Labs

It's too close to call between the Philips SPC 900NC and the MSI StarCam 370i in terms of image quality, but it's the Philips that's ultimately better designed. It gently attaches to the thinnest notebook screen or the thickest TFT. You can also fold the clip flat to rest on top of any flat surface, and there's even a tripod mount. The lens slides up and down for adjustment and twists for focusing.

The image has a good field of view, and it's wide enough to fit more

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than one person in the picture. In our full-screen image tests, it's clear the MSI has better definition and, although the Philips boasts a 60fps frame rate, you won't notice any benefit during Internet calls that are limited by bandwidth.

We preferred the Philips' colours to the MSI's, though, as it produced more realistic skin tones. It also has automatic face tracking, should you need it.

We were also impressed with the integrated microphone, which delivered crystal-clear speech even over Messenger video calls. The white LED shows status: on for video, flashing for snapshots. It's useful to have visual feedback so you can tell if you've left it turned on.

The snapshot and software launch buttons are too small to be convenient; it's easier to use onscreen mouse control. The excellent VLounge program offers video and snapshot capture, plus a sensitive motion-detection feature.

If money is no object, the Philips is the obvious choice, beating all others here. Otherwise, the MSI only lacks a monitor mount and is much better value.