Advantages 👍
- - Speedy site capture: a full room scan took under three minutes and processed while I packed my tripod.
- - Portrait reliability: busts printed from the scans carried recognisable facial details without manual sculpting.
- - Tweakable output: brightness, mesh trimming and resolution sliders offered just enough control without feeling overwhelming.
- - On-device crunching: no signal? No worry. The scan still finishes and syncs later.
- - Entry price is gentle compared with the photogrammetry packages I previously paid for.
Drawbacks 👎
- - The free tier ends sooner than expected; serious projects call for a subscription.
- - Dim indoor lighting introduces noise that even the auto clean-up sometimes misses.
- - Large texture files chew through storage after a busy week of work.
- - Exporting huge meshes to desktop software can stall if Wi-Fi drops mid-transfer.
[Polycam is a phone and tablet app that turns a handful of photos or a quick LiDAR sweep into a textured 3D model ready for export.]
How to use Polycam
- Install the app from the Polycam website or your device’s store and sign in.
- Select Photo Mode or LiDAR Mode depending on your hardware.
- Move slowly around the subject while the capture counter climbs; keep the frame steady and well lit.
- Tap “Done” and wait while the mesh and textures process on the device or in the cloud.
- Use the crop, colour and decimate tools to tidy the scan.
- Export as OBJ, STL, or share the link directly with collaborators or a printer.
Hands-on impressions
I spent the past month scanning everything from half-finished building sites to family portraits. Polycam gave me a complimentary account, so I pushed the limits of the allowance: countless trial scans plus a handful of full-resolution exports. The workflow stayed smooth on an iPhone 14 Pro, and even after a dozen back-to-back captures the handset never overheated. A friend used an older Android handset and echoed the same stability. When time mattered on site, I relied on on-device processing and still walked away with clean meshes before leaving the property.
Advantages
- Speedy site capture: a full room scan took under three minutes and processed while I packed my tripod.
- Portrait reliability: busts printed from the scans carried recognisable facial details without manual sculpting.
- Tweakable output: brightness, mesh trimming and resolution sliders offered just enough control without feeling overwhelming.
- On-device crunching: no signal? No worry. The scan still finishes and syncs later.
- Entry price is gentle compared with the photogrammetry packages I previously paid for.
Drawbacks
- The free tier ends sooner than expected; serious projects call for a subscription.
- Dim indoor lighting introduces noise that even the auto clean-up sometimes misses.
- Large texture files chew through storage after a busy week of work.
- Exporting huge meshes to desktop software can stall if Wi-Fi drops mid-transfer.
After dozens of tests I’m comfortable calling Polycam my everyday scanner; quick jobs, hobby prints, and commercial surveys all came out looking the part, so the subscription stays on my card for now.
