Logitech Litra Beam review: 'Designed for ultimate flexibility'

Logitech is quickly raising its profile with streamers and as each new product arrives, the brand is cementing its status as a go-to option. The latest addition joins the impressive Litra Glow in the Logitech For Creators lighting range, meet the Logitech Litra Beam.

Going head to head with the best ring lights on the market, the Litra Beam’s $99/£99 price point brings certain expectations. This isn’t an entry level option for a basic streaming for gamers setup, Logitech themselves describe the Litra Beam as a “Premium LED Streaming Key Light” so it has a lot to live up to.

Design

At first glance the Logitech Litra Beam appears to be a pretty basic bit of kit. A single 40cm long pill shaped LED bar sat on an arm of about the same size and tucked into an unassuming round base. What’s not immediately obvious when you first unbox the Litra Beam however is just how flexible it is. The more you look around the more you realise it’s packed with nifty little touches and they come together to make it an incredibly versatile option for a range of setups. 

The top of the arm rotates back and forth and there’s not one but three screw mounting points, one at the end and two in the middle on both the back and bottom edges. These join with a connection that made me say “oh nice” out loud, alone in my office. Once you’ve spun the Litra Beam a few times to tighten the screw it stays tight but just keeps on turning with a secure amount of resistance. This gives you 360 degree control over which way you need the light to face without battling against slack connections or awkward arm placements. A firm twist in the other direction and it starts to unscrew as normal. Don’t ask me how it works, the answer might be magic and I love it.

The arm itself extends to nearly double its own height with plenty of steps in between as well. Impressively, and largely thanks to its full plastic body, the Litra Beam light itself weights just 185 grams so even with the arm fully extended and the light at a 90 degree angle it felt rock solid with no major wobbling.

All of this works together to make the Logitech Litra Beam arguably the most flexible lighting option for streamers and creatives right now. No matter your desk setup there’ll likely be a combination of mounting, height and angle that unlocks that sweet spot. Honestly, I didn’t think it was possible to be this impressed by the design of a light.

Features and Performance

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the Logitech Litra Beam when it comes to performance. My normal streaming setup has two Elgato Key Light Airs, so moving from those to a single bar of light less than half the overall size of just one of the Airs felt like it’d be a major difference. 

It wasn’t. 

I was very pleasantly surprised by both how much light the Litra Beam threw out and how nice the quality of that light was. Logitech will tell you that’s down to their ‘TrueSoft technology', I’m not entirely sure what that is in reality but I’m happy to say it works. The Litra Beam delivered soft, even lighting across my face and my viewers were having to look pretty closely to find major differences to my usual lighting. Considering my dual Air setup will set you back more than two and half times as much money, that’s rather impressive.

I mounted the Litra Beam above my camera, directly in front and slightly above me. Connected to my PC via USB the Litra Beam was limited to a maximum brightness of just 58% but this was enough to properly light my face so wasn’t an issue for my use case. I noticed this number did fluctuate a little and changed with different USB ports and cables, so your mileage may vary but if you want full beans power you’ll need to supply your own 5V 1.4A plug. I found there was some drop off around the sides of my head but nothing too extreme or even particularly noticeable unless you were scrutinising like I was. The impressively wide 2700-6500K colour temperature range made it easy to dial in a pleasant and natural look and I had no issue with flickering, even at different refresh rates.

The Logitech Litra Beam features onboard controls for power, brightness and colour temperature or if you’re plugged in via USB or connected with Bluetooth you can use the Logitech G Hub desktop app to control the Litra Beam too. It’s worth noting the app gives you far finer control over settings down to individual percentage points, with the onboard buttons limited to just 4 step settings each. It’s a shame there’s no mobile app too but G Hub was responsive and there’s some hotkey support available there, though no integration with devices like the Elgato Stream Deck.

Should you buy the Logitech Litra Beam?

Logitech have pretty much nailed it with the Litra Beam. For a $99/£99 option it punches well above its weight to deliver results that were comparable with setups well above that price point.

Its hugely flexible stand and strong lighting performance make this an appealing option to a wide range of buyers. Livestreamers and creatives will see great results for styled out facecams and a modern, understated aesthetic means the Litra Beam will look at home in even the most corporate of offices for those video meetings too.

How we tested the Logitech Litra Beam

I used the Logitech Litra Beam in my livestreaming setup instead of my regular pair of Elgato Key Light Airs. The Litra Beam was mounted into the included stand at maximum height and connected to my PC via the included USB cable. For more information on how we make our recommendations, check out the full 12DOVE Hardware Policy. 

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