[Gadgets] Insta360 Link review: The best webcam you can buy today

[FazzNoth]

Move over, Center Stage. Insta360, a company that has staked its reputation on 360-degree cams, is revolutionizing the humble office webcam market with its latest addition, the Link. Like the Apple-branded Center Stage, Insta360’s Link aims to put creators, professionals, and streamers at center stage with features never seen before on personal video conferencing cameras, like a large 4K image sensor and three-axis gimbal. 

Insta360’s foray into the webcam space overcomes the limitations of today’s webcams by taking inspiration from both action and larger conference room cams. Hardware is only part of the equation for the Link. Insta360’s newest webcam challenges the rule of physics with A.I.-driven software to bring HDR video, smooth object tracking, quick focusing, and noise cancelation tech to keep you looking sharp and sounding your best. This delightful balance of advanced software algorithms combined with the best-in-class hardware propels newcomer Insta360 to the forefront of the webcam space with the Link. 

 

Insta360 Link: Pricing and availability
Insta360 Link is available through Insta360’s web store for $299. Given that the Link is geared towards creators and professionals, the webcam’s color option is limited to a lone black hue, unlike other consumer-oriented webcams like the Lumina. 

Insta360 also sells a tabletop tripod accessory for the Link on its website, which could come in handy if you're using some of this camera's more advanced modes. 

 

Insta360 Link: What's good
Insta360’s Link does miniaturization right. Hardware features such as the three-axis gimbal were once the exclusive domain of much larger and significantly more expensive conference room cameras. But by taking inspiration from action cameras, like rival DJI’s Osmo Pocket 2, Insta360 was able to democratize complex PZT (pan-zoom-tilt) conference room cams and bring this technology to everyone in a package that costs just $299. 

This focus on advanced features, like a three-axis gimbal, means that the Insta360 Link isn't as compact or as minimalist in its design when compared to the Lumina A.I. 4K webcam or Dell's UltraSharp 4K camera. Still, it packs in a lot of features in a package that measures just 2.71 x 1.61 x 1.77 inches (69mm x 41mm x 45mm). And at just 106 grams, the Link feels solid, and the camera's dense weight makes it feel premium despite the heavy use of plastic compared to the Lumina AI camera's all-metal housing. 

 

At $299, the Link comes in at a $100 premium compared to standard 4K webcams, like the Lumina A.I. webcam, which is considered one of the best options on the market today. That camera, however, lacks the PZT mechanism of the Link. Logitech’s PZT 2 conference solution comes in at $849, making the Link appear like a bargain for what you’re getting.

The gimbal-mounted PZT package on the Link allows this camera to pan, tilt, and zoom into your face as you move around. While this may be overkill for standard video calls; for creators, it’s like having your own AI-powered cameraman. When object tracking is enabled and the Link can lock onto your face, the camera will swivel and follow you around as you move out of the frame.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because hardware manufacturers like Apple, HP, and Lumina have been doing this with software. Apple’s Center Stage, for example, relies on a wide-angle camera on the iPad Pro and MacBook Pro to track and follow you around. Unlike the Link’s PZT camera, the built-in Apple camera hardware is stationary, which means that software is utilized to crop in to your face as you move around, resulting in some image compression.

 

On the other hand, by relying on a PZT camera, the Insta360 Link can effortlessly track you, with the camera swiveling smoothly on the three-axis gimbal to deliver stunning image quality.

“During our research into webcams, we saw a lot of benefits of a gimbal design to provide better stability, a wider range of motion for AI tracking, and more diverse viewing modes,” Insta360’s team informed Windows Central. “We think the future for the webcam industry lies in AI technology and versatile designs like our 3-axis gimbal.”

While both Apple and Insta360 rely on AI to help drive the camera, the Link’s hardware-based approach means you’re going to get a clearer, less compressed image, as the camera doesn’t have to digitally crop into your face.

To use the camera, you’ll need to download and install the companion Insta360 Link Controller on your PC or Mac, and the software provides plenty of customization options. The Link is compatible with major video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Google Meet, and Insta360 claims that even more are supported. A single USB-C port is located on the rear and a tripod screw is found on the underside of the monitor clip for flexible mounting options.

Tracking on the Link works exceptionally well, and the camera will pan as you move around. I was in the kitchen over the weekend, demonstrating to a friend on the opposite coast how to prepare a dish over Google Meet. The Link panned around and followed me as I traversed my galley kitchen, grabbing ingredients, and prepping dinner. My friend was impressed with how accurately the Link could track my movement as I moved forward and back, side to side, and as I stood up and bent down to find supplies and ingredients stored in cabinets.

 

With the Link, you can change the speed of tracking how quickly the camera will respond and pan around as you move outside of the frame with three settings: normal, slow, and fast. In my cooking tutorial, I used normal, which resulted in responsive but smooth tracking. Cranking it to fast was also impressive, as the camera speedily kept up with me like a robotic sidekick. But if you’re moving around too much, the results could be jerky and nausea-inducing. Slow was perhaps the smoothest experience, though it could appear to the viewer on the other end of the stream that there is lag.

With the Link, the camera can pan around (side to side) and tilt (up and down) to frame you when you have tracking enabled. Additionally, if you need to zoom in, the camera can apply digital zoom to crop in to your head, your upper body (head and chest), or keep your whole body in frame. The last one could be great for yoga and fitness instructors who need to demonstrate specific whole-body poses.

 

For more advanced users, the Link Controller software gives granular controls to features like image setting, AI zoom, manual focusing, HDR, and other settings. For example, you can rely entirely on the software’s intelligent AI chops for exposure, white balance settings, brightness, contrast, saturation, and sharpness, or you can dial up or down any of those settings to your liking. In my test under LED light bulbs and in more harsh lighting conditions while working in front of a bright window, I had no problems with the automatic AI adjustments. Users can also turn on HDR mode as well when working under more challenging lighting conditions, as I do, but the feature is not supported at 4K resolution or with 60 FPS.

The HDR limitations aren’t so worrisome at present. Most video conferencing platforms still limit upload feeds for videos at 1080p to conserve bandwidth and deliver a stutter-free experience when ISP speeds may be poor. As such, dialing down to 1080p to gain HDR isn’t a compromise, at least at this time, but it does make the Insta360 feel a little less futureproof than I’d like, given that the rest of this camera’s specifications are so bleeding edge.

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