The Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra might be the best webcam there is

In a very poorly lit Las Vegas hotel room at CES 2023, there was a running joke between the Razer representatives and me: This would be a great spot to demo a webcam that touts great low-light performance. Luckily, the company has one, not that it booked that room on purpose. I'm talking about the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra, which is probably the best webcam on the market outside of using an actual DSLR.

And yes, in my time with the team, they frequently compared it to a DSLR, something that companies, frankly, should not do unless they are very sure. It's a claim we've heard dozens of times over the last decade or so on devices from smartphones to anything else.

So, does the Kiyo Pro Ultra live up to that DSLR promise? Of course not; you can't swap out the lens for another one. However, this is truly a remarkable webcam, and it'll be hard to find anything else with this quality.

Laptop with giant webcam on top of it, and screen showing what it's recording

If you take a look at the image above, you can see how much better the webcam quality is versus how the room looked in real life. Cameras that handle low light better than your eyes do is something we've seen from smartphones, so it's about time that we get it from a webcam.

Razer used a 1/1.2-inch Sony sensor with an f/1.7 aperture, which can let in a lot of light. Not only that, but it gives you a nice depth of field. There's also a proper bokeh effect, which is different from the software-generated bokeh effects we're used to.

Another neat feature is the face-tracking autofocus, so you shouldn't have to worry about blurry video if you're moving around. We've all been there, where you have to put your hand in front of the webcam to get it to focus on you. That shouldn't be an issue here, either, although you do get the ability to turn off face tracking in case you want that old-school autofocus.

Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra with privacy guard closed

Finally, it has great privacy features. You can twist the ring around the webcam for a privacy guard, and you can visibly see that it's closed. If that's not enough for you, there's actually a physical cover that you can put over it. Of course, that physical cover is probably more useful if you're carrying the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra from place to place.

Overall, this product seems to have everything. Not only does it offer great image quality and uncompressed 4K 24fps video, but the low-light performance is best-in-class and the natural bokeh is beautiful. I even like the big, round design. It sort of feels like there's a regular camera lens pointed at you. Razer has this available now as an exclusive on its website, and it comes in at $299.