Test webcam quality when reviewing laptops

As a long-term subscriber, I have come to trust and respect your reviews, often buying or downloading hardware and software you recommend.

So last year, when looking to buy a new laptop, I went with your recommendation of the HP Envy 13 that has been your ‘Buy It’ laptop for over a year now (see page 30). Over the next six months my new Envy dealt with everything I threw at it. But then came coronavirus and in March like most people I was confined to home, followed by the onslaught of requests to join online meetings.

So as people scrambled on the internet to buy overpriced webcams, I sat smugly with the knowledge that I had the highly rated HP Envy 13 with its HD wideangle built-in webcam. Well, what a smug fool I turned out to be. The Envy’s webcam is terrible – it’s like going back to the days of VGA. The image is grainy with continuous background flickering like dust particles.

At first, I thought it must be my settings or the background light, but nothing I tried made any difference, so off I went to the web for ideas, only to find that on all forums (including HP’S) there were lots of complaints about the poor quality of its webcam.

So in your reviews can you please check the webcams, as unfortunately in these unprecedented times the quality of our webcams is as important as the touch of the keyboard, the speed of the processor or the length of battery life. Got to go now as I need to look on the internet to buy an overpriced webcam. Steve Wright

CA SAYS Steve’s correct to say that lockdown led to a sharp rise in demand for webcams, and that the rising popularity of video calling makes people value webcams more when choosing which laptop to buy. To reflect this, we’ll include more info on webcams in future in our reviews.