Poly Studio P5 Professional Webcam (Plantronics) – 1080p HD Laptop Camera for Video Conference & Distance Learning – Monitor & Tripod Mount – Privacy Shutter-Works w/Teams (Certified),Zoom(Certified)

Good but not good enough
This is a good webcam without a doubt, but it has it’s limitations.It’s a big step up from my laptops’ cameras. I have tested this camera with Zoom, Webex and MS Teams on two separate laptops but will go back to the built in ones until a webcam comes along who’s features and quality allow it’s form factor to compensate for the convenience of a camera built into the screen.What’s good?Getting the camera off the laptop lid! As I use 3 screens (including the laptop), if I have my web conferencing window on the screen above the camera and it always looks like I am looking up. Mounting this camera just an inch above the screen has made all the difference and now it looks like I am engaging with my audience. I can also move it left and right to change the background and also angle the lens left, right, up or down giving subtly or considerably better image angles. Such vertical movement on the laptops involves moving the screen which makes using the computer more difficult.I didn’t try the software as my work laptop won’t allow installing it, however the camera installs itself with a nice set of adjustments. I should add tough that many of the ‘auto’ check boxed don’t seem to be selectable.The webcam is magnetically attached to the base and just pops off. Inside is a ¼ tripod mount which is a nice touch. The base moves nicely and grips well to any surface.The privacy shutter is the one of the best features of this camera and is very clear when the lens is off. As you turn the ‘lens ring’, a bright orange shutters close and the light on top turns from white to red, clearly indicating that you can do your morning team call stark naked without any worries, having both muted the picture and physically (and visibly) covered the lens. No need to worry about those phishing emails either!Another great feature is that you can pop off the back of the camera and insert a USB dongle (or cable) so you don’t lose a USB port. I connected my Bluetooth mouse dongle and put the lid back on. If you use a wired USB device, it will work but the lid will not go back on and the cable will pull on the camera. It’s a nice feature but not documented and I must remember to remove my dongle when I send the camera back. Oops, that leads me onto the bad points…What’s not that good?Oddly enough, it took me a while to get the thing to work. My laptops both recognised the camera but the screen was black, even when I opened the shutter. I googled the problem to no avail and whilst trying to make it work, I became a bit miffed about the sloppiness of the lens ring which opens the shutter. After far too much time for a techy, I realised that you have to rotate the lens ring anticlockwise further than you expect, past the ‘click’ and then it magically pops into life. No concerns about the ring closing accidentally and the red mute light went white.My expectation of the 1080p video quality was too high. I was expecting a BIG improvement over the built in cameras on my laptops. I was disappointed though as the quality was not significantly better. I tried Zoom, Teams and Webex with my friends and colleagues. Not a single person thought it was significantly better than my built in camera. Although they said it was sharper, comments were that the image was too grey, colours were less real, it was constantly refocussing and every few minutes it would flicker as though it was re-synchronising. I tried changing settings using the camera options but with no joy and will go back to using my built in webcams.Built in microphone. Naah, just don’t. In some situations it could be good but the quality isn’t great. I use a Jabra conference phone but tested the built in microphone which is no better than the latop’s own mic. The benefit here would be reduce noise if you type while you talk.In summary, this is definitely a good camera. Video quality is good but not outstanding. Focal length is good but can only be adjusted digitally and the camera lacks some features I expected for the price.What is missing?Optical zoom: The camera body is quite large and could accommodate a 2x optical zoom.Better backlight compensation: People complained my face was dark even with front lighting from a window. With a light behind me I was a silhouetteFace tracking: some cameras have this feature allowing it to maintain focus and allow some degree lateral movement whilst staying in frame (useful when Teams crops the image to fit the screen).So don’t get me wrong… this camera is definitely better than a built in camera but needs to be better still to justify buying it. I want people to say “ooh your picture quality is good” rather than “Hello Phil” when I start a web conference. It doesn’t acheive that.Sorry Poly but it’s a no from me.

Lightweight, Sleek and excellent video quality
I have been using the Poly P5 for a few weeks now. Working from home has become the norm, a decent webcam has become a valuable part of working life. I use it for Zoom training, teams meetings and private skype calls. It works flawlessly in any application I need to use it with. It can be customized to suit your environment, with zooming capabilities and color correction. leaving the settings on auto leaves me to get on with work, regardless of what application I need to use it for. The design is sleek and aesthetically pleasing. It is lightweight and easy to store. It has very clear and crisp HD video quality, much higher quality than other HD cams.

I bought this hoping that I would be able to have one device that could work both as a webcam and microphone, but the microphone was so bad I sent the P5 back. I don’t know if I was doing something wrong, but I tried the P5 on two laptops with the same result; no audio pick up and when it did it was unintelligible.Plantronics have clearly tried to up date their marketing so they aren’t seen as a supplier of low end products, and that it what convinced me to buy the P5, but the product was still low end quality.Avoid the Poly P5.

Review after 3 months of usage. Very good product working as expected. Tiny one and easy to carry.