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Jun 27, 2023

Joby Beamo Studio Key Light review

Want to improve the lighting quality on your streams, without using a ring

Want to improve the lighting quality on your streams, without using a ring light? Then the Joby Beamo Studio Key Light is a real bright idea.

James Artaius

Updated: Jun 6, 2023

Are you looking for an alternative to a ring light? Then the Joby Beamo Studio Key Light is something you should definitely pay attention to for your streaming setup.

Joby is a relative newcomer to the lighting arena, as a brand probably best known for its range of GorillaPods (the flexible miniature camera tripods with bendy legs, often used by vloggers to film themselves at arm's length).

Its first lighting product was, let's just say, closely influenced by Lume Cube's line of pocket-sized cube-shaped lights. Since then, though, the company has gone on to carve out its own identity in the vlogging and streaming space, even partnering with YouTube royalty Casey Neistat in 2022.

In addition to "cube lights," it now offers a range of ring lights, background lights, and LED panels – with the Joby Beamo Studio Key Light ranking among the best lights for streaming. With a slim outline and super soft illumination, I think it's genuinely a great addition to any YouTube or Twitch home studio, and at around $79.95 (£69.95) it's an affordable light for beginners.

A tabletop light producing soft, flattering, diffused illumination, it offers a wired remote control for discreetly adjusting your settings along with multiple shoes to mount microphones and other accessories – making it one of the most versatile streaming lights available. But is it the right streaming light for your needs? Read on to find out the pros, cons, and alternatives to the Joby Beamo Studio Key light.

These are the Joby Beamo Studio Key Light specs:

A tabletop light with an integrated stand, the Beamo Studio can do double duty on your desk, serving full-time as a regular room light and a useful option for video calls. Its primary purpose, of course, is to act as an adjustable key light for streaming – and both the height (27-37 inches) and the angle (180°) can be manipulated to suit your setup.

There are ten brightness settings and three color temperatures, giving you plenty of options for balancing the light with the rest of your room. Adjustments can be made by the simple wired remote, in the middle of a 1.8m power cable that connects to a USB type A port. 5ba

The circumference of the LED panel features four cold shoes, which are perfect for mounting accessories of your choosing – whether that's a shotgun streaming microphone (like the Joby Wavo) or an additional LED panel or cube light (such as the Joby Beamo) to increase the brightness.

The Beamo Studio is sleek and compact, taking up minimal space and looking suitably chic both while streaming and when sitting on your desk, not in use.

Its build quality is excellent, including the all-important hinge that enables the light to be angled up or down – though due to the way the panel and foot are balanced, you will need to rotate the light one way in order to tilt it down and the other way if you want to tilt it up.

The overall design is incredibly well thought-out, not least the ability to mount accessories around the edge of the panel itself. Also well considered is the remote, which features four buttons arranged like the right-hand side of a console control pad for muscle memory.

The remote is magnetic, too, so you can clamp it down to the foot of the stand rather than having it dangling loose and clattering into things while you’re streaming (as so many other wired remotes do!). There is also a velcro cable tie to keep the cord tight to the stand, both keeping things tidy and giving it less chance to get caught on anything mid-stream.

The Beamo Studio is an excellent light that gives you the ability to produce directional illumination on your face (unlike a ring light, which provides very even and flatter light). This enables you to ‘sculpt’ your face with the light, creating much more dynamic looks.

A drawback, depending on how you look at it, is that it isn't a particularly bright light at only 650 lux (compared to, for example, the 1700 lux of the Lume Cube Cordless Ring Light Pro). So as a standalone key light, it's far from the most powerful in terms of output.

On the other hand, though, these key lights work great in pairs – one on each side of your face – to provide more creative lighting options (either both at the same power, for more even light, or one set brighter as your key light and the other set lower as an accent light). This does, however, obviously double the cost.

The quality of light is stunning, though, being beautifully soft and looking absolutely great on the skin as well as anything you want to hold up and showcase on your stream.

Should you buy the Joby Beamo Studio Key Light?

The Joby Beamo Studio Key Light is a great buy for streamers who want to boost the light in their game streaming setup without spending a fortune. It's a tabletop video light that can also be placed off your desk using the included stand, and that makes it a very versatile option.

It's not as powerful as other options, but the Beamo Studio is specifically a tabletop light designed to be used in fairly close proximity to you. So it still does a fantastic job, but remember that it's not intended to illuminate you from across the room.

The trio of color temperatures covers the bases for the daylight to artificial light spectrum, the remote control is well designed, and the ability to adjust the height and angle of light makes it extremely adaptable. Overall, an excellent choice as your key – or, indeed, secondary – light source for streaming, vlogging, and gaming.

Lume Cube Cordless Ring Light Pro

If you want beautiful light with more power, along with a remote control that's completely wireless, look no further than the Lume Cube Cordless Ring Light Pro. It's pricey, but worth it if you want the most flattering and even illumination.

Elgato Key Light Mini

If you want something similar, but with different strengths, check out the Elgato. This is a great compact light for streaming. It's more powerful than the Joby Beamo but less beautiful. It has full color temperature control but doesn't have a stand.

The Joby Beamo Studio Key Light is an ideal desktop streaming light that may work best in a pair, but is a superb standalone solution. It offers great value for money and plenty of control over your lighting output. A decent remote, versatile stand and the ability to attached accessories like a streaming microphone to the light itself make it a product very fit for purpose. If you don't want to spend a fortune, the Beamo Studio Key Light is an affordable streaming light and a flattering alternative to a ring light.