With the pandemic of Coronavrus (COVID-19), many people who have this possibility have started to work from home. Add that to the fact of social isolation, forcing relatives to communicate virtually, and the use of videoconferencing services has simply exploded in recent weeks.
With this scenario built, frontal cellphone / tablet cameras and computer webcams were put to the test. The truth is that, in the world of smartphones and tablets, there is not much to worry about: most of these devices have great cameras that do the job easily, giving us beautiful images with good resolution.
But when we move to computers, especially notebooks, things change completely. Take, for example, Apple's latest releases. Both the 16 ″ MacBook Pro and the MacBook Air (Ma's newest notebooks that hit the market) feature 720p FaceTime HD cameras.
Of course, the technology itself has changed a lot in the last few years (I mean, in the construction and elements of these cameras themselves), but to give you an idea, the 720p FaceTime HD camera debuted on the Mac line in 2012 yes, eight years ago we have basically the same camera equipping Apple notebooks.
Why? A good "excuse" from the manufacturers is that the space to implement a good camera in the "cover" of a notebook is much smaller than the thickness of a smartphone. Other than that, such a portable camera hardly serves anything other than virtual meetings, something that doesn't really require a hat-taking quality.
But the pandemic that we have seen today has undoubtedly changed this scenario to the point that journalist Joanna Stern (from Wall Street Journal) bring the topic to the fore, comparing some notebook options available on the market.
Because of Coronavrus, many people had to buy computers to work at home; moreover, webcams are simply disappearing (and prices are rising) precisely because of this demand for videoconferencing that came out of nowhere.
It is a pity that the laptop webcams and this is not restricted to Apple or any other manufacturer simply stopped in time. It remains to be seen whether this is even a technical limitation or, with this new world scenario, the upcoming releases in the PC market will bring positive changes in this regard.
via The Loop
