The YoloCam S3 is a 4K webcam with a 1/1.28-inch sensor and a f/1.85 aperture. It has a fairly wide 82-degree field of view, 4x digital zoom, HDR, and AI-enhanced facial tracking and low-light boosting. It can stream video at 4K (30 fps) and at 1080p (60/50/30/25 fps).
Well-lit Performance: YoloCam S3 (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Well-lit Performance: Logitech MX Brio (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Well-lit Performance: Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) The YoloCam S3 performed very well in the well-lit scenario — I was particularly impressed with how crisp and clear the picture looked right out of the box. Not all 4K webcams are created equal: Resolution is only one aspect of what makes you look good on a webcam (and let's be serious — it often works against that); the lens/sensor and software-based fine-tuning ("post-processing") also play a large part.
While image quality on the YoloCam S3 was excellent, it was a little too high-contrast. You can see in the image above that the result is a slightly washed-out looking subject (me), and blowouts in areas that are very white (the keyboard on my desk). It doesn't look terrible, but it's noticeable enough that it seems like I need to poke around in the companion software and do at least a little tweaking.
To test the YoloCam S3's performance in low lighting, I turned off all of the lights in my office and three of my monitors, leaving only my primary 34-inch widescreen monitor turned on. I took these pictures with the Windows 11 camera app on one half of my screen, and my desktop wallpaper (dark) on the other half.
Low-Light Performance: YoloCam S3 (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Low-Light Performance: Logitech MX Brio (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Low-Light Performance: Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) The too-high-contrast is more noticeable here — you can see blown out areas on my face, which is… not ideal, to say the least. The webcam still did a great job of picking up detail, both on the subject (me) and in the background, and there was very little graininess as I moved around (but, of course, lowering the contrast introduces a little more grain).
To test the YoloCam S3's performance in an overexposed setting, I turned off all of the lights and monitors in front of me (except for my primary 34-inch monitor), and kept the lights behind and above me turned on. This is probably one of the more common lighting scenarios for people who aren't professional streamers, as most people don't have studio lighting set up to shine at them from behind their monitor.
Overexposed Performance: YoloCam S3 (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Overexposed Performance: Logitech MX Brio (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) Overexposed Performance: Razer Kiyo Pro Ultra (Image credit: Tom's Hardware) The YoloCam S3 performed well in this scenario (no webcam does very well). It attempted to light both the subject and the background and ended up leaning a little too heavily on both contrast and saturation, which is pretty typical for, well, most webcams. The webcam didn't disappoint or impress in this scenario, it performed as expected.
The YoloCam S3 is configurable through the YoloLiv Compose companion app. The app gives you a nice amount of control over picture quality: You can manually adjust exposure, white balance, sharpness, contrast, and saturation; switch between continuous, single, and face-focused autofocus (and manual focus); switch the frame rate and orientation, and zoom and crop areas of the image (you can set four hotkeys for different "scenes").
The app also has a color-grading feature "similar to DaVinci Resolve" that lets you color-grade your images in real time — a nice feature for streamers, but it's too involved for the average person (and even the average streamer) to use constantly.
Sarah Jacobsson Purewal is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware covering peripherals, software, and custom builds. You can find more of her work in PCWorld, Macworld, TechHive, CNET, Gizmodo, Tom's Guide, PC Gamer, Men's Health, Men's Fitness, SHAPE, Cosmopolitan, and just about everywhere else. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-19/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Sarah Jacobsson Purewal Social Links Navigation Senior Editor, Peripherals Sarah Jacobsson Purewal is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware covering peripherals, software, and custom builds. You can find more of her work in PCWorld, Macworld, TechHive, CNET, Gizmodo, Tom's Guide, PC Gamer, Men's Health, Men's Fitness, SHAPE, Cosmopolitan, and just about everywhere else.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/webcams/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/webcams/yololiv-yolocam-s3-review#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.