AkozonMini Omni Directional Condenser Flexible Microphone, 3.5mm Jack Adjustable 360° Surround Radio Portable Audio Mic for Smartphone

Ok there's a few mitigating circumstances here. I purchased this for my 3+ year old Dell Latitude 5500 i7-8665U over £2500 at this config which already has an implemented Digital microphone array in the same position as the integrated webcam top centre of the screen. Which has the advantage of being away from the fan and exhaust which is around centre left under the monitor. The other scenario I was referring to is the fact I have a Klim Mistral laptop cooler which has dual fans near the center underneath a cavity where the underside laptop vents are, and ive sealed this cavity using foam adhesive strips which keeps the cool air pressurised and the noise down.So its unlikely that my integrated mic is designed to be omnidirectional when the users face/mouth is always going to be either above or below the mic, but always directly in front of it. So this is over 3 years old now but would have cost in excess of £1500 in the UK configuration. In fact i'm told that the spec I have was not even available in the UK, but I upgraded the motherboard to the i7-8665U among other things. So bearing all this in mind I assumed that this microphone was semi decent, perhaps as good as mobile phone mic, however that has the advantage of being much closer.After 6 months i've using it I assumed my integrated mic was ok considering what it is. But it wasn't until i saw this exact microphone, at the time for £10, that I figured i'd give it a try. But considering this was one of Dells flagship business laptops. To my surprise I tested the sound quality after recording several long messages for comparison. I was shocked that this cheap mic/combo jack mic considerably out performed my integrated mic, in vocal detail, depth of lower frequency and overall clarity. And I took the spit guard off immediately as it looks so much better without.As you can see in the photos, it does indeed have omni-directional style (for the money!) mic grilles on each side of it and it plugs in the right hand side along with most of the other ports. I used a well known vape pen as a comparison aid.So the laptop fan is on the opposite side, as is the only exhaust and If I had plugged it on the left hand USB which is right next to the fan and exhaust, it would have had a harder time. However the laptop fan is never on, literally ever because the Klim Mistrals dual 4500 fans keep temps so low that it will never turn on (on setting 0-1), unless I charge it at 90W and deliberately try to heat the dual cores up using the turbo boost velocity which i'm able to exploit but I do not use CPU intensive software of games.So anyway, I am also a vine customer but I paid for this mic and I wanted to do a review, to demonstrate how good this mic/combo microphone is for the price. I really love it, and i'd be interested to know how a more expensive version 2.0 could be improved further without changing the dimensions or design. Because with the laptop cooler on setting 0 its barely audible, its quieter than the laptop fan. On setting 1 it is definitely audible, bearing in mind both Klim Mistral cooler fans are not very close, yet to the left central area of the laptop, which is behind the position of this omnidirectional microphone. I would have expected these fans to drone during my voice recordings/phone calls etc. But I literally disabled one at a time and compared each voice clip one after another, both at 0db boost, and I also tested the max 30db boost. Each time any sound comes from my computer it goes via USB to a DAC/amp and hi fidelity audio system, a pair of Edifier S1000MKiis, and simultaneously some Edifier 350DB so when i'm testing the microphones recording quality its going through at high volume through AKM DAC chips, DSP and Texas instruments amplifiers including an 8" sub. So i'm truly hear the mic at high fidelity from frequency ranges as low as 20hz to 20khz or whatever the mics limitations are. And it does a great job of making any fan noise barely noticeable in the background with a highly accurate representation of my vocals.Each time I tested this £10 (at the time of purchase), quite frankly it made my integrated mic sound terrible, yet I had clearly become accustomed to it and thought to myself it wasn't bad for a Dell integrated mic. But from this day onwards i've disabled my integrated mic and I really just wanted to make use on an unused port, I don't use headsets etc. And btw, you can still hear the dual fans from the Klim Mistral but just barely, and as the product describes using HD chips and filters, which I was skeptical about but in my case it does indeed seem to be omnidirectional, yet also has the ability to filter frequencies such as fans or droning, allow higher definition vocal frequencies and clarity through.Now if this is the difference a £10 mic makes, I can imagine that a £30-100 mic is significantly better, yet with some diminishing returns, but I chose this one as its superior to my now disabled integrated mic, and by a fair margin. I've no doubt their are usb or mic combo headsets even more expensive, but this is the perfect size and doesn't not require a headset or long cables. I do no need youtube quality sound to use voice memos or make calls on WhatsApp, I also think the design looks pretty cool when the guard is taken off. And I can have the centre of the mic facing me, but like a true omnidirectional mic it doesn't appear to make any difference. Id pay more than £15 for this, had I known it would outperform my existing integrated £2500 Laptop mic by such a significant margin. So much so that I have prioritised this over my vine reviews. Do no hesitate to buy this mic, I expect brand new 2023 laptops have improved microphone arrays but this exceeded my expectations and I highly recommend it.

Didn't work, pointless

It works well!

Works great. Good sensitivity.

Works perfect. Great price. Thank you