The NexiGo Hellocam comes from American tech brand NexiGo. You've never heard of NexiGo? That may be because it's a rather new one on the scene. Becoming a manufacturer of home and office tech (after being a successful retailer of other brands before) only in 2020.
The company's first product was a webcam, the N60, and with remote working exploding during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, it was a rather big hit, so I feel it's fitting that the first NexiGo product we review is a webcam.
The camera sample I got in for review and have used for my work meetings as a remote worker myself for the last month is a more recent introduction, the Hellocam, a 1080p webcam with integrated dual microphones, a Windows Hello feature, facial enhancement and an automatic privacy shutter.
It's marketed as a budget-level webcam with some midrange features, so I was interested to see whether it would bother our lists of the best webcams or the best conference-room webcams available right now. So over the last month, I've given it the good ol' shakedown...
NexiGo Hellocam review: Design and build
The black NexiGo Hellocam comes out of the box attached to its monitor clip, and feels lightweight but not too fragile. On each side of the lens are plastic-cased wings that contain the device's hardware, a touch sensor and the camera's Windows Hello lens.
The plastic casing is matte black and is thankfully not to smudge-prone, which is a nice change of pace in my Fingerprint City home office. The automatic privacy shutter that blocks the lens whenever the camera is switched off is perhaps the most striking element as you look at the front, as its bright red colour ensures you very much notice whether it's in place or not.
The clip attaches effortlessly and firmly to different monitor shapes without much wobble and with minimal fumbling around needed. You then connect it to your computer via USB.
NexiGo Hellocam review: Features and performance
Setting the NexiGo Hellocam up is really easy, and I found it a true plug-and-play experience. In Windows, you can adjust the camera's settings via the computer's Camera app, and the Windows Hello setup was really quick and easy. As I have a painted portrait behind my desk, it got a little confused with face recognition during setup, which I will take as a good sign of its ability to spot faces.
Then after setup, whenever logging into my computer, it automatically kicks into life to snap my face and let me in, so the Windows Hello function is very smooth and works well.
Security and privacy around webcams has become paramount with constant reports of webcam hacking, so having a privacy cover or shutter on your camera is a must. Here it's an automatic electronic - and very very red - cover that snaps into place whenever the camera is shut off. I prefer a physical shutter I can operate manually, as when an electronic shutter stops working, that security feature is effectively useless, but there are no reports of that happening on this camera, and it's worked perfectly throughout my considerable use of my review sample.
One of the Hellocam's advertised features is facial enhancement via 3DNR technology, which aims to subtly brighten and enhance your appearance to stand out that little bit more in video calls. While, as a 1080p camera rather than a 2K or 4K camera, you'll never look as detailed and sharp as on those, I found the picture quality here completely to my expectations, and a clear upgrade over my native laptop camera or most included monitor cameras I've used recently. This can be seen most clearly when I see my video feed next to colleagues using a native 720p laptop camera (and sometimes even a 1080p) during a meeting and my image is both brighter and sharper.
The camera is also fitted with dual noise-cancelling microphones, positioned to catch speech from either side of the camera and across a room. I never struggled to make myself heard during meetings with several people, even when moving around the room or varying my volume. Incidental noise, speech from outside the room, and environmental sounds would get picked up too, but it seemed to perform well enough to pick out and enhance speech above that whenever I was speaking, at least as well or better than most cameras in its budget price range.
NexiGo Hellocam review: Price
Speaking of price range, the NexiGo Hellocam is competitively priced at $69.99 (UK price TBC), which is in line with many other 1080p cameras, but the Hellocam has its privacy shutter and effortless Windows Hello function going for it too, unlike many similarly priced competitors.
Should you buy the NexiGo Hellocam?
The webcam market is huge, chaotic and confusing. Definitively comparing the Hellocam against every other candidate in the $50-100 price range is effectively impossible, but what I've found during my time with the Hellocam is a camera that works effortlessly, gives me good picture quality for the price (equal to some £100/$100-120 cameras I've used) and feels sturdy too.
So if you are considering a NexiGo Hellocam for your webcam, we can't find a definitive reason to tell you not to get it.
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