I think that while they don't have to be the best. They should be more than the 0.3MP camera on my $240 HP Chromebook. The camera is a disaster and is terrible for Google Meet.

Lenovo V17 IIL has  0.3mp / 480p front camera - like a first mobile phones. Its ridiculous

I bought a DELL XPS 15 9500 for $4,000 to be able to move my work with me. My clients think I am coming from some far away past every time I use my new laptop for  net meetings. Lighting is off, image is grainy, everything blurs nicely. Trying to project professionally remotely using this laptop you loose the battle before it even begins.
Buying a lot of extra components kind of defeats the purpose of the laptop.

Frankly after covid problem, when people are working from homes then how much power is there in processor or whether it has a ssd or not have been replaced by a parameter of moot consideration. This parameter is none other.Its your webcam.
Today i have an i3 or i5 ,it doesnot matter as i can do a VC with both.
Teachers who take online classes have been mandated to see students and recognize them by face so that imposters are not signing in as security breach. In this time ,if laptop companies think that webcam is not so important for users then in my frank opinion somewhere there is a need of a big marketing research.Its your face first by which people see you and know you so how can this feature be neglected.Take MI for example.They have separated webcam from laptop itself.Do you think it really helped them good sales.I had mind to buy a new laptop but due to this reason MI was not in my list no matter they even give me an i7 in 60k INR.

my old Eee 900 (a super budget netbook from 11 years ago) has a 1.3MP camera.  It's been incredibly frustrating to me to see notebooks continue to not have anything better than that

 I think they can increase the prices a but and include a camera of atleast 20MP. Nowadays smartphones have cameras even of 64 mp. So why not in laptops? Vudeo conferencing is better via laptops. And though things like ram, cpu, gpu attracts customers, they will surely be repelled after the users' first video conference.

I saw many grand parents who were living away from their grand children,  connect on laptop skype,  with them every week.
Many you tube reaction videos are made with laptops only.

Customers don't buy laptops just for webcam? Who told you this OEMs? Don't ya people know that we use Skype and other video chat services most of the time and u people think this old webcam tech is enough? >:(

Then, u people got to learn about what we customers need. Of course we need,at least, a good 1080p capable cam on a laptop. It's 2020 and still shitty 720p!!!

Finally an good "loud" message from a good reputation site that may help things change.
I am also disappointed of the lack of consideration a webcam as I use intensively mine multiple days of week. I'm a professional so I clearly do not use my phone to do conferences and I agree the video/audio quality of webcam of a few laptops are pretty bad.
When we see the front facing cameras of phones half the price nowadays, it's clearly a joke.
Please keep pushing in that direction and thank you !

I want a good webcam on my laptop. I have video conferences at least once a week, and a good webcam would enable me to use a laptop. Currently I need to use a tablet, in order to make a professional impression  and that annoys me.

It is not only 720p cameras.. In 2020 they still have modern, slim laptops for a 1000$  with 4gb or ram. I bet their answer would be same... Who needs more? When cheaper mobile phones has 8gb+

Quote from: WillM on February 10, 2020, 09:00:20
Do we actually need cameras in laptops anymore, at all?

Home users have long ago transferred to smartphones and tablets, and I believe the business users would actually prefer external clamp-on devices (the real 90s style) rather than built-in cameras. Or even no cameras at all, actually. Hence the fashionable shutters lately.

Some of us actually use the laptop's webcam quite a lot. I understand desktop PCs not having webcams, but laptops... It's a must.

Do we actually need cameras in laptops anymore, at all?

Home users have long ago transferred to smartphones and tablets, and I believe the business users would actually prefer external clamp-on devices (the real 90s style) rather than built-in cameras. Or even no cameras at all, actually. Hence the fashionable shutters lately.

"Customers just don't buy laptops for their webcams" IDIOTS. All the PC OEMs. Just idiots. They never GAVE people competitively decent webcams to make a statement like that.

I absolutely hate video calling on phones despite their amazing selfie camera because I've to hold the device or place and position it on a stand, the screen is tiny, the speakers are crappy, the microphone noise cancellation isn't that great.

I even tried hooking my phone via DisplayPort cable to a big monitor attached to big speakers but the lame video calling apps like WhatsApp don't support video calling in landscape orientation on external attached monitor and the call audio (not media audio) continues to come through the phone's crappy tiny speakers.

That is why I got fed up and purchased Facebook Portal (yes FB and privacy, yada yada, get over it), it's a decent device with outstanding cameras, superb noise-canceling beamforming microphones, very loud speakers and a 10/15 inch display.

PC webcams lost. PC OEMs can do better. They're pathetic at webcams.

If you don't like Facebook, you can get Google Nest Hub Max for superb video calling although it's camera is only 6.5 MP vs the 12 MP 140 degrees wide angle you get with Portal. If you use the webcam only for calling and not recording, these devices will forever free you from junkPC webcams which are a joke.

There are some limitations still with these devices - they are only good for calls, not other things a webcam allows like recording and uploading for vloggers. Facebook Portal does have live streaming to FB though. Despite coming from FB which has very dicey privacy reputation, it is designed with privacy in mind - coming with buttons to disable the mic and camera and a physical lens cover.

Thanks to NotebookCheck for raising this issue. Maybe Dell, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, Acer, Microsoft - someone will realize webcams need to catch up to 4K and come with big sensor size, small f number, HDR - all the goodies that smartphone selfie cams have. Even Logitech's BRIO webcam is no match for mobile devices or smart video calling displays.

People got it all wrong, pixel count is not important, even they give you 12mp it will look like junk, what they need to do is increase the sensor size something like 1/2" keep it to 1mp/2mp to increase the pixel area size, this help dynamic range, and this 1mp/2mp will look much better than even the iphone 11