Obsbot Tiny 3 webcam review: Powerful, but too much for most people

Best Prices Today: Obsbot Tiny 3

The Obsbot Tiny 3 camera is a professional webcam.

That’s my impression, not what Obsbot is trying to sell you. To me, that means three things: a superior image, a premium price, and a number of AI features that are probably unnecessary for the average user. It’s all wrapped up inside a $349 4K webcam that’s among the smallest around.

Obsbot seems to realize the dilemma. If you’re looking for a cheaper option, Obsbot sells the Tiny 3 Lite, a $199 4K webcam with many of the same features, except for a smaller sensor. Though I haven’t yet tested the Tiny 3 Lite for myself, my initial reaction is to lean towards buying that camera instead.

Both offer 4K streaming (only at 30Hz) or 1080p video resolutions at 120Hz, with other options in between. However, the Tiny 3 offers a larger sensor (1/1.28in. vs 1/2in), all-pixel phase detection autofocusing (PDAF) versus a more generic PDAF implementation, and an improved spatial audio system compared to the cheaper alternative.

The Obsbot Tiny series differs from other webcams in that it includes a self-powered gimbal inside it that rotates, dips, and elevates to physically track your face. Most of its competition faces forward, but uses a combination of cropping and zooming to track your face. Some cameras do this automatically, but Windows’ own Windows Studio Effects uses a Copilot+ PC’s NPU to perform this trick automatically.

Obsbot’s Tiny 3 is simply one of the best physical webcams on the market, even if the accompanying control software will need some practice to take full advantage of.

Obsbot is now on its third iteration of the Tiny series, following the superb Tiny 2 webcam, which debuted a couple of years ago. (For a more traditional fixed webcam, Obsbot has the Meet 2, which I really liked as well.)

I actually don’t consider the swiveling gimbal a must-have feature, though it’s handy if you’re standing up to present, move back and forth, or otherwise go beyond the “boundaries” an ordinary fixed webcam sets. If you’re fighting a cold, though, your first reaction might be to duck out of frame to blow your nose or sneeze. You can’t easily evade the Tiny’s tracking features, however, when they’re turned on.

As the name suggests, the Tiny 3 is tiny, and that’s a plus as well as a minus. Obsbot offers a handy little carrying case that allows the camera, mount and 5-foot USB-C to USB-C cable to be stored easily. Assembled, the entire webcam is smaller than a PC mouse, just 2.5 inches high when mounted.

The Tiny 3 magnetically attaches to its tiny metal mount, set up to allow it to perch on top of a fixed display or laptop screen. It’s designed a little differently than competing webcams: It still has a metal “tooth” that overhangs the monitor, preventing it from pitching backwards. It even can be tilted downwards for a top-down, demonstration perspective.

But most webcams are mounted on what I call a “jaws” mechanism, perched on top of a “>”setup. These “jaws” are typically long enough that they can accommodate a thick display. However, the Tiny 3 lacks that depth, perching it precariously on my home display, though it fits just fine on my older setup in our San Francisco office. A lightweight webcam like the Tiny 3 (310g / 10.9 oz / 0.68 pounds) certainly can be pulled backwards by the weight of the cable, or tugged to one side, too. The camera also includes the standard threaded screw hole for mounting on a tripod or other stand as well.

Obsbot Tiny 3 webcam: Software

Our list of the best webcams includes budget models that entirely depend upon Windows’ built-in controls for contrast, brightness, sharpness, and so on — even zoom. Obsbot goes the absolute opposite route, with an Obsbot Center app offering more control than the average person needs. The Center app can be configured in either “Lite” or “Pro” mode, neither of which quite offer what I want.

Any changes you make can be viewed within the software’s video preview function, which should translate over to an app like Zoom, Teams, or any recordings you make. You may need to close the Obsbot preview before the other app can identify and incorporate the Tiny 3’s camera feed, though.

The Tiny 3 offers an incredible array of AI tracking capabilities, almost like having a small cameraman watching your every move. If you let it, the camera can track either you by yourself or a group of people. If it’s just you, it can zoom in on your full body, your upper body, your lower body, or even a “headless” mode. The quirk is that you need to select “single mode” first, then choose the “auto zoom” option you want — and, weirdly, there’s no preset way to zoom in on just your face. Otherwise, the camera performs from 1X to 4X digital zoom.

And that’s just the start. You can select an “object” to track, such as your hand or your face. If you get up and walk around, the Tiny 3 can listen for your voice and pan until it finds you. It can also use a whiteboard as a reference point, or recognize when you’re demonstrating things on a desk. This is all AI-driven, but it’s very practical.

That’s just the zoom and tracking side. Of course, you can also adjust image settings like color, saturation, and hue, or fine-tune focus. The controls are another piece of the puzzle here You can gesture at the camera to zoom in and out, something that will of course be obvious to a live audience. You can also use “Hi Tiny” as a wake word, followed by commands like “Zoom in closer.”

There are also the AI “beauty” options: a list of various ways, separated by gender, to change the way you appear on screen. And there’s a ton of them–it’s kind of like the character creation screen in a video game. You can adjust the color of your skin, the length of your nose, and you can even tweak how your eyes appear. Is your face too round? Narrow it. In the “Pro” interface, these options appear beneath an icon that looks like someone wearing a virtual reality headset.

And if that’s still not enough, you can set up avatars and virtual voices using AI to replace your likeness. That’s probably not something you’d like to do if you’re in a meeting with your boss. However, some streamers use avatars as a way to keep their personal lives separate.

Unfortunately, I’d like to say that all this is intuitive. It’s not. You’ll benefit from either watching a tutorial or simply navigating around the interface.

Other software packages have taught me that there’s more than one way to access a feature: perhaps by right-clicking, or clicking an icon, or accessing a menu at the top of the screen. With Obsbot’s software, the important functions are hidden behind teeny-tiny little icons, such as the Settings gear at the top of the page. In “Lite” mode, the Settings only show you the software version, the UI language, and shortcuts to the tutorial. But, as far as I can tell, those tiny icons are the only ways to access certain functions.

At the bottom of the Obsbot UI is a small “hamburger” menu labeled “More.” Here hides some of the most important adjustments: the resolution, features like gesture control and voice control, audio controls, and so on. I would’ve swapped those menus wholesale, putting supplemental features like the language in “More” and placing key adjustments like the resolution in the Settings menu.

That’s the “Lite” mode. Switching to the “Pro” interface requires rebooting the app itself. In the Pro mode, there’s a wealth of information that feels better organized. But even then, Obsbot’s control software doesn’t achieve a level of consistency: the Settings icon hides what feels like an entirely new set of information. A set of “Beauty” filters, which are featured within the “Basic” interface, are hidden behind an icon in the Pro mode.

Weirdly, I found the controls pretty manageable with the Meet 2, which doesn’t offer the AI-guided zoom and capture features like the Tiny 3 does. Using the updated Obsbot Center app with the Tiny 3 feels somewhat like using a professional application. There’s a lot to take in, and understanding how the controls can and should be optimized may take some time.

Obsbot Tiny 3 webcam: Performance

The larger 1/1.28in. sensor ( ƒ/1.8 aperture) absolutely contributes to excellent low-light performance, as well as a professional-looking experience inside an office environment. Obsbot’s webcam also handles a variety of different scenarios well, from low to excessive light.

My home office is normally pretty dim during the winter, but the spring light floods in. I actually like what the Tiny 3 does here, focusing on my face and the color card. (One of the options allows you to see what the AI sensor is focusing on, and it’s picking up on both.) My only criticism is that I feel like my sweatshirt has a bit more blue to it than what’s being shown here, though I could have tried to adjust the saturation.

I also shot a low-light selfie in a cubicle of my San Francisco office (not shown) and the image also looked great. It was well lit and not grainy at all.

I really think that the camera also did an okay job under the normal office lighting, too. Everything does look a bit yellow and washed-out, though.

Normally, my upstairs family room receives the most natural light. Here, I’ve closed the curtains to rob the room of a little light. I think this preserves the color of the scene the best. My complexion is a bit ruddy, anyway, and the detail is sharp throughout. It really looks like a photo, rather than just an image captured by a screenshot.

I use Windows’ own Camera app to take these screenshots, for consistency’s sake.

If you’re like me, you hate how your voice sounds. But the combination of microphones (one omnidirectional, plus two directional mics) did a fabulous job of making my voice sound professional, even though the camera was perched on top of my monitor. As part of my webcam testing methodology, I play back both a rock song and white noise on my phone, moving it around my head to determine if it can separate and filter out the background noise.

The Tiny 3’s mic really couldn’t until I turned on my laptop’s native noise filtering, separate from the webcam. The combination worked very well, though the beginning and end of my words sounded slightly distorted as the noise filtering filtered out the music and white noise, taking a few of my words with it.

Finally, there’s another thing worth mentioning: some of the AI features seem to spin up your CPU and GPU, and my normally silent laptop started revving up its fan a bit. Obsbot even notes that some of the features might need a dedicated GPU: eye tracking, background blur, and some of the avatar generation. It’s kind of amazing that background blur would require a dedicated GPU, though it’s touted as a more realistic bokeh-ish blur rather than a more generic algorithm.

And did I mention that some functions, like the avatar, require you to sign up and log in to an Obsbot account? That’s a little weird and unnecessary.

Obsbot Tiny 3 webcam: Conclusion

Webcams like the more expensive Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra have larger sensors than the Obsbot Tiny 3, which gives the images more of a DSLR look and feel. But Razer appears to have stopped selling the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra on its own site, and prices for the remaining inventory have climbed above the $299 MSRP to $399+. That’s good news for Obsbot!

I personally don’t often take advantage of this webcam’s AI-powered rotate-and-zoom capabilities, nor did I spend much time with the more advanced features. I’m a “set it and forget it” type of person, at least where webcams are concerned. Because of that, I’d maybe lean more toward one of our other 4K cameras. The best webcams can deliver quite a bit for under $100, though you really can’t wave a magic wand and reproduce an image that a larger sensor provides.

Don’t get me wrong, though — I really like the depth of options the Obsbot control software provides — I just wish they were organized a bit better. They’re also overkill for most users.

In all, I think this is a bit too much webcam for the average user’s money, even though I loved what it could do as just a basic webcam. Obsbot’s Tiny 3 also offers way more professional features than you’ll find elsewhere, and may justify the expense for those who want it all.