Obsbot Tiny 2 review: A fantastic 4K AI webcam

The Obsbot Tiny 2 webcam is an object lesson in stuffing a shedload of functionality into a tiny package. It delivers multiple AI-enhanced tracking modes, mechanical pan and tilt movements, and gesture and voice control, but is no larger than a box of OXO cubes.

It’s not all about the flashy features either. The quality of this webcam’s 4K video feed is excellent, the bundled software is unusually comprehensive and well thought-out and can support up to four cameras simultaneously.

Of course, these sorts of features don’t come cheap. The Obsbot is a bit on the costly side at £329, which is a lot of money for a webcam no matter how good and feature-packed.

Obsbot Tiny 2 Webcam review: What do you get for the money?

The Obsbot Tiny 2 is well-named because it is indeed tiny, measuring just 47 x 44 x 62mm (WDH). The device consists of two components: a gimbal-mounted camera module that sits on a rounded base unit, and a multi-angle mount.

Immediately below the camera is an LED strip light that lets you know what mode the camera is in. For instance, blue indicates that the tracking system is operational while yellow tells you that the camera has lost the tracking target. The status LED can be turned off or adjusted between three levels of brightness.

The base unit affixes magnetically to a multi-angle mount which has two hinges. The dual-hinge design not only allows for a wide range of angle adjustments but also lets you add 20mm of perpendicular height if you want to raise the camera. The base also has a quarter-inch screw in it for a tripod or stand mount so all your likely mounting requirements should be covered.

Without the 36g angle mount, the camera unit only weighs 80g, which can lead to issues with the rather thick USB-C cable stopping it from sitting true on a flat surface. The obvious benefit of the small size and light weight is that it makes it easy to carry the Tiny 2 with you for use with a laptop. Obsbot bundles a high-quality reinforced zip case with the camera to keep it safe in transit.

The design allows for a full range of pivots and tilt, which is very impressive considering the webcam is so tiny, while the origami stand lets you set the unit up just about anywhere. The gimbal has 140 degrees of motion in either direction horizontally and between +30 and -70 degrees vertically, which further adds to its versatility.

The Tiny 2 is built around a 1/1.5-inch CMOS sensor with a native resolution of 50MP. The sensor is considerably bigger than what you’ll find on most other webcams (Razer’s Kiyo Pro Ultra is one exception I can think of with its 1/1.2-inch sensor) and that’s important because the more surface area that a camera sensor has per pixel, the better it can pick up light and that in turn means less visual noise, especially in low-light environments.

The camera uses a system called pixel binning, a process that combines the light from multiple pixels into a single pixel, which explains why it can only output 4K 30fs or 1080p 60fs video despite the headline 50-megapixel resolution. The camera also has an f/1.9 lens with an 85-degree field of view.

Obsbot also sent me the Tiny Smart Remote 2, a £60 accessory that connects to your computer via a 2.4GHz dongle. As well as acting as a remote control for the Tiny 2, it doubles up as a presentation clicker-cum-laser pointer. It’s a well-made and feature-laden bit of kit but for the price, it should be.

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Obsbot Tiny 2 Webcam review: What did we like about it?

The Tiny 2’s video quality is quite simply excellent and to some degree the best I’ve ever encountered from a domestic webcam. Video recorded in 4K in a moderately-lit room looked sharp, had perfect exposure, and had good colour saturation.

If something about the colour balance isn’t quite to your liking you can adjust the hue, saturation, sharpness and contrast in the Obsbot Centre control panel (Windows and MacOS). This also means you can use the Tiny 2 in black and white if you fancy projecting yourself in early-period Ingmar Bergman style during a video call.

When it comes to activating the Tiny 2’s various modes, you have no less than three options. If you’re feeling old school you can use the Obsbot software, but gesture and voice command options are also available and these are undeniably more enticing.

The gesture interface works fairly reliably but holding one or two hands up in front of the camera with a finger or thumb extended made me feel like I should’ve said “Live long and prosper” while using it. As well as this, the gesture to enable or disable the tracking wasn’t to my taste.

I quickly fell back to using the voice commands, which I found to be more reliable, much easier to remember and made me feel less of a boob even when in the office on my own.

The nine vocal commands — three are to engage any user presets you’ve set up — are pretty obvious. “Track me” engages auto-tracking, “Unlock me” turns it off, “Zoom in closer” and “Zoom out further” do exactly what you’d expect as does “Hi Tiny” (wake) and “Sleep, Tiny” (sleep). The last command causes the camera to point down at the base so in effect it is a privacy shutter.

The face-tracking system is rather impressive and can only be fooled if you move your face out of the camera shot too quickly. Pop back into view or manually move the housing and the camera resumes tracking like a faithful dog that has found you in the toilet after you left the room unnoticed.

The camera had no problem following me and keeping me in focus as I strode around my office. You can choose between upper or lower body tracking, close-up and headless depending on what part of your anatomy want in the centre frame but I tended to leave it in Normal Tracking mode.

The hand-tracking feature seemed rather easy to flummox when I started gesticulating too quickly or extravagantly. There’s also a whiteboard feature which automatically focuses on said board when in view but without a whiteboard to hand I can’t tell you how well this works.

The raft of picture enhancements available through the Obsbot Center software makes the Tiny 2 a boon for anyone running hardware that doesn’t support the latest Windows Studio “AI” camera effects. That’s anything not running on Intel Core Ultra or Qualcomm Snapdragon X silicon.

As well as applying varying degrees of bokeh effect to blur the background, the software offers a host of beautification and filter options to alter your appearance. There are also some handy semi-pro features like the option to use automatic exposure or manually adjust the shutter speed and ISO setting, change the white balance and colour temperature and opt for manual focus or auto focus either on your face or across the whole image.

There’s also an HDR option and a switch to jump between landscape and portrait modes; the latter proved very useful while pacing back and forth or presenting while standing up.

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Obsbot Tiny 2 Webcam review: What could it do better?

The Tiny 2 doesn’t have any real flaws to speak of, so in looking at its failings I’m reduced to pointing out that some of its features are not quite as impressive as others.

There’s nothing actually wrong with the performance of the built-in microphone. It handles audio capture and voice commands perfectly and I had no complaints about audio quality from folks on the other end of Zoom and Teams calls. But it just isn’t as impressive as the visual performance.

The three-position background noise reduction system (four, if you include Off) is effective — in Strong mode it’s very effective, completely removing the Kelly Lee Owens track I was playing through my PC’s Creative T60 speakers.

The audio recordings I made sounded clear despite the audible room noise but my voice sounded just a tad distant and boomy. For casual everyday communications, the built-in mic is perfectly serviceable, but to match the Tiny 2’s excellent video performance you’re going to need to invest in a good-quality remote microphone like the Shure MV5C.

It’s worth mentioning that the Tiny 2 does get rather warm to the touch after prolonged use, presumable a side effect of all the electronics and gimbal motors being packaged into such a small space.

Obsbot Tiny 2 Webcam review: Should you buy one?

It’s hard to not be impressed by the Obsbot Tiny 2. It’s a beautifully crafted little gem of a gadget that generates superb quality video and is laden to the gunwales with features. It’s also one of those gadgets that impresses by the sheer level of attention to detail that has gone into the design and engineering.

Naturally, some will baulk at paying £329 for a webcam, but the price is not overly exorbitant when placed alongside the likes of the Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra and after using it for a few weeks it’s impossible to not regard the clever little Obsbot camera as good value for money. Would I buy one? Probably not as my needs don’t justify such an outlay for a webcam, but I’m seriously hoping that Obsbot forget to ask for the review sample back.