Microsoft Modern USB-C Speaker, Certified for Microsoft Teams, 2- Way Compact Stereo Speaker, Call Controls, Noise Reducing Microphone. Wired USB-C Connection,Black

The Microsoft Modern USB-C speaker and mic sounds really good for its size and the mic has really nice voice pickup as well. I tested this on Linux and Mac and it works perfectly on both. The noise cancellation was really nice and completely eliminated the sound of a leaf blower playing on another computer in the background of my office. It was surprisingly good. The main thing that makes this “Microsoft” is the teams button on the front. With my Mac and my Linux computers this button does nothing. The button with the phone handset icon on it also does nothing. The volume up and down as well as the mute buttons work as expected and that’s all I really wanted anyway.

EDIT: The phone button does work on Mac (have not tried on linux). I have RingCentral for my office phone and when someone calls my work number, the phone button on the speaker flashes. A press of this button and the call is answered. Another press and the phone hangs up.

Since I started traveling for work, I have been on a mission to reduce the size/weight of things that I have in my backpack. I used to travel with a medium sized bluetooth speaker that I used in the hotel for music and white noise at night, along with a Jabra 510 that I brought with me to the office for meetings. For the hotel use case, I have since moved to one of those teeny tiny, weird name Chinese brand speakers that literally fit in the palm of your hand and weigh next to nothing. However, even though the sound quality of those are surprisingly good and they have a built-in mic, the voice quality was horrible if you tried to use them for the meetings/speakerphone use case.

After doing a bunch of research, I found this Microsoft speakerphone that checks all my boxes for the office scenario. It was small (about the size of a classic video game controller), has a nice hard shell case, is Teams certified, and is lightweight. It is also much cheaper than offerings from Jabra, Yealink, Anker and others. I also really like the built-in cable management. I got used to that feature on the Jabra and did not like options that either offered no cable management, or just had a detachable cable. The sound quality in Teams seems on par or better than with the Jabra and MUCH better than any mini travel speaker/mic combo that I have tried.

Only downside that some may have with this is that it does not have bluetooth. But for me, that was not a requirement. I have a bluetooth headset if I needed to be wireless. Plus, for the price ($52 when I bought it), I wouldn’t expect that feature.

If you are looking for a speaker that you can keep in your travel/office bag without taking up much room, this is one has a good balance between price, sound, build quality, features and size.

I love this and it works well with teams. However, on my end of meetings everything sounds great. But when using the mic I have had a lot of complaints of intermittent echoing. The echo seems to go in and out while I am talking. For that reason, I have stopped using it. Buyer beware with this model. seems most have been great for people but a few have reported the echoing issue.

… Quizá exageré, pero la realidad es que mejora muchísimo el audio en las llamadas con cualquier app. Mis clases en Teams son más ágiles porque tengo mejor audio, encender y apagar el micrófono cuando mis estudiantes hablan de forma que es más clara la comunicación y minimizo interferencias. Lo uso en una Surface Pro X y en una Pro 7 sin problemas.

I needed a portable speaker for using with teleconferencing. This is perfect. The size and design is nice, the cord management is clever, the speaker has a perfect mid-range sound that is great for voices, and the microphone works very well. Note that this would not be a good choice for a general-purpose speaker, as the sound is really balanced for the midrange. Also, the cord is short, so this would not work with a desktop computer where the speaker needed to be placed further away from the computer.