Kensington W2000 webcam review: decent build, unflattering picture
The Kensington W2000 webcam is a budget to mid-range webcam that forms part of Kensington's Professional Video Conferencing ecosystem. It claims to be designed to help you "look your best on today's most popular video conferencing applications".
This webcam offers 1080p lens with a 65-degree field of view. It clips on the top of your computer or monitor and is a fairly lightweight and portable solution. But is it good enough to make it into our best webcam or best MacBook webcam lists? To test this webcam, I used it for all my video calls (roughly two a day) for three weeks or so. I tried it out perched on the top of my MacBook Air, as well as on top of my monitor, which doesn't contain an inbuilt webcam. I also compared it to the inbuilt webcam in my MacBook Air (M1, 2020).
Kensington W2000: Key specs
Kensington W2000: Design and build
The Kensington W2000 is pretty standard in terms of design and build. It's black – why are all webcams black? – and clips on top of a computer or monitor with ease. It's easy to adjust the angle of it to get it sitting where you want to, and normally it stays where you want it. I did have one incident where the webcam kept sliding backwards and so I kept disappearing from view. I think this was because I hadn't quite balanced it correctly in the first place, but this is something to watch out for.
The W2000 has a privacy cover, which you can flip across the camera to ensure it's off.
Kensington W2000 review: Features and performance
The Kensington W2000 webcam outputs 1080p 30fps, which is standard for most webcams, and makes it comparable to the Microsoft Modern Webcam. It has a 65° field of view, which is says focuses the viewer's attention on the subject, but which you may find lacking if you're hoping to fit more than two people into the frame.
To get this webcam to work, you just plug it in via the USB, and there's also an adapter for USB-C should you need it. You'll also need to download Kensington's app, Konnect. Within the app you can play around with various features, changing the filter, fiddling around with the exposure and also adjusting brightness, contrast and saturation.
In terms of picture quality, I found it to not be as flattering as the inbuilt webcam that comes with my MacBook Air. It has autofocus and focuses in okay, but it seemed to create a backlight that wasn't flattering and made me look washed out and ghostly. However, the details were sharp and the contrast was good. I just personally didn't find the image pleasing and my co-workers were able to tell the difference between this and my normal webcam, and also stated that the MacBook's webcam was more flattering. Even when I had adjusted the settings in Konnect, I still found my MacBook Air's webcam to be better.
Kensington W2000 price
The Kensington W2000 costs $/£59.99, which puts it towards the lower end of the market for budget/mid-range webcams. One competitor that sits near it in terms of price is the NexiGo Hellocam, which costs pretty much the same. We found in our review that this webcam created a superior image to our inbuilt webcams and was overall a decent option.
Should I buy the Kensington W2000?
If you want a no-frills webcam that does what it says on the tin then the Kensington W2000 certainly delivers. However, if you're concerned about your appearance during video calls and want to make sure you look your best, you may find another similarly priced option such as the NexiGo Hellcam more suitable.
