Razer Kiyo V2 Review: USB-C required

Too many of today's best webcams are 4K webcams these days, but at least that means they're starting to get more affordable. At $150, Razer's new Kiyo V2 isn't necessarily a steal, but it's half the price of the $300 Kiyo Ultra Pro. And, since you (probably) don't actually need a 4K webcam in the first place, this might just be the perfect price point for the average person seeking 4K image quality.

The Kiyo V2 captures video at 4K / 30fps, 1440p / 30 fps, and at 1080p 60/30/24 fps. It features an 8.3MP Sony STARVIS sensor with a 93-degree field of view, auto and manual focus, and a focal length of 3.0mm. It also has HDR (at 30 fps), 4x zoom, built-in omnidirectional stereo microphones, and a built-in monitor mount with a tripod attachment point on the bottom. At $149.99, it's cheaper than a lot of 4K webcams, and it comes in three colors: black, white, and quartz (pink).

Design of the Kiyo V2

The Kiyo V2 is a 4K webcam with a detachable USB-C cable and a built-in L-shaped monitor mount. It also features a built-in physical privacy shutter similar to the one in the Kiyo Pro Ultra, though it doesn't come with a lens cap, like the Pro Ultra does (the shutter is under the glass here).

The Kiyo V2 is no longer the single giant circle lens we're used to seeing in the Kiyo line — it's now a slim circular lens attached to an elongated body — it looks a bit like the Logitech MX Brio 4K, just... exaggerated. The bad news is that this definitely doesn't look as cool as the pure circle lens did (in my opinion, anyway). The good news is that being lower and wider over taller and more aesthetic probably makes it more convenient.

Well, probably. It's still pretty large: With the stand, it measures approximately 4.6 inches (116mm) wide by 2.6 inches (65.3mm) deep, and is 2.9 inches (74mm) high. The MX Brio 4K is quite a bit smaller, by comparison, at 3.84 x 1.73 x 1.42 inches (98 x 44 x 36mm). The Kiyo V2 is also pretty hefty, weighing 8.99 ounces (255g), versus the MX Brio 4K's 4.83 ounces (137g). The size and weight of the Kiyo V2 wasn't too much of an issue for me with my crazy 4-monitor setup, but it seems like it could be a bit of a liability on a laptop.

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I'm a big fan of the Kiyo V2's built-in privacy shutter, which works exactly like the privacy shutter in the Kiyo Pro Ultra (and in the MX Brio 4K). All you need to do is twist the textured ring around the lens, and the shutter snaps into place, covering the lens and preventing any webcam-related mishaps. I do wish that it came with some sort of lens cap, however, just because the glass lens area is still pretty large (about 1.75 inches / 44.45mm in diameter), but that shouldn’t be an issue unless you regularly travel with your high-res webcam.

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The Kiyo V2 comes with a permanently-attached L-shaped monitor mount that allows for both tilting and 360-degree swiveling. The monitor mount is sturdy, with a rubber-coated "foot" that helps keep it from moving around too much on your monitor. It also has a 1/4-inch universal tripod attachment point on the bottom, so you can attach it to a tripod or other stand if you prefer.

In the box, the Kiyo V2 comes with just one accessory — a detachable 6.5-foot (2m) rubber-coated USB-C to USB-C cable. The webcam must be plugged into a USB-C port with this specific cable to get the full 4K quality picture, however, which is a little inconvenient — both because the cable is a bit stiff, and because some of us don't have an abundance (or any) free USB-C ports on our PCs.

Specs

Well-lit Performance

I take all my webcam test photos in my home office, which is a very controlled setting that gets almost no natural light (I also take most of them at night, so there's zero natural light). For my well-lit test scenario, I have a ring light, a key light, four desktop monitors (three 27" and one 34") in front of me, and two desktop lamps and an arching floor lamp behind me. There's also some ambient lighting from my desk and other peripherals. For consistency, I take all my photos using Windows 11's built-in camera app, at 1080p resolution. (Note that my observations come from my overall testing experience with the webcam, not just these single photos.)

The Kiyo V2 performed very well in the well-lit testing scenario, especially when it came to white balance and auto-exposure. The white balance was almost perfect right out of the box: It gave my skin enough color that I looked alive, but not so much that it was obviously oversaturated. The webcam also did a very good job with auto-exposure, though I still found that I preferred the picture I got by tweaking the exposure manually in Razer's Synapse software.

I wasn't a big fan of the webcam's extra-wide 93° field of view, as it ended up showing too much of my space. Luckily this can be configured in Synapse (with zoom/crop). But the picture still looked good at a wide angle, with less distortion and warping than I expected. Razer's webcams tend to be tuned for a slightly more dramatic, cinematic picture than most webcams, which I particularly like — I don't think most people are looking for a webcam that's just pure, undiluted image quality; most people want a webcam that makes them look good.

Low-Light Performance

To test the webcam's low-light performance, I turn off all of my lights and three of my monitors, leaving just one 34-inch monitor as my sole source of illumination. I take my photos with the Windows 11 camera app occupying about half of that screen, and my desktop wallpaper takes up the other half.

The Kiyo V2 performed decently well in this scenario, though it tended to overexpose the subject (me) at the expense of the background. Still, I didn't look too washed out most of the time, and the overall image quality was good: There wasn't too much artifacting, and it was a little noisy in darker areas (as expected).

Overexposed Performance

To test the webcam's performance in over-exposed settings, I turn off all of the lights in front of me, except for my single 34" monitor, and keep the lights behind/over me turned on. If you're not sitting in a pitch-black room, the most common lighting scenario most people are going to end up with is (at least slightly) over-exposed — unless you're streaming professionally, you probably don't have a ton of lights behind your monitor.

The Kiyo V2 also performed fairly well in this scenario — or, well, it lit everything pretty evenly. It did a good job of balancing the exposure of the subject with the exposure of the background, and it also managed to get plenty of detail from the background without too much notable blowout. The result wasn't necessarily the most aesthetically-pleasing, but it worked well enough.

Features and Software

The Kiyo V2 works pretty well out of the box, especially if you already have decent lighting set up. It does an excellent job with auto-exposure and white balancing, but the ultra-wide 93-degree field of view is probably too much exposure (the other kind) for most people. Most of us don't want people to see everything we have in the background. To configure this and other settings, you'll need Razer's universal peripheral software, Synapse.

Synapse is far from my favorite piece of software, but at least for webcams, its clunkiness makes sense. Synapse lets you adjust the webcam's field of view (by zooming — up to 4x), auto focus, auto exposure, and color balance, manually. It has some streamer-friendly features, such as the ability to save different zoom presets and assign shortcuts, so you can quickly switch between angles while you're streaming.

You can also toggle on some software-based features, such as HDR, dynamic noise reduction, and low-light compensation. There are a couple of microphone settings as well, but let's face it — you're not using the webcam's built-in mics unless you're absolutely desperate (or your computer automatically switched to them when you plugged the camera in, and you didn't realize it). Like most webcam mics, they're just average; you'd be better off using the built-in mic on your laptop or anything else, first.

Bottom Line

The Kiyo V2 is a nice follow-up to the wildly expensive Kiyo Pro Ultra — it's got great image quality and 4K resolution, though the Kiyo Pro Ultra still looks better overall, if you're looking for the best picture (both in quality and aesthetics). If you have a free USB-C port, this webcam is definitely worth a look. If you don't have a consistently free USB-C port, however, this might be frustrating — nobody wants to keep plugging in a chunky USB-C cable every time they want to get on cam, and there are other things vying for that port (in my case, an external hard drive that could probably be plugged in elsewhere, but still). While I get that the Kiyo V2 probably requires a lot of power, other webcams that strongly advise you use their specific cable/port combo usually still work pretty well if you don't — but the Kiyo V2 doesn't even try.