Insta360 Link 2C Review

I would never recommend purchasing the Insta360 Link 2C at full price. This isn’t because it isn’t worth the $150 asking fee, but because in the months I’ve been keeping an eye on it, it has been trading at $100/110 for almost as much as $150. Although it’s not on sale right now, I’ve seen it at both stores at discounted prices Amazon AND Best buy repeatedly over the last few months. At this price point, I can’t recommend any other 4K webcam on the market than this one, assuming you’ll actually be able to take advantage of 4K.

Even now, 4K is still niche. Some programs don’t support this, and others (like Discord) require access to a 4K webcam streaming subscription. Even if your software supports 4K resolution, a tiny camera placed above a Twitch or YouTube stream usually doesn’t justify such a high resolution.

When some 4K webcams cost upwards of $200, that extra cash is never worth it in my cases. However, under $100 it makes a lot more sense and isn’t too far from the prices of standard 1080p webcams.

With its looks and price, the Insta360 Link 2C is a natural competitor to the Obsbot Meet 2, which is still the sweetest webcam I’ve ever used, almost a year after first using it. And when it comes to appearance, the Link 2C seems a bit plain. My model is just a tiny black rectangle with a lens on the left and a groove on the right. There’s a tiny hole in the center for an LED that shows when it’s on, either responding to AI gestures (we’ll get to that later) or turning it off completely.

One of the biggest departures from Meet 2 is the physical privacy filter, which can be turned off on the left side. Given that AI gestures are designed to pick up on what you’re doing at any given moment (we’ll get to that later), this is a webcam that keeps an eye on you most of the time. A physical privacy filter that is not supported by software only provides an additional level of assurance.

Where the Link 2C knocks the Meet 2 out of the park is in its booth. The stand itself is a sturdy clip that attaches to the top of the monitor, and the webcam itself has a magnetic bottom that connects nicely to the stand. Even when I shake the monitor quite thoroughly, it does not move or move.

Unfortunately, there is no screw at the bottom of the camera to attach it to a stand or tripod, but the stand does and I was never afraid of it falling off the stand. In fact, the stand is so tough that you can place it on your desk and not worry about the chunky USB cable knocking it down.

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When it comes to image quality, the half-inch Sony Starlight sensor performs excellently. It copes well with the rather frizzy texture of my curly hair, catching individual strands in the airy. Compared to the Emeeta Pixy, the backgrounds on the Link 2C are a tad blurrier, but the foreground is better lit in natural airy and overall more realistic, with both cameras in default modes with the latest firmware. It’s a matter of preference, but I would choose 2C.

While the colors may be a bit washed out in natural window lighting, I can still clearly see the text on the boxes through the Link 2C lens. For a quick meeting or even streaming, the Link 2C had no problem handling almost anything I could throw at it. When I place objects in front of my face, autofocus kicks in almost immediately, but it can take about a second to register when I hold text next to my face. That’s certainly not a bad thing (how often do you actually show objects in front of the camera by holding them close to your face?), but Obsbot and Emeet’s latest offerings outperform the 2C in the autofocus department.

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I’ve had both the Link 2C and Link 2 side by side in my office for a few weeks now, and they’re almost identical. They have the exact same sensor and the webcam itself is the same size. The main difference is that the Link 2 has a gimbal under the webcam that can be attached to a stand, which is not available on the Link 2C. This means Link 2 can literally follow you around the room and gives you a greater range of movement on your monitor.

You will pay an additional $50 for the difference from the gimbal. It’s worth noting, however, that Link 2 loses its privacy filter in the process, so in a sense, the more pricey device comes with a slight compromise. In my experience, gimbal webcams are a bit niche and in this case my money would go to a cheaper device. This is especially true when you consider that its price is probably one of the best parts of the Link 2C.

Listen to the microphone test here:

For a quick meeting, I found that the Link 2C’s built-in microphone works great, and the AI ​​noise reduction feature filters out background noise just enough to be readable. It’s not impeccable quality, but it’s not the quality I would expect from a webcam in this price range.

Speaking of AI features, the Link 2C is one of many recent webcams that offer a full suite of AI gestures. The first is the zoom mode, which can be activated by holding your hand in an L shape. To actually zoom in or out, activate the zoom mode and then move your hand up to zoom in or down to zoom out.

Unfortunately, I was regularly unable to zoom out comfortably because zooming in too much would cut my hand out of frame, making the software unable to actually process the zoom out request. The shot needed a bit of the runway for the camera to capture your hand, and often that was a lot more than I expected.

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The second AI gesture feature is whiteboard mode, which you can activate by making the peace sign with your fingers. This focuses on the board and cuts off corners that are not on the board for presentations. This is a frosty feature, but also one that most users will never exploit.

Finally, you can activate the auto frame by raising your hand and spreading your fingers. This will zoom in on your face or body and follow you. With Link 2, this autofocus mode makes a little more sense because it can follow you as you move.

I noticed that when I’m sitting, the autofocus just zooms in a lot closer to my face, and performing an autofocus gesture doesn’t bring it back to normal. This means that both the zoom mode and the autofocus mode require going into the software and tweaking manually in most cases, which defeats the purpose of the bright AI gesture features.

The software for using Link 2C is also a bit of a letdown. The first time I launched it, a pop-up window appeared on the screen (clearly it was some kind of tutorial) and it just wouldn’t leave. Turning the software on and off again did not solve the problem and I had to reinstall the software to get it working.

From this point on, the Link software is most often used to set several makeup and filter settings (all of which I hate), as well as to change exposure/temperature. The most useful parts of the Link software are the ability to update the firmware and the feature to disable AI gestures completely.

Once you get past the software-related difficulties, the Insta360 Link 2C delivers high quality, backed by a solid base, solid build quality, and a decent microphone. For $100, I can’t imagine a single webcam I would choose. However, at full price, the competition is much fiercer.

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