There is a myriad of webcams on the market, all competing with each other with more features but unfortunately with that the cost also increases as more features are added. The Anker PowerConf C202 offers a basic budget webcam with minimal features but features that you will actually use and need.
The model number Anker sent me was the PowerConf C200 which they assure me is the same as the C202 sold in Australia. For the review just interchange C200 with C202 and vice versa.
One of my biggest bugbears with laptops is that the manufacturers continue to install sub-standard webcams in their laptops. It’s 2023, 720P just shouldn’t be the standard anymore. This is where the Anker PowerConf C202 comes to the fore.
It is small, portable, and powerful. Sure, it’s not the EPOS EXPAND Vision 1 which offers 4K vision along with some high-end AI software, but it is also not $379! The Anker PowerConf C202 not only fits in your pocket but also in your budget.
Design and setup
The AnkerWork PowerConf C202 webcam is beautiful in its simplicity. It’s a relatively simple black box of tiny dimensions – it is just 55mm deep, 50mm high (including the stand/clip when it is folded up) and just 40mm wide. It is also super light at just 83 grams making it perfect for on-the-go high quality web conferencing.
The top of it has a slide for the physical privacy shutter which is housed inside the webcam. It is pretty obvious when the shutter is on – it is bright red so you will see it over the camera lens. The rear of the webcam houses the USB-C power connection. AnkerWork provide a USB-C to USB-C cable to use with it in the box but any and all USB-C cables worked for me so you don’t have to use theirs.
Underneath the webcam is the clip or stand. It folds back revealing rubber underneath to cushion it and help hold it in place on top of your monitor. The bottom of the clip also has a standard tripod thread if you wish to screw it onto a tripod instead.
The clip is great for laptop monitors, but not for my home monitor is a large 38-inch ultrawide Alienware monitor which is quite thick in the middle. The clip did not fold back enough to be able to fit in the middle of my monitor, so if you plan on using this on a standard desktop monitor check that it will fit first – ideally the monitor will need to be under 30mm or so for the webcam to fit comfortably and securely on top.
The clip nor webcam does not swivel so unless you want a view of the side of your head you will have to place it directly in front of you. I got around this by swivelling my monitor so the left-hand side was facing me and looking at that left third of the display only.
Even with tiny bezels on my laptop, the webcam did not obscure the display more than maybe a millimetre or so – and that is with an XPS minimal bezel laptop.
Inside is a 5MP CMOS sensor which supports a 2K resolution (2,560 x 1,440 pixels) at 30fps and auto-focus. The auto-focus is important with webcams for those who move a bit in front of their camera – either back or forwards as they adjust their level of comfort throughout the presentation etc. It worked quite well, although at times it did take a fraction of a second (maybe half a second) to focus on me.
The front of the webcam houses the two microphones which allow for AI noise cancelling, cutting out nearby background noises. These worked fairly well but not as well as those on my (much more expensive and much larger) AnkerWork B600 webcam.
At the front, between the two microphones is an LED light that functions as an indicator light to let you know when the camera is operational.
Performance
The performance of such a small and relatively cheap camera was quite surprising, even in low light. I don’t operate in low light conditions normally but if you do then you should still feel comfortable that the C202 will be able to display you quite well. The light from the monitor by itself was enough to get me by although with a smaller monitor such as that on the Surface Laptop Go the camera struggled. This was in zero ambient light though – how often will you be filming in those conditions.
I personally use the 65-degree field of view because my study is a mess with boxes and more but if you want a wider field of view the C202 supports up to 95 degrees – perfect for that family video calling someone remotely, or for displaying that whiteboard behind you as you teach/lecture/present remotely. You could easily fit the whole family or whiteboard within the 95-degree field of view.
The mic picked up my voice well, and with the dogs barking like crazy at an “intruder” walking on the footpath outside, they were nearly totally removed from the audio. The AI-enabled noise cancellation works well – I was sure the barking would ruin the presentation. You could still hear it but barely.
Software features
The PowerConf C202 supports plug and play with windows (I don’t have a Mac to test any of this on) and was able to easily stream in any of the video apps I tested – Teams, Telegram, Zoom, and Meet. The audio was great and the video was as good as it gets with this webcam – which is excellent.
Rather than set the FOV for the app, the webcam remembers the last FOV you used when using the camera (or the default FOV if your first time) and uses that, along with all other settings you chose previously.
If you want to change these settings yourself, you will need the AnkerWork app. This allows you to change the FOV, the video resolution, manually adjust the brightness, sharpness, saturation and contrast ratio, turn on auto-focus and auto white balance and to change the mic pickup from wither omni-directional (360deg) or directional pickup (90 deg). I sit in front of my webcam while video conferencing etc so the only audio I want focused on is directly in front of the webcam so I chose the 90degree option here.
Conclusion
The AnkerWork PowerConf C202 is a great little webcam. It lacks a lot of the bells and whistles that the higher end webcams all have but for most people, these bells and whistles are either rarely used or make very little difference to their web conferencing experience. The PowerConf C202 includes a 2K resolution, AI noise cancellation, and mics that can pick up your voice really well.
The camera is surprisingly good in low light — even when the only light was the 12-inch laptop monitor display and virtually pitch black everywhere else. Autofocus was decent too and in the end the result using the webcam was good for all web conferencing apps I tested it on.
Only downsides to the C202 were the lack of a swivel on the mounting clip and the relatively small thickness of monitor needed to fit the clip to. The centre of my desktop monitor was too thick to mount it to.
At RRP $169.95 the AnkerWork PowerConf C202 is not a small price but it is a lot less than most of the other decent webcams on the market — especially the high-end 4K webcams. At that RRP I would have to say it is great value for money given the quality of the video it produces. Add in that it is extremely portable and it is a great little webcam that I can comfortably recommend.
For more information head on over to the AnkerWork website. You can buy it (often for under RRP) at all good tech retailers now.
