Labs

The Genius Trek 310 has a high-tech look with an array of LEDs and microphone holes surrounding the lens. Along with the MSI StarCam 370i, the Trek has automatic infrared LEDs for low-light conditions.

Image quality wasn't great, though. With fixed focus, it's hard to get a sharp picture, and we were disappointed with the resolution and detail. The image was too dark, while oversaturated colours gave skin a red cast that couldn't

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be adjusted out using the software controls. Audio quality was also poor, giving the speaker a virtual lisp and injecting a lot of background noise.

The Genius sits on a triangular base with two hooks under the front edge. It can sit flat on a desk or CRT, or on top of a TFT. On a notebook, the base hangs down the back of the display and holds on using the two front hooks.

The camera can pivot backwards and forwards and twist from side to side, but the lack of resistance meant the USB cable's weight tipped the camera back to point at the ceiling. We resorted to using Blu Tack to fix it in place.

Genius bundles software to take video clips and snapshots. It also has a motion-detection mode to capture video when movement is detected. The interface is poorly laid out, though - we preferred the packages supplied with other cameras.

Ultimately, the Trek 310 disappointed us in all four main areas: image quality, audio quality, mechanical design and software. It may be cheap, but it isn't good value.