Lenovo 500 FHD WebCam — a cheap camera which is supported by Windows Hello

Today I suggest you look at a quite interesting webcam whose distinguishing feature is the presence of an infrared camera, so today's camera can be used to unlock your Windows PC by face, it is supported by Windows Hello. If someone doesn’t know it is some kind of Microsoft analogue to Apple’s FaceID feature. 

The camera comes in a small white box. On the front there is a device printed, and some advantages are written.

On the back side of the box information about the device and manufacturer is written.

On one of the box sides also the camera printed, but on the side view the so-called half-face.

And finally on the other side there are other advantages.

Inside the box, in addition to the camera, there is a USB to USB-C cable, and a waste paper set. The cable length is about 1.8 meters long, which should be enough, even if your computer stands under a table. 

The first thing that is immediately evident is that the cable is not built in, it can be unplugged. I can’t actually understand why they made it, but let it be. By the way, the camera's interface is USB-C. 

The camera is parallelepiped with 2 round edges, standing on a stand. The construction size is 107x63x50mm, and weight is 123 gramm. 

If you look in front you will see a state indication led, some hole (I suppose that it is some kind of infrared led), an IR and a simple camera. Camera shoots at full hd resolution. Lenses allow the camera to make the picture at 75 degrees.

On the top of the camera there is a lever, which is controlling a shutter to physically close cameras, making more confidentiality for you. 

On the back there is only the USB-C port, as I mentioned earlier.

A stand cannot be unplugged, but the camera can be placed on any angle by vertical. I can’t say that incline is regulated in high ranges, but I think that for almost everyone this should be enough. Because of the  construction the camera can be placed both on a monitor, and on a table. Besides there is a thread on the bottom of the stand, so the camera can be placed on a tripod. Also there is printed information about the device. 

You should keep in mind that there is no built-in microphone.

Generally the total view and quality of materials didn’t make me have any questions, everything looks good.

Windows determined the camera itself, without the need of downloading or installing drivers manually. 

The Unlock of PC with face feature works perfectly. This is realy very comfortable, especially if you have to lock your system several times per day.

But as for me the quality of video could be much better. Also 75 degrees camera angle, could be too low for someone. But anyway, I think it should be enough for routine tasks, like calls to zoom, conferences and so on. At least though video quality is not perfect but it is also not  totally huge. If you want to use it for video streams for example, then maybe you should look at other products, but again — for main tasks, it’s OK

Of Course you shouldn’t forget that by the time of shooting this video the camera was one of the cheapest which had certification for Windows Hello. Remembering that, I think we can’t carp video quality. 

In short, I think that for its price, with the ability to turn on face unlock, this camera is not bad. Of Course quality of video could be better, and any, maybe even cheapest microphone could be placed, but we have what we have.  The main feature for me was Windows Hello support, and that function works perfectly, so I think I would buy that camera again, and you, as they say — decide for yourself.