Logitech MX Brio Review | PCMag

Logitech’s MX series of peripherals is the company’s high-end product line for content creators and other professionals who want good build quality and plenty of features. The line previously only consisted of keyboards and mice like the MX Master 3S, but it’s expanding into webcams with the MX Brio. The $199.99 Logitech MX Brio sports a 4K sensor and a wide f/2.0 lens that offers similarly excellent video quality to the HyperX Vision S (also $199.99). It also has a microphone array, which the Vision S lacks, a clever Show Mode that flips the video when you want to show off what’s on your desk, and three separate configuration apps catered to different use cases. Its performance and versatility give it an edge in this price range and earn it our Editors’ Choice award for 4K webcams.

Design: Compact and Functional

The MX Brio is a fairly small webcam for its price and resolution. At 1.7 by 3.9 by 1.4 inches (HWD) without the base, it’s flatter and thinner than the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra (a 3.0-by-2.4-inch puck) and the HyperX Vision S (a 3.7-by-1.8-inch rounded square tube). Its wide body has a gunmetal shell with a rectangular gray plastic panel on the back holding a USB-C port. The lens assembly sits squarely in the middle of the camera’s front face, which is comprised of a black disc with ridged edges and a protective transparent cover in the center. Turning the disc closes a physical privacy shutter over the lens, like the Kiyo Pro Ultra. A built-in cover is a nice touch, especially compared with the separate magnetic panels of the Vision S and the Dell Pro Webcam that attach to the back of the device when not in use but can still be easily lost.

That doesn’t mean the MX Brio eschews magnets altogether, though. A powerful magnet attaches the camera to its included monitor clip. It holds the camera securely while letting it rotate horizontally as needed, though with perhaps a bit less resistance than ideal. The magnet has a standard quarter-inch screw hole in the middle, so you can attach the webcam to a tripod or the monitor clip.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

The clip itself is a standard hinged plastic arm with a wide lip on the front and a rotating foot on the back. The foot is slightly sticky to help hold the clip in place on the top of your screen, and an additional hinge for the magnetic part of the mount lets you tilt the webcam forward to point straight down for the view-flipping Show Mode. Flipping the webcam down makes it very front-heavy, and the included thick USB-C cable serves as a vital counterbalance when it’s in this position.

Specs: 4K30 With a Wide Lens

While the MX Brio uses a 4K Sony Starvis sensor, Logitech doesn’t specify its size other than noting it has 70% larger pixels than the previous Brio 4K webcam. Sensor (and pixel) size can make a huge difference in picture quality, especially in low light. Sony makes Starvis sensors in a range of sizes including the fairly huge 1/1.2-inch sensor in the Kiyo Pro Ultra and the smaller 1/2.8-inch sensor in the Vision S. To be fair, both cameras capture excellent video in most conditions including low light, but noise is much more noticeable in dark scenes on the Vision S.

The MX Brio’s 4K sensor is paired with an f/2.0 lens with a 90-degree field of view that can crop down to 78 or 65 degrees. An f/2.0 aperture is quite wide, but not as wide as the Kiyo Pro Ultra’s f/1.7 lens. On one hand, this means less light reaches the MX Brio’s sensor, which means the camera has to increase sensitivity, and thus noise, to capture a picture with the same exposure as the Razer camera under the same lighting conditions. 

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

On the other hand, this also means the MX Brio has a much deeper focal plane compared with the Kiyo Pro Ultra. The MX Brio, along with the Vision S and its similarly wider lens, can keep you and your background in focus at the same time. The Kiyo Pro, meanwhile, can capture just you while keeping the background out of focus for a professional photography-like bokeh. It’s a striking effect, but it’s much harder to work with because you need to constantly keep track of exactly what distance the lens is set to and stay within that range because everything closer and further away will be blurry. Meanwhile, I can sit two feet away from the Logitech webcam, with my counter a solid eight feet away, while holding a figurine just a foot away, and all three subjects look clear.

Software: Choose Your App

Logitech wants the MX Brio to appeal to gamers and game streamers, individuals who work remotely, and businesses all at once, which is why the webcam works with three separate Logitech apps. For the most part, all three let you make the same adjustments to the picture, but the apps are built around different use cases and Logitech product families. Regardless of which app you use, you’ll be able to set the field of view, crop, zoom, and toggle auto-exposure, auto-focus, auto-white balance, HDR, low-light compensation, and Show Modes. You can also manually set a variety of picture options including brightness, color temperature, contrast, exposure compensation, focus, and tint, and save any of these manual adjustments as presets to quickly use as needed.

(Credit: Logitech/Will Greenwald)

For basic home office use, The Logi Option + app provides a simple interface for adjusting the webcam and other Logitech accessories. If you have a Logitech MX keyboard or mouse as well, it lets you set up Smart Actions that change the behaviors of keys and buttons based on what software you’re using.

For gamers and streamers, The Logitech G Hub focuses on managing the company’s Logitech G gaming peripherals and Astro gaming headsets, and replaces Smart Actions with similar behavior profiles for games rather than productivity software.

The Logi Tune app is the enterprise software for the MX Brio, and the only one that enables an auto-framing feature called RightSight, which keeps the camera digitally zoomed on your face even as you move around the scene. At least, that’s how the feature is supposed to work; in testing with early software, RightSight didn’t seem to do anything and left me with the same fixed frame as before.

Performance: Sharp, Well-Exposed Video

Video looks excellent on the MX Brio, especially in well-lit environments. With my apartment fully lit, fine details like individual beard hairs and the texture of the fabric of my chair can be clearly discerned. Background details drop off a bit, but not drastically. Note, for instance, how you can still plainly identify the Triforce logo on the Game Boy Advance SP in the glass case behind me in the photo below.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

In low light, with my apartment lights turned off and my face illuminated only by my monitor, my beard and hair both lose a little detail but their textures are still apparent and my face looks well-exposed and sharp. The dark background is noticeably noisy, which is common for all webcams we’ve tested. A fill light like the Logitech Litra Glow will bring out those details and keep your face sharp even if the rest of your scene is dark, but even without a separate light, the MX Brio works very well for dimly lit situations.

(Credit: Will Greenwald)

Automatic color balance and exposure were accurate whether my apartment lights were on or off, and my skin tone looked natural in test captures even when only my monitor lit up my face. In full light, the camera found a surprisingly accurate white balance that made my white ceiling appear properly neutral while preserving the slightly warmer off-white of my walls.

Show Mode is a simple but clever feature designed to let you easily show whatever you’re working on that’s on your desk or a table. When it’s enabled, tilting the MX Brio forward 90 degrees automatically flips the picture, so the bottom of the frame is the edge closest to you and the top is closest to the screen or wherever else the camera is placed. Basically, this view offers a perspective similar to what you see when looking down at your desk, instead of the upside-down image you would get if you rotated any webcam down without Show Mode.

It’s a good idea on paper, though it makes the camera prone to tilting forward and falling down. I could get it steady in Show Mode by tilting it just short of 90 degrees and then arranging the USB cable to tug just enough to keep it from tipping, but that’s not a very secure or reliable solution. Moreover, focus and exposure quality decrease in Show Mode. Even in good lighting, the automatic functions resulted in a soft and blown-out picture. If you want to use this mode to show anything, get ready to set up a profile with manual tweaks for it.

A Monster Hunter figurine displayed in Show Mode (Credit: Will Greenwald)

High-end webcams prioritize picture quality above audio to the point that some models, like the HyperX Vision S, don’t have a mic at all. The MX Brio has a set of beamforming microphones that ensure you’ll be heard clearly, but they don’t capture the cleanest sound. My voice sounded loud and distinct in test recordings, but the camera also picked up a huge amount of room echo. It’s certainly better than nothing and is likely a bit better than your laptop’s built-in microphone for video calls, but it doesn’t come close to the performance you’ll get from a good headset or a USB microphone.

A Top Webcam for Just About Anyone

The Logitech MX Brio is an excellent high-end webcam for both video calls and streaming that offers sharp, well-exposed video and strong low-light performance. It’s very similar to the HyperX Vision S in performance, but features more stable and flexible software and adds a functional microphone as well as a clever Show Mode for views of your desk and hands. The Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra remains the sharpest webcam available for its large sensor, wide lens, and narrow focal plane, and our top pick for content creators who stream video to websites like YouTube or Twitch. For everyone else, we recommend the MX Brio, which is easier to use than the Kiyo Pro Ultra and costs $100 less, earning it our Editors’ Choice award.