Elgato Prompter Review – The Best Tool for Content Creators Today Thus Far

Unboxing the Elgato Prompter

Kicking off our Elgato Prompter review with the unboxing, the packaging is a rather large, brown box that looks akin to your typical cardboard boxes but with the product illustration and details listed on it. This is a bit surprising as I thought they would standardize with their signature blue colorway but it’s just a box anyway so no complaints there. Inside, there’s quite a lot of things to unpack:

• DSLR/Mirrorless backplate
• 9x DSLR/Mirrorless step-up rings (49, 52, 55, 58, 62, 67, 72, 77, 82 mm)
• Facecam Pro backplate
• Universal shroud backplate
• Universal bracket
• Mounting screws
• USB-C to USB-A 3.0 cable (200 cm | 78.7 in)
• Cleaning cloth
• Quick start guide
• The Elgato Prompter itself

Specifications

Connectivity	USB 3.0 (Type-C) 200cm USB-A to USB-C cable included
Display	9-inch 1024 x 600 display Angled mirror (see-through from rear)
Step-up Rings	49, 52, 55, 58, 62, 67, 72, 77, 82 mm
Dimensions	224 x 219 x 282 mm
Weight	690g

The Good

There are a good number of reasons to consider getting the Elgato Prompter. For starters, it can work as a full-fledged monitor. Anything you can do with a typical monitor on both Windows and Mac, this Elgato Prompter will be able to do the same. To be more specific, it is a 9-inch (1024 x 600) display with 60Hz refresh rate that is reflected on a mirror. While I wouldn’t use it as a main monitor, it works great as a second or third monitor.

As the name implies, it’s also a consumer-grade teleprompter so if you ever need to film yourself talking or if you have an important segment during a livestream that you need to talk about with absolute accuracy, you can display text on the screen and since it’s reflected on the mirror, it will look as if you’re looking at the camera (for the most part). How so? Your camera of choice, be it a smartphone, a webcam, or a full-fledged camera, will be mounted and placed behind the mirror. You can also have it exclusively show your livestream’s chat if you wish as it has a dedicated mode for it.

Speaking of cameras, the Elgato Prompter works a huge variety of cameras so you don’t have to be limited to using Elgato products. As you might have seen in the unboxing section, there a number of backplates and an even bigger number of step up rings included to ensure a good fit with your camera. In the worst case scenario where your camera can’t fit any of it, you can just opt for the included universal backplate and cover as much as you can with the included shroud. For as long as it can cover at least most of the camera, it will work fine as otherwise, you won’t be able to see the monitor’s reflection properly.

When it comes to mounting the Elgato Prompter, you get plenty of versatility here. For my setup, I mounted it directly on a tripod since I use a small camera (DJI Pocket 3 with a body case) but if you use larger cameras like a DSLR / mirrorless, you can actually have the camera mounted on a tripod, and then you mount the Prompter on the camera itself. Another popular alternative is to use those table mounts / scissor arms for extra flexibility. Of course, you can choose to place it flat on the table but it would look a bit awkward.

Lastly, after setting it up, using it is pretty easy as it’s plug and play with a single USB-C cable. If you want to make full use of it, you will need to use the Elgato Camera Hub software as that’s where you can change modes and adjust a wide variety of settings like overlay, brightness, and setting the Prompter up for displaying a script. For the most part, it’s pretty straightforward but I’ll have more comments in the next section.

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The Bad

Of course, the Elgato Prompter has its share of drawbacks. For starters, it is on the smaller side at 9 inches. I personally wished for it to be around 13 inches, like 11 inches at the smallest and perhaps 15 inches at the biggest. This would make it more viable as a secondary monitor and would make it easier to read scripts when using it as a teleprompter. However, this is subjective as everyone has different size needs and if it does get bigger, it would inevitably take more space, which might not be ideal for certain setups.

Speaking of scripts, I wished there was a way to import scripts over to the Elgato Camera Hub software. Simply copy pasting will not work as it will either be misaligned or not spaced out correctly. Furthermore, the Voice Sync scrolling mode doesn’t seem to work but I know this feature definitely works as I’ve seen it in action while at Computex 2024 in Taiwan. Both of these features could be addressed in a future software update, perhaps with some AI magic to make the experience more seamless. I’m also hoping for an AI feature that will make it look like your eyes are constantly looking directly at the camera as well.

While I mentioned earlier that you can use the Elgato Prompter to only display your livestream’s chat feed, it only seems to work with Twitch. It doesn’t seem to work with YouTube livestreams and I suspect it’s the same for other livestreaming platforms as well. In the software, it was noted that the Chat mode is in beta so they’re likely limiting the use for now until it’s fully ready so I expect better integrations, along with more features, as soon as the full-fledged version is out.

One thing worth noting is that the Elgato Prompter is fully dependent on a PC to use it. What I mean here is that you will need to use either a Mac or Windows-based PC to use it. It will not work with tablets or smartphones (though you can use smartphones as a webcam with it if you wish). If you plan to use it as part of your mobile shooting setups, you will need to have a laptop to go along with it, otherwise the screen would be blank and you’d have nothing to teleprompt to the speaker. On the bright side, it doesn’t require a dedicated power supply as it only needs to be connected to a PC via USB.

Lastly, the Elgato Prompter is a pricey peripheral to purchase. The retail price is RM1,479 / USD$279.99 and that might not be an easy price to swallow for up-and-coming content creators, which is clearly the kind of people that would benefit the most from using it. However, do keep in mind that it provides good value as it can help simplify your content creation process and can double up as a monitor. If you’re simply looking for a monitor, then your money is definitely best spent on an actual monitor as you’d get more.

Elgato Prompter Verdict

The Elgato Prompter is arguably one of the best tools around for solo content creators, be it for livestreaming or for talking videos. It can also help speed things up as you don’t have to worry about memorizing lines or worry about reshooting due to fumbling up said lines. The ability to double up as a monitor is a major plus that adds a ton of value to the product but it is still not a small sum to invest in. What I can say for sure is that if you’re getting serious about content creation, then this is worth every single cent.

At the end of our Elgato Prompter review, I award this consumer teleprompter with our coveted Gold Pokdeward.

Big thanks to Corsair for sending us this peripheral for the purpose of this review.