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Skype and Logitech promise better video calling

Logitech and Skype promise high-quality video calls

Matt Elliott Senior Editor
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
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Matt Elliott
VGA resolution means bigger beards.

Skype and Logitech have partnered, hoping to do for video calling what Loggins and Messina did for yacht rock. The beautiful music the two companies hope to create with their union is high-quality video calling, with promises of VGA (640x480) resolution and a smooth 30 frames per second. To get the goods, you'll need one of three Logitech cameras: the QuickCam Pro 9000, the QuickCam Pro for Notebooks, or the QuickCam Orbit AF and the latest version of Logitech's Webcam software, QuickCam 11.5. You'll also need the latest Skype client, version 3.6, along with a broadband connection and a dual-core processor.

Coincidentally, I'm working on a handful of Webcam reviews this week, including the QuickCam Pro 9000. Unfortunately, I can't put these high-quality video claims to immediate test because, strangely, Skype isn't releasing 3.6 to coincide with this announcement. (It's expected in November.)

Having tested the QuickCam Pro for Notebooks two weeks ago, I can tell you that while the video quality was impressive when using the QuickCam software, the quality dropped noticeably when using Skype. Next month, I'll put Skype and Logitech's high-quality video claims to the test.

[Via Gizmodo]