Logitech’s MX series is known for delivering high-quality peripherals with features for creatives and professionals. Its Brio line has officially joined with MX bringing us, for the first time, the Logitech MX Brio. It offers a crisp 4K resolution, exceptional, DSLR-like image controls, beamforming microphones, and great low-light performance. The best part? It’s also one of the most affordable webcams of its kind.
Specifications
- Current Price: $199 (Logitech)
- Multiple resolutions
- 4K/30fps (3840x2160 pixels)
- 1080p/60fps (1920x1080 pixels)
- Focus type: Advanced Autofocus
- Lens type: Glass
- Built-in Microphone type
- Dual Beamforming microphone for noise reduction
- Mic range: Up to 4ft (1.2m)
- Diagonal field of view (dFoV): 90°/78°/65°
- Image sensor: 8.5MP Sony STARVIS
- Hardware zoom: 4x digital zoom
- Built-in privacy shutter: Yes
- Connectivity: Detachable USB-C to USB-C cable, supporting USB 3.0 standard
- Cable length: 5 ft (1.5 m)
- Detachable universal mounting clip: fits laptops, LCD displays, or monitors
- Tripod Thread: Standard ¼” inch thread to mount on tripods
- RightLight 5 with face-based image enhancement: auto-focus, HDR, white balance, exposure, for a clear image in various lighting environments ranging from low light to direct sunlight
- Show Mode: Yes
- Fine image controls: with optional Logi Options+ or G HUB software
- Dimensions
- Webcam only (HxWxD): 1.73 in (44 mm) x 3.86 in (98 mm) x (36 mm)
- Weight without clip: 4.83 oz (137 g)
- Webcam with mount, closed (HxWxD): 2.44 in (62 mm) x 3.86 in (98 mm) x 2.04 in (52 mm)
- Weight with mount clip: 6.21 oz (176 g)
- Mounting Clip (HxWxD): 0.79 in (20 mm) x 1.50 in (38 mm) x 1.78 in (45 mm)
- Warranty Information: 1-Year Limited Hardware Warranty
Logitech MX Brio - Design and Highlights
The Logitech MX Brio is an ultra HD webcam designed for working professionals and content creators. It brings with it a number of features that make it an especially good choice, especially if you’re already in the Logitech MX ecosystem. Using its large, Sony STARVIS sensor and AI image processing, it’s able to offer crisp, color accurate detail even in low lighting conditions. Plus: a physical privacy shutter, which is always a win.
Physically, the MX Brio feels quite robust. It features an aluminum body to help dissipate heat (it gets warm but not hot) with a large front element. The privacy shutter activates by turning a dial surrounding the lens. There’s a single USB Type-C port on the back to connect to your PC and a magnetic post on the bottom to attach to the stand. A standard ¼-20 thread has also been placed in the center of the post to mount on a tripod.
The stand itself is standard webcam fare for the most part. It unfolds to hook onto the top of a monitor. It also includes a small reusable adhesive pad to better grip the display. This is an important addition for the camera’s Show Mode, where it can be used for a top down shot of your desk. The monitor mount offers an extra tiltable panel that enables this, and it’s a neat addition to share what’s on your desk.
Two beamforming microphones flank the lens while an indicator light turns on whenever the camera is active. These microphones work well at picking out your voice but do tend to capture a lot of environmental noise as well. Not good for streaming but for remote meetings, it works well.
The camera is low profile compared to most of the competition, like the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra or OBSBOT Tiny 2. Instead of the large, circular shape of the Kiyo or blocky Elgato Facecam Pro, it adopts a rectangular shape that’s about four inches long. It doesn’t take many risks with its design and won’t attract attention like “gaming” products tend to do. That’s a good thing, in my opinion, and its minimalist aesthetic puts it in line with the rest of the MX line-up.
The camera system is very good and competes with the best 4K webcams available right now in specs. Sony’s STARVIS sensor tech is a proven commodity when it comes to clarity and being able to see in the dark. In fact, it made its debut in security surveillance systems for exactly that reason. As it’s applied here, it allows the camera to offer dramatically better low-light performance and color accuracy. Though Logitech doesn’t share specifications on the size of the sensor, it does share that it’s 70% larger than the original Brio, which also helps its light gathering abilities.
In terms of camera specs, it’s able to capture video up to 4K at 30 FPS and 1080p at 60 FPS and is able to capture photos up to 8.5 MP. The field of view is a wide 90 degrees by default but can be cropped in to 78 and 65 degrees with a simple toggle. It features closed-loop VCM autofocus, which is a dramatic improvement over the prior Brio and supports HDR recording for enhanced dynamic range.
One of its biggest differentiating factors, however, is the amount of control it gives you over the quality of the final image. You can configure it with either Logitech Options+ or G Hub, so you won’t necessarily need extra software if you’re already in the ecosystem. Once you’re in, you’ll find all of the usual controls for brightness, saturation, contrast, and sharpening, as well as toggles for auto-white balance, exposure, and focus.
Turning off auto-white balance and exposure reveals an assortment of DSLR-like controls. Most notably, it’s one of the very first web cameras to offer tint controls in addition to color temperature. On virtually every webcam before it, you could change the color temperature only, which is only half of how you actually dial in the color of an image. With the tint control, you can now fully balance the picture so colors are accurate regardless of what it wants to do on its own.
For exposure, you can manually set both the shutter speed and ISO. This allows you to balance smooth motion with potential noise in the background.
The irony is that, even though it’s one of the first webcams to offer it, it works well enough on its own that you really don’t need to engage with it at all. As you’ll see in the samples below, the MX Brio really does a very good job of rendering accurate colors without any extra intervention needed.
Logitech MX Brio - Performance
With all of the background information taken care of, let’s get into performance. We’ll start with standalone shots and then some comparisons.
In this gallery, you can see the three preset field of view settings in action. Set to 90 degrees, it provides a very wide FOV with only minor warping of the image (and excuse my “to be reviewed” pile to the right). Since we’re starting with such a large image, you’re able to crop in without any noticeable loss in quality.
In the first picture, I have a lamp on in the room and two key lights reflecting light off my walls. It it what I consider “well-lit” and where the MX Brio can perform its best. In the second shot, I have turned off the key lights, so there’s only a pedestal lamp in front of me to the right.
The camera does a very good job of exposing the image and it’s exceptionally clear. With HDR enabled, there is not hotspotting on my head from the lights and you can make out the detail in the pattern of my shirt well. Between the two, both look very good and true to life.
In these two shots, we’re looking at low-light and dark performance. In the first, I’ve turned off all the lights in front of me and turned on a light in the opposite corner of the room. The second picture is with all of the lights turned off and only the monitor illuminating my face.
The conditions are challenging but it still performs very well — especially the dark shot. There is some noticeable grain in the background of both but the camera maintains color accuracy and an impressive amount of detail. According to Logitech, the MX Brio uses AI to reduce noise in the image and you can see that at play here.
Order: Well-lit, normal lighting (front lamp), low lighting (distant lamp), dark (monitor only)
In this gallery, I’ve compared it against the OBSBOT Tiny 2, a gimbal-mounted webcam that currently retails for $329. I reviewed it highly — and it’s great. It has a larger sensor and is sharper overall. The thing to note here is that this camera is $130 more expensive. While it offers capabilities the MX Brio does not, in sheer image quality, the Brio is very competitive here.
The same is true of the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra, which I reviewed for IGN. I’m not able to share those images here due to my contract, but I highly encourage you to click here and directly compare the images. The Kiyo Pro Ultra is slightly more crisp but is also $100 more. The same is true of the Insta360 Link, which is $50 more.
The point is this: As we get into the era of true 4K webcams, the differences are often much more slight, which makes the MX Brio all the more appealing at only $200. It looks great, so much so that unless you’re looking at a side-by-side comparison, very few people will be able to tell any difference at all.
There are a couple of important differences, though. For starters, the depth of field is smaller on the Brio than the Kiyo Pro. While it does auto-focus on your face, it doesn’t blur the background much at all. You can still hold objects close to the camera for close-up detail but, as you can see in the image above, it doesn’t separate it out nearly as much. This may or may not matter to you, depending on how much you value the cinematic look of bokeh.
Another thing to note is that it can be quite finicky about the type of USB port you use. It comes with a USB-C to USB-C cable and the system requirements state that you’ll need a USB 3.0 Type-C port to access all of its features. Anything less limits the camera to 1080p only.
In my case, I found it to be even more particular. The rear Type-C port on my PC, which has a high-end gaming motherboard with all the bells and whistles, simply wouldn’t work for 4K. I had to plug the camera into my front panel USB-C port for 4K to come up as an option. This may be because all of my rear USB Type-A ports are used, taking up data bandwidth, but the original Brio had the same issues with being picky about USB ports.
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Finally, I’ll leave you with a picture of the camera with completely custom settings, just to highlight how good the automatic adjustments on it are. I definitely think this is better: slightly less exposed, slightly tighter focus, better brightness and contrast, slightly closer white balance… but it’s only a little better. Apart from looking a touch less exposed, any other differences are minor. The MX Brio offers great automatic adjustments.
Final Thoughts
At $199.99, the Logitech MX Brio is on the expensive end for a webcam but it also offers an incredible picture for the price. You could pay more and get slightly more detail but it really doesn’t feel necessary unless you’re looking for that modicum of extra sharpness and background separation. For remote work and content creation, it’s excellent.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes.
