HP Poly Studio R30 review: An impressive video conferencing solution

So you're after one of the best video conference cameras available, to use in your home office (or, indeed, your actual office). These supercharged webcam-esque devices are built to handle multiple people around a desk, not just one person sitting in front of a laptop screen.

HP, a veteran of office tech, has several options in this category – one of which is the HP Poly Studio R30. I've been testing it out for a couple of weeks now, putting it through its paces in terms of its video quality, audio quality, and various software integrations.

While I'm not a regular attendee of high-powered boardroom meetings, I have tested plenty of audio and video kit over the years – including some of the best webcams available right now (one of which might suit you better than the HP Poly Studio R30).

Price and Availability

The HP Poly Studio R30 is out and available now from a variety of retailers, though pricing seems to vary a lot between stores and countries.

At the time of writing the video bar is on sale for around £350 in the UK and $450 in the US, but check the widget embedded above for the best online deals currently being offered in your part of the world.

If you're doing your shopping in the UK, you can pick up the HP Poly Studio R30 from Amazon as well as HP itself.

Design and Setup

There's no mistaking the HP Poly Studio R30 for a run-of-the-mill webcam: it measures 445 x 86 x 81mm, and is effectievly the size of a small soundbar.

Indeed, you could probably mistake it for a speaker that sits underneath your television if it wasn't for the large camera jutting out from the middle of it.

The device is nicely finished, with fabric all along the front and white plastic around the back. I feel like the HP Poly Studio R30 would look even more professional if it was grey on the front and around the back, but it's only a minor personal quibble.

All the ports are underneath – 1x USB-C, 2x USB-A, plus a power socket (an A-C cable and power cable are included) – so you really need to use the supplied monitor clamp or buy a separate tripod (there is a standard tripod socket here) to support its positioning.

Including a neat little desk stand would've been a nice touch by HP, and given users more flexibility about where to position this video bar, but you'll have to buy a stand or tripod separately if you want this to sit on a desk.

Once everything's connected, you need the HP Studio app for Windows or macOS. Setup from here is relatively straightforward, though I was surprised to be asked for a password to connect to the video conferencing camera plugged directly into my laptop – it was nowhere on the unit or the quick start guide, so I had to search the web to find the default one for this device.

Video and Features

Open up the settings in the desktop app and you can see this is a heavy-duty video conferencing unit: there are multiple face-tracking modes to choose between, for example, so you can focus on the current speaker(s), or the entire group, or have it follow someone around the room if they're giving a presentation.

You get 4K video resolution from the HP Poly Studio R30, and the other spec you're likely to be most interested in is the 120-degree diagonal field of view, meaning it can fit in a full room.

There's also a serviceable 5x digital zoom, an 8W speaker built-in, and a triple-mic setup to make sure everyone within your physical space can make themselves heard over a call.

Once you've got the camera connected, it'll show up as a video source in any video conferencing app you like, including Zoom and Teams – just as a webcam would. Via the supplied software you can manually track around using the digital zoom, as well as tweak settings such as brightness and contrast.

Enlisting friends and family members (to make the best simulation of a boardroom that I could), I tested out the majority of these features and found them to work very well. Individuals are shown centre stage when talking, for example, with the camera then zooming back out when no one's speaking.

You do see some confusion from the camera when people start talking over each other, but that's to be expected – the video is hardly going to snap back and forth between people every half a second. When the HP Poly Studio R30 isn't sure where it should be looking, it just resets to the default wide view and then starts over again.

The background noise blocking is particularly good here. You don't want chatter from the rest of the office or roadworks on the street outside to be a distraction while you're on a video call, and the video bar handles this excellently. Audio pick up from the mics is impressive, even from a number of metres away.

Having two spare USB-A ports is handy for charging up devices and connecting accessories like headphones, and it's also worth mentioning that Bluetooth connections to the video bar are supported too (though may be less reliable than the wired USB-C option).

There's no physical privacy shutter here, which is a slight disappointment for personal setups. However, you instead get a rubber cover that you can put over the camera when it's not in use.

The software supplied by HP is straightforward and intuitive enough, but it does feel rather 'keen'. It immediately wants to auto-start with your operating system, start displaying notifications, and get you to register yet another user account (though you don't have to do this). If all you do is calls then, sure, but it's hardly subtle if you don't.

HP Poly Studio R30 review: Verdict

Assuming you're in the target audience for the HP Poly Studio R30 – as it's designed for office use with multiple speakers – then it's a definite two thumbs up for me.

It scores highly in the areas that matter: primarily audio and video quality, but also in the smart features that track individual speakers and suppress background noise.

That's not to say I had a perfect experience using the Poly Studio R30. It's clearly designed to sit on a wall or on top of a big screen, and a bit more positional flexibility here would have been appreciated without having to buy a separate tripod or stand.

With a selection of genuinely useful features, solid design and build quality, and video and audio you can rely on, the Poly Studio R30 is a really good product from HP. It also fills a niche between personal webcams and larger video conferencing bars that cater to larger rooms, which will add niche appeal for certain buyers.

Also consider

One of the stand-out alternatives to the HP Poly Studio R30 is the Jabra PanaCast 50, though it comes at a cost! This brings 4K video (courtesy of three camera feeds stitched together), a 180-degree field of view, and four built-in speakers, so you're sure to hear whoever's on the end of the line.

There's also the Logitech MeetUp 2, designed for small office rooms. Again, it's more expensive than the HP model reviewed above, but the video bar has plenty of strings to its bow, including some neat AI features for picking out faces and suppressing background noise. It also offers a 4K video resolution and a 120-degree field of view.