Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite Review: Almost All The Quality For A Fraction Of The Cost

Obsbot makes what is arguably the best webcam on the market (maybe aside from enterprise-focused cameras) with the Obsbot Tiny 2, which I’ve previously reviewed and loved. Now, the company is gunning for a more mass market appeal, taking most that made the original model so great and making the right cuts to get to a more accessible price point.

The result is the new Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite, a webcam that, by all accounts, is still really, really good. The image quality on this camera is fantastic in most scenarios, and while there are clear compromises in low-light scenarios, considering it costs almost half the price of the original model, it’s a great option if you have a slightly tighter budget.

About this review: Obsbot sent us the Tiny 2 Lite for the purposes of this review. The company had no input in its contents.

Great value

OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite

Excellent quality for the price

Costing nearly half of its bigger brother, the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite still manages to deliver some of the best image quality you can get in a webcam, as well as all the features that make Obsbot webcams great like responsive face tracking and motion controls.

Pros

• Excellent image quality in most lighting scenarios
• Face tracking still works rell
• More compact design than the original model

Cons

• Low-light performance could be better
• Gesture controls can be frustrating at times

Pricing and availability

The Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite launched on June 26th, 2024, and it’s now available from Obsbot’s website as well as retailers like Amazon.

Pricing comes in at $179, which puts it will below the $329 launch price of the original Obsbot Tiny 2, and even below other options we’ve reviewed like the previous Tiny 4K or the Insta360 Link.

Design and build quality

A webcam that can follow you

Obsbot has been specializing in what we call PTZ webcams, with PTZ standing for “pan, tilt, zoom”. These webcams have a gimbal that allows them to keep you in frame all the time by rotating and tilting as needed. That spirit is all here with the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite, so you’re not sacrificing any of that. You get the exact same range of movement as you do with the more expensive model, so you have a lot of flexibility here.

Related

Obsbot Tiny 2 review: The best webcam I’ve ever used

The Obsbot Tiny 2 offers some of the best image quality you can get in a webcam, and the tracking capabilities make it versatile, too.

A lot of webcams in laptops, and even some external ones, will offer a form of tracking that’s all based on software, basically cropping into the sensor to keep you in frame. That means cameras can track you, but that comes at the expense of image quality, and what’s worse, that tracking can be pretty slow and jarring, forcing you to wait a few seconds while the camera catches up. None of that is an issue here.

The gimbal on the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite can rotate very quickly to ensure you’re in the frame at almost all times. Its biggest weakness is if you sit down too quickly (especially if you stand very close to the camera), as it can have a hard time following you on the way down. That’s also true for every other webcam I’ve tested, though.

A more subdued look

Something that really stood out with the Obsbot Tiny 2 was its premium-feeling design, which even used some metal to give the hardware a genuinely premium look and feel. That’s not something I’ve seen on any other webcam, and with this being a much cheaper model, that’s something you don’t get here. The Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite is entirely made of plastic, so it’s a little less visually striking.

Is that a bad thing? No, not really. Do you really care about how premium a webcam looks? The Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite still looks pretty slender for a webcam, especially with all the hardware it’s packing inside.

One of the big changes for this model is that the monitor mount is now built directly into the hardware, rather than attaching magnetically to the bottom of the camera. You still get a 1/4-inch screw mount, though, if that’s what you prefer. But this more streamlined design actually helps this camera be a little more compact than its more expensive sibling, though it’s not a huge difference.

The downside with this approach is that you can’t tilt the base of the webcam if it’s mounted on a monitor. The magnetic mount on the Obsbot Tiny 2 offered an extra hinge that gave you that much more freedom, and you don’t get that there. That being said, I’ve never made use of the stnad’s ability to tilt on the original Tiny 2. After all, the gimbal already tilts more than enough to follow me around with no issues.

Image and video quality

Still one of the best webcams around

Of course, a webcam is only as good as its sensor, and thankfully, the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite delivers. We have a 48MP sensor here with a 1/2-inch size, which is noticeably smaller than the 1/1.5-inch sensor on the original Tiny 2, but still very good. You also get a f/1.8 apertura, which help the camera handle different lighting situations fairly well. Using this webcam for my usual meetings, I barely noticed a difference compared to the Obsbot Tiny 2 I usually use.

Related

Insta360 Link review: The best webcam, with some drawbacks

The Insta360 Link is an AI-powered 4K webcam made for presenters and it has the best image quality around, though AI tracking is finicky.

To test this out, I took a few sample shots in three different scenarios, comparing the Tiny 2 Lite with the opriginal Tiny 2: One with broad daylight coming in through the window, one with indoor lighting, and one relying only on the light coming from the screen of a nearby laptop. In each set, the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite is first.

As you can see, in well-lit scenarios, the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite performs extremely well. Images are sharp and noise or grain are almost non-existent. The Obsbot Tiny 2 seems to create more of a natural bokeh effect for pictures, and colors also appear to be slightly more vibrant, but the differences really aren’t that big.

It’s when you get to the low-light shots that the shortcomings of the smaller sensor become more apparent in the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite. When relying only on the laptop’s light (which isn’t the PC where the camera is mounted), the original Tiny 2 somehow still manages to capture me fairly well, albeit at the expense of plenty of noise and grain. With the Tiny 2 Lite, my face is almost completely obscured. I suspect most won’t be in such an extreme low-light scenario, though.

I then recorded a couple of videos as well, so I tested both the sensor, tracking capabilities, and the microphones. Keep in mind that I was speaking without actually looking at the spec sheet during these, so there are some errors in what I said. First, here’s a sample of video in low-light:

Despite not being able to make out my face that well, the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite still managed to follow me around surprisingly well. Then, here’s a sample of a video in daylight:

Overall, image quality is still surprisingly good, but of course, low-light performance isn’t going to blow you away.

Software and features

Gesture controls and the Obsbot Center

Something else Obsbot usually includes in its webcams are some smart features, specifically with gesture control and remote controller support. The remote controller is sold separately, but the gesture controls can be pretty useful. You can raise your palm to toggle tracking, or you can make an L gesture to zoom in or out. A more recent addition is the ability to use a dual L gesture and then move your hands to dynamically zoom to your desired level.

I really like this feature, especially because I’ve had a few frustrations with the camera recognizing an L gesture while I’m just talking. I talk with my hands a lot, and sometimes they get picked up and gestures are recognized in ways I don’t want to. Though I will say it’s hilarious when the webcam zooms in on my face while I’m speaking at a meeting.

Thankfully, you can control these features using the Obsbot Center app, which has gone through a few name changes over the years I’ve been reviewing the company’s webcams. Hopefully Obsbot Center is here to stay, as it’s the name that makes the most sense. Here, you can change a ton of settings, including tracking modes, how closely you’d like the camera to zoom in on you, apply beauty filters, and change all manner of settings. I’ve covered the software before, so I won’t go too deep into it again, but it’s definitely worth checking out, even though it’s not required for any of the major features to work, including gesture controls.

Related

Obsbot Tail Air review: The most premium 4K webcam with AI features on the market

The Obsbot Tail Air is the most expensive webcam on the market, but its AI features, excellent video quality, and NDI support make it worth the price

One thing that is missing in this model compared to the Obsbot Tiny 2 is voice control, which was a big selling point of that model. I did use it a bit more than I realized, specifically for turning the camera on or off, but it’s not something I really miss, frankly.

Should you buy the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite?

The Obsbot Tiny 2 is the best webcam I’ve ever used, but at $329, it’s definitely not something for everyone. So for Obsbot to come in with the Tiny 2 Lite at nearly half the price and quality that’s still so great and pretty close to that more expensive model makes this a no-brainer in my eyes. The image quality is noticeably worse in low-light, but in the majority of situations, this is still a great webcam, and a big part of what makes it great is its tracking capabilities, which are basically untouched from that premium model. It’s still better than any standard webcam with hardware-based tracking, and for a price that undercuts many of them, like the Logitech Brio or Dell UltraSharp 4K webcam (outside of sales, at least).

You should buy the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite if:

• You want a webcam with high quality video
• You can use the video tracking capabilities
• You don’t have the budget for a $300 webcam

You should NOTbuy the Obsbot Tiny 2 Lite if:

• You need the absolute best low-light performance
• $180 is still too much

Excellent quality

OBSBOT Tiny 2 Lite

With excellent image quality and tracking capabilities on par with its more expensive sibling, the Obsbot TIny 2 Lite is an easy recommendation for anyone with a smaller budget that still wants to take their online meetings to the next level.