YoloLiv YoloCam S3 Review: A 4K powerhouse

It might seem like there's a streaming-specific, AI-enhanced 4K webcam being advertised around every corner — because there... kind of is. YoloLiv is a streaming hardware company that mainly focuses on multi-camera streaming setups, but the YoloCam S3 is a 4K webcam with a large sensor and lightning-fast autofocus that's clearly here to compete with the best webcams on the market.

The YoloCam S3 is a small, sturdy little webcam that captures video in 4K / 30 fps resolution (as well as 1080p / 60 fps). It features a large, 1/1.28-inch sensor, 4x digital zoom, and 82-degree field of view, autofocus, and AI-enhanced face-tracking and low-light performance. It has an all-aluminum body and comes with a magnetic monitor mount that lets you mount it in landscape or portrait mode. The YoloCam S3 is available now, retailing for $199.99 — the same price point as Logitech's newest 4K MX Brio.

Design of the S3

The YoloCam S3 is a small, surprisingly sturdy rectangular metal block with a glass-and-metal encased circular lens on the front. It measures approximately 2.38 inches (60.45mm) wide by 1.87 inches (47.5mm) high, and is 1.28 inches (32.5mm) deep, not including the removable magnetic monitor mount. It weighs 4.07 ounces (115.5g) without the mount, and 6.53 ounces (185g) with the mount, which makes it a little lighter than the MX Brio (4.83oz. / 137g) — though the mount is, arguably, a necessary component for this webcam.

Image 1 of 4

The YoloCam S3 comes with a detachable metal L-shaped monitor mount. Even if you're not perching this webcam on top of your monitor, you'll probably need to use the mount — as the webcam has no mounting attachment points on its body, just magnets (located on two sides, so you can mount the webcam in portrait or landscape orientation. The mount is a fairly standard L-shaped mount, with a rubber "foot" that helps it grip the back of your monitor, but it is made of aluminum — most similar mounts, such as the one that comes with the MX Brio or the one that comes with the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra, are plastic.

Image 1 of 2

The webcam attaches to a vertically-tilting arm via a fairly strong magnet — strong enough that I wasn't worried the webcam would get knocked off the mount without some actual force, but not so strong that I was able to adjust the tilt by pulling on just the webcam. There's a lip at the back of the mount, presumably to prevent you from mounting the webcam too far back (and to keep the picture straight); while the mount doesn't really allow for horizontal swivel, you have some space to turn the webcam in front of the lip (but not much).

The mount also has a standard 1/4-inch tripod mounting attachment point on the bottom, so you can use the webcam with a tripod or other stand/mount. But because the only thing holding this webcam on the mount is moderately strong magnetic force, I wouldn't plan on using it as a replacement for your Go Pro. I will point out that the MX Brio also has a detachable, magnetic L-shaped monitor mount, but it's implemented in such a way that the webcam can swivel atop the mount (and the webcam has a tripod attachment point built-in — no mount necessary.

Aesthetically-speaking, this is a nice-looking webcam. It's slightly reminiscent of old-school cameras: It has a matte black metal front plate that's lightly textured to look like leather, as well as an etched metal ring around its circular lens. The ring, though textured, does not move or twist like the rings on Razer's recent Kiyo V2 and Kiyo Pro Ultra; the YoloCam S3 doesn't have a built-in privacy shutter, nor does it come with a lens cover. This seems like a pretty big oversight considering the webcam doesn't fold down (like the Insta360 Link), nor is there an easy way to turn it around — I suppose you can pop it off of the mount and unplug it, but you can do that with any webcam. There's a tiny, pin-prick of an LED on the front of the webcam that lights up when the camera is turned on, but that's not really enough of an indicator for me to be comfortable with an AI-powered 4K lens pointed at me all day long.

In the box, the YoloCam S3 comes with a detachable monitor mount, a thick, rubber-coated 5-foot (1.5m) USB-C to USB-C cable, and a USB-A to USB-C converter (in case you want to plug it into a USB-C port — the webcam does need to be plugged into a USB 3.0 port to work).

Specs

Well-lit Performance

The YoloCam S3 is a 4K webcam with a 1/1.28-inch sensor and a f/1.85 aperture. It has a fairly wide 82-degree field of view, 4x digital zoom, HDR, and AI-enhanced facial tracking and low-light boosting. It can stream video at 4K (30 fps) and at 1080p (60/50/30/25 fps).

I do all of my webcam testing in my home office, which gets virtually no natural light. For my well-lit test scenario, I have ring light, a key light, and four desktop monitors (three 27-inch monitors, and my primary 34-inch widescreen monitor) turned on in front of me, as well as two desktop lamps and an overhead arc lamp turned on behind me. There's also some ambient lighting from my desk and other peripherals, but it's negligible. For consistency, I take all of my photos using Windows 11's built-in camera app. (Note that my observations are based on my overall experience with the webcam — these photos will give you an idea of the picture quality, but they're not the sole criteria.)

Image 1 of 3

The YoloCam S3 performed very well in the well-lit scenario — I was particularly impressed with how crisp and clear the picture looked right out of the box. Not all 4K webcams are created equal: Resolution is only one aspect of what makes you look good on a webcam (and let's be serious — it often works against that); the lens/sensor and software-based fine-tuning ("post-processing") also play a large part.

While image quality on the YoloCam S3 was excellent, it was a little too high-contrast. You can see in the image above that the result is a slightly washed-out looking subject (me), and blowouts in areas that are very white (the keyboard on my desk). It doesn't look terrible, but it's noticeable enough that it seems like I need to poke around in the companion software and do at least a little tweaking.

Low-Light Performance

To test the YoloCam S3's performance in low lighting, I turned off all of the lights in my office and three of my monitors, leaving only my primary 34-inch widescreen monitor turned on. I took these pictures with the Windows 11 camera app on one half of my screen, and my desktop wallpaper (dark) on the other half.

Image 1 of 3

The too-high-contrast is more noticeable here — you can see blown out areas on my face, which is... not ideal, to say the least. The webcam still did a great job of picking up detail, both on the subject (me) and in the background, and there was very little graininess as I moved around (but, of course, lowering the contrast introduces a little more grain).

Overexposed Performance

To test the YoloCam S3's performance in an overexposed setting, I turned off all of the lights and monitors in front of me (except for my primary 34-inch monitor), and kept the lights behind and above me turned on. This is probably one of the more common lighting scenarios for people who aren't professional streamers, as most people don't have studio lighting set up to shine at them from behind their monitor.

Image 1 of 3

The YoloCam S3 performed well in this scenario (no webcam does very well). It attempted to light both the subject and the background and ended up leaning a little too heavily on both contrast and saturation, which is pretty typical for, well, most webcams. The webcam didn't disappoint or impress in this scenario, it performed as expected.

Features and Software

The YoloCam S3 is configurable through the YoloLiv Compose companion app. The app gives you a nice amount of control over picture quality: You can manually adjust exposure, white balance, sharpness, contrast, and saturation; switch between continuous, single, and face-focused autofocus (and manual focus); switch the frame rate and orientation, and zoom and crop areas of the image (you can set four hotkeys for different "scenes").

The app also has a color-grading feature "similar to DaVinci Resolve" that lets you color-grade your images in real time — a nice feature for streamers, but it's too involved for the average person (and even the average streamer) to use constantly.

Bottom Line

YoloLiv mainly makes hardware for streamers, and the YoloCam S3 is... also for streamers. The image quality is excellent — on par with that of the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra — though you'll need to do some fine-tuning once you get it out of the box. But if you're not looking to move into professional streaming any time soon, the YoloCam S3 is a little too aimed at pros. It's designed to fit into a professional streaming setup, not a home office (or just home) setup — it needs a USB 3.0 port to function, there's no privacy shutter or lens cap, and you'll need to play with the software to get the picture perfect. If you're looking for something that will make you look good right away and still has 4K/30 fps resolution (even though video conferencing apps still limit you to 1080p outgoing at most), the Logitech MX Brio is a bit more amateur-friendly.