Windows 11 and my old Android phone made buying a webcam feel like a waste of money

Most laptops ship with a pretty basic webcam and have been doing so for decades. Some try to include privacy features like a physical shutter, but very few focus on the camera quality. It’s practically impossible to squeeze a very powerful camera into the super-thin top bezel. Most of us have become accustomed to the inferior webcam quality and even switched to an external one. Work demands a good webcam, and when laptop brands don’t ship one, a USB webcam can help.