TouchCam N1 HD Webcam Plays Nice with Skype HD

High-def video conferencing is something that doesn't mix with notebooks, despite of their ever-increasing CPU power. FaceVsion (oddly, it's spelled without the 'i') has done something that Logitech and MS should have done for their QuickCam and LifeCam respectively long time ago. This company embeds a H.264 encoder into its TouchCam N1 Skype HD webcam to offload the demanding video processing task from the CPU. Apparently, the price of those H.264 compression chips has gone down to a level that is affordable for manufacturers to put it in something like the TouchCam N1 without deterring the buyers.

Having said that, the $119 TouchCam N1 is priced within reach of most road warriors in need of a true HD camera on the go. Most important of all is its Skype HD badge so you can be pretty sure the world's most popular VoIP app will play nice with the FaceVsion. You'll also need to upgrade Skype to 4.2 to enable the 720p HD mode. There's one caveat though; the specs states H.264 streaming will only hit 22fps max., which may not be that bad as most users couldn't tell between 24 and 30fps so a little lower than this FPS range could still be considered acceptable. As for the TouchCam N1 itself, the cam has a unidirectional dual mic and auto-focus lens with 78-degree field of view.