Logitech MX Brio review: The 4K webcam to beat?

The MX Brio is Logitech’s most advanced webcam yet, combining crisp 4K pictures, functional design and plenty of software-enabled features.

Its resolution and the level of picture control available will be overkill for a lot of people, while the high price will be a deal breaker for others. However, I was very impressed by its plug-and-play performance during testing and it stands out as one of the best webcams for 4K video if you’re willing to splash the cash.

Logitech MX Brio review: What you need to know

The MX Brio captures 4K (3,840 x 2,160) video at 30fps and supports Full HD (1080p) and regular HD (720p) video at 60fps. It’s fitted with an 8.5MP Sony STARVIS sensor (f/2.0 aperture) that is 70% larger than the Brio 4K. The webcam allows for diagonal field of views of 65, 78 and 90-degrees and digital zooms of up to 4x. It also captures audio via dual beamforming microphones and has a built-in privacy shutter.

It can be mounted to a tripod or camera arm via a standard 1/4in bolting mechanism or attached to laptops, monitors and TVs using a detachable mounting clip that allows the MX Brio to pan 360-degrees. A 1.5m USB-C to USB-C cable for connecting the MX Brio is included in the box and plugs directly into a port on the back of the webcam.

The webcam is certified for use with Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Meet and Google Chromebook and can be tinkered with a range of Logitech software. Logitech Options+ is designed for ‘regular’ users, Logitech G-Hub caters for gamers, while Logi Tune is designed with enterprises in mind. All three apps can be used with the MX Brio irrespective of the user’s intentions, however.

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Logitech MX Brio review: Price and competition

At £220, the MX Brio sits at the upper end of the webcam market and has an appropriate selection of high-end features. Its chief competition comes from the Obsbot Tiny 4K (£269) and Insta360 Link (£267), both of which add pan-tilt-zoom functionality, keeping you in the frame at all times. While nice to have, this isn’t an essential feature for most people.

The Dell UltraSharp Webcam offers 4K video for less (£159) but lacks the integrated privacy shutter, microphones and ability to tweak horizontal positioning of the MX Brio.

Shrink your budget further and there are still plenty of capable performers but you’ll be straying into 1080p resolution territory. If that’s not an issue, Logitech’s C920 HD Pro (£67) remains a firm favourite and can capture Full HD video at 60fps.

Logitech MX Brio review: Design

With its mount attached, the MX Brio measures 98 x 52 x 62mm (WDH) and weighs 176g. It’s easy to set up, with two hinges (one with a sticky pad) to secure the webcam to your monitor or laptop screen, and another that angles the webcam independently.

The MX Brio looks smart in either Graphite or Pale Grey, the build quality is great and a strong magnetic connection ensures the webcam is held in place effectively.

Its lens is made of glass – rather than the plastic used by a lot of manufacturers – and closing the internal cover to ensure you’re not being broadcast is as easy as turning the sensor ring casing clockwise.

Few webcams match the MX Brio in the design department. It’s sturdily constructed, highly functional and has a premium look – even the bundled USB-C cable is luxurious in its thickness.

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Logitech MX Brio review: Performance

I began testing the MX Brio with all features set to neutral or automatic. By default, images are captured at 3,840 x 2,160 at up to 60fps with a field of view of 90-degrees. The large sensor was able to capture a lot of light and this resulted in impressively clear, sharp images.With natural backlighting from the sun, my room and skin tone looked natural and images possessed plenty of detail (left). Directing a lamp onto me from the front eked out a jot of extra crispness across my face (right) and I also appeared slightly less saturated, but there wasn’t much in it overall – you’ll be getting the microscope out to tell the difference.

The light in your room will ultimately dictate how obvious these differences are but you can adjust things manually to compensate, as I’ll come to later. Still, the automatic exposure and white balance levels worked consistently well, while autofocus was fast-acting, too.

You’ll notice more noise creeping into the mix in darker conditions, but low-light performance is one of the MX Brio’s strongest suits. It manages to balance exposure and colours expertly, with the tones of my face looking true to life. The blue hue from my curtains skews the colour palette, but the result is still far crisper than an image taken in full light using the 1080p resolution Anker PowerConf C300 (right).Low-light vs PowerComf

Even more noise is present in a pitch-black room, but I remained visible and with decent detail when solely illuminated by my monitor and the red hue from my PC setup.

Pitch black photo

Show Mode, which automatically flips your picture when you tilt the MX Brio down to face your desk, is a useful feature turned on by default. It shows any viewer what they would see from your perspective rather than the upside-down view you would have with any other webcam.

It works well on the whole and will be especially useful for sharing sketches in design professions, though the autofocus was hunting for a new focus point fairly frequently when I moved anything on camera. You’ll need to be careful when repositioning the camera too, as I found it prone to coming loose from my monitor upon tilting it back up.

Show mode photo

If you dive into Logitech’s Options+ application, there are four tabs offering different ways to alter the default setup: Crop, Exposure, Image and Focus. Each one has various settings inside, as you can see below, from altering the field of view or camera view (once zoomed in) to manually changing exposure, colours and focus. Even better, your changes are all saved once you exit the Options+ app – without the need to save a preset, either – meaning the webcam will look exactly how you want it to whenever you jump into your next video call.

Options+ screenshot photo

The software does omit a few features, however. There’s no way to blur your background or choose a different one, nor will you find an auto-zooming option or any easy-use filters, which is a shame. Fortunately, third-party software is available if backgrounds and filters are important to you and web conferencing apps like Google Meet offer options on this front, too.

It’s also a bit of a pain that you need to install a further two applications for additional functionality. It would be preferable to have all settings in one application, though splitting it up does serve to simplify the controls within each.

One feature that can only be accessed via the LogiTune app is RightSight, an auto-framing tool designed to automatically track you to ensure you remain in shot. It worked effectively during my tests, quickly zooming in and following the individual on-screen whether sitting directly in front of the webcam or standing a few feet away. The feature got a little confused with two people in view, occasionally honing in on either one of us rather than framing us as a pair, but beyond that, I had no problems with its functionality.

Elsewhere, microphone performance is decent, but could be better. My speech was clear and audible to those I spoke to, though a couple of them mentioned my voice being accompanied by a tinny echo from time to time. And while the webcam’s AI-noise reduction tech reduced lower-frequency background noise such as that from the office air conditioning, it struggled with the higher-pitched clicks and clacks of keyboards.

Many of the best webcams focus on picture quality over sound, and it’s great the MX Brio has a functioning mic at all, but you’ll want to invest in a good quality headset or standalone microphone for optimal performance.

Logitech MX Brio review: Should you buy it?

Successful webcams typically score highly in two key areas: high-quality video and functional design. The Logitech MX Brio delivers on both fronts, allowing you to collaborate remotely without any major drawbacks, most novelly through its Show Mode functionality and most impressively via its low-light performance.

Despite not being the best example of it, the inclusion of dual beamforming microphones is a welcome one and helps make the MX Brio an excellent plug-and-play option, while additional controls in Logitech’s accompanying apps mean you can fine-tune your appearance to a pleasing degree.

In sum then, the MX Brio gets very little wrong. Sure, it’s pricey, but it’s a wonderful 4K webcam that does almost everything you could ask for.