Doraemon USB Webcam review

Those who are familiar with the Japanese cartoon Doraemon will know that this lovable feline loves sweet bean buns and comes with a magical pocket which is filled with endless goodies for his personal use and friends who often take advantage of his naivety and kind-heartedness, misusing the gadgets that he hands out. Gadget house Brando in Hong Kong has come up with this extremely adorable webcam which features Doraemon holding up a yellow box which is actually the webcam itself. How does this earless cat fare? Let’s find out below.

This cute little webcam works differently from other webcams as it comes in a plush toy design which can double up as a desktop accessory to spice up your dreary working area as well. Installation of the Doraemon USB webcam is painless – all you need to do is to connect him to your PC via any available USB port (USB 1.1 will do just fine, but there’s no reason not to use USB 2.0 either), pop in the installation disc and you’re good to go. Installation of the drivers are done in a jiffy, and you can then begin to call up your friends over the major Instant Messaging programs to parade your messy work space.

I’ve tested the Doraemon USB Webcam with Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, and Skype Video, and it passed with flying colors. I found that this webcam worked best with Skype, as the video and audio were synchronized properly, while laggy situations were not uncommon with the other two IM programs. I suspect this is down to the optimization of the software and the problem has nothing to do with the Doraemon webcam itself.

There’s a webcam fixing sticker for you to affix on top of your monitor, where the velcro section will the keep the Doraemon webcam in place while you chat away with your family and friends. You can detach and adjust the yellow box to get the optimum viewing angle of the webcam, depending on where you want to plant Doraemon’s tush. It is pretty unnerving at the first time as his hands gripped onto the webcam rather tightly and I was afraid of snapping any wires accidentally, but those fears proved to be unfounded.

The Doraemon USB Webcam from Brando is not suitable for use while you’re on the road, as he does not come with a clip which is capable of being pegged down onto the display, so he’ll just have to remain at home or at the office to serve all your video conferencing needs.

Picture quality is average, as the CMOS image sensor can only capture photos in 350,000 pixels unlike other megapixel quality webcams available in the market. This will not detract from your video conversations too much, but make sure you carry out your conversations in a properly lighted area. What I love is the adjustable focus which works great when you want to point out something far away to your friend over the webcam – all you need to do is to twist the lens accordingly. There’s also a built-in microphone with the Doraemon webcam so that you don’t have to incur any additional cost to begin video conversations.

In a good way, you could say that Brando of Hong Kong is a gadget Doraemon of sorts, coming up with plenty of gadgets and devices which are quirky, fun, and yet practical enough for everyday use. Kudos to Brando for coming up with this utilitarian Doreamon webcam which is more than capable of handling your everyday video conversations with aplomb. Overall a great buy at $32.00 – just make sure you keep the dust off Doraemon’s plush surface on a regular basis lest his white parts become black and stained.

Doraemon USB Webcam here