially the better-than-you’d-expect case.

Buy the OBSBOT Tiny 4K webcam on Amazon

Setting up the camera is as easy as plugging it into a USB port and installing the software to customize settings. In addition to changing how the camera image looks with the expected brightness, saturation, contrast, etc. sliders, there’s also the HDR toggle. This is supposed to increase the dynamic range to bring out more detail from darker and brighter areas, but I actually preferred the non-HDR image in dimly lit conditions. However, your mileage may vary.

The HDR mode is joined by the auto-focus, 4x digital zoom (instead of 2x), and increased resolution as improvements over the previous OBSBOT Tiny model.

Tracking you down

Of course, it’s the AI Tracking that’s the main star of the show here. This sees the camera twist around to face you. In my small office, I could walk around the whole place with the OBSBOT continuing to track me and keep me in focus. It is incredibly impressive and unlike anything I’ve seen on other webcams.

I can see the AI Tracking feature coming in useful for those who teach in online classes, have meetings where they are standing up and showing different items, or game streamers who want to get up and dance to celebrate wins. For anyone who isn’t just sitting in a chair for the entire conference or stream, there’s a lot of potential here.

Gesture controls

In addition to the AI tracking, users can use gestures to set tracking targets and zoom in/out. Though there’s a bit of a learning curve in getting the gestures to work flawlessly every single time, I was ultimately impressed by how the camera could see the gestures over a decent distance away.

When it comes to streaming games, which is what I primarily use my webcam for, I mostly sit at a desk and rarely move. However, for those times when I want to stand up and stretch, or unbox something on stream, it’s nice to have the webcam continue to focus on me without worrying about staying in the shot. It’s very much like having your own camera operator and I think a lot of creative types will benefit from this feature.

OBSBOT Tiny 4K Webcam Review: The final verdict

At $270, the OBSBOT Tiny 4K Webcam obviously has a premium price tag that puts it significantly above popular high-end choices like the AVerMedia Live Streamer Cam 513 and Elgato Facecam. What’s more, the image quality isn’t quite as good as those options.

Though buyers would have to make a slight compromise to overall visual quality, the impressive auto-tracking at 4K is going to be worth it to some. It’s a niche option, for sure, but its main party trick is implemented exceptionally well and I’m sure many users will love that.

Tiny 4K Webcam review unit was provided by OBSBOT.