Samson - Go Mic Video USB Microphone with HD Webcam - Black

If you’re thinking about whether or not this is the web cam and microphone is for all of you adventurous vloggers or podcasters, I’ll save you some time: it isn’t, but it’s close. So why the 4 stars? Well, I’m writing this review to explain. Here we have the Samson Go Mic with HD Webcam. The full name is something long like ‘Mic Video USB Microphone with HD Webcam’. It’s pretty long, but I guess it hits all of the SEO (Search Engine Optimizations) terms and it is a straight-forward name. It’s certainly a break-away from your tradition web cameras from the major web camera player. If you don’t know which company I’m talking about, it starts with an “L” and ends in a “Tech” and they have a wide selection of low-end and high-end cameras. I would say that this Webcam definitely punches above its weight from a non-video company would overall say this sits in the mid-range of available products. What immediately stands out is this web camera’s design. It has a premium build to it that is immediately noticeable: you can tell that the designers put a lot of thought into the design as well as function and I can say that this will give off the impress that you know what you’re doing. It doesn’t look like some toy — no, this exudes the presence of a professional. The metal mesh around the microphone extends from front (silver) to back (black). The unit itself comes out of the box folded up neatly into a rectangle for portability, but upon pressing the clip, you can swing the main body out and set it up for use to be clipped against a monitor/screen or — and this is the really neat thing — use the clip part as a stand. It has enough weight to not tip over or shift around and somehow it looks good both in both of those setups. There’s also a spot for you to even place a tripod-mount or microphone arm if you were so-inclined to do so, but then you’re kind of defeating the point of it being portable. It has a modern design and accepts USB-C as an input for connection, while also offering a 3.5mm jack for headphones, useful for those with shorter cords. The side has a strong physical slider to toggle between the two recording modes (all around or mostly front). There’s no software needed to be installed. Upon plugging in, drivers will auto setup and 15 seconds later, you are ready to go. It’s a very nice device that is meant to help you start doing right from the get-go. Unfortunately, without any software to download, it also means there probably isn’t going to be any firmware to improve some of its shortcomings. This is first-and-foremost a microphone with a webcam slapped on. The quality can be very good, but you have to be in the correct environment for it. For those that are already familiar with podcasting or recording music, ambient noise can really hamper your recordings. Both in the omni-directional and cardioid mode (which emphasizes recording the front, with some sensitivity for slightly picking up the sides and back), the microphone (when mounted to my laptop’s monitor) would pick up my mouse-clicks and furious keyboard typing. Mechanical keyboards, even brown switches, are out of the question for use with this device. Setting on the clip-stand slightly to the side of my laptop and on cardioid mode (toggled switch up) helped cut down on picking up the noise from the clicking and the fans of my laptop a lot. That being said, if serious about recording, you’d already have figured out ways to cut down on the background noise (record in a closet full of clothes perhaps?) and achieve excellent recording results. Audacity recognizes the device with no problem. I will note that Windows for some reason upon plugging in this device will sometimes switch the audio to be (Headphones Go Mic Video) despite having not plugged-in headphones to the device’s jack, forcing me to manually click and switch back to my device’s default speakers. A minor quibble, but annoying if you do this often. Finally, the video quality is nothing home to write home about. Any sort of lighting adjustments will need to be done in the environment or third-party software. In low-light situations the quality is noticeably worsened, which is what even some high-quality web cameras suffer from. It will likely be better than any laptop’s built-in camera would be, but that’s not saying too much. The video recording capability fulfills the role of ‘can do’ admirably, but it is by no means the first to be picked in a full line-up. Pros: 1. Premium build — doesn’t feel flimsy, is attractive in design, and has a good weight to it. 2. Plug and play, no software needed to be installed aside from the drivers your machine will auto-install upon plug-in. 3. Audio recording capability quite good. 4. USB-C connection, which is the future of modern devices. However, if your laptop does not have a USB-C port if you don’t have a USB-C to USB-A cable already (like what you would get from a phone), this is an additional expense. Cons: 1. No drivers means no possible improvement, noise cancellation is next to non-existent in both omni-directional and focused mode. 2. Video quality is fine, but low-lighting can’t be helped. Summary: if you want something that can do everything, this is close. You’ll get great audio (if you accept the limitations of the hardware, re: background noise), but video is just okay.

This is the perfect piece of tech for the content creator on the go! It folds up nicely and fits in your pocket if needed.

Awesome I love this product would definitely buy again

This thing is a cool idea for a webcam with a cardioid/omnidirectional microphone built in. To start, the unit folds up into a nice compact package, smaller than a traditional deck of playing cards. Unfolding it is easy, and you can be up and running in no time. I appreciate that it has some heft to it too- it doesn’t feel cheap or that it’s going to break easily. It feels made for portability. The Webcam/Microphone combo has several options for mounting including the ability to clamp it to your laptop monitor (and I would assume some external monitors as well, though mine were too thick for the clamp), the back part of the clamp can be laid flat and used as a stand for the unit, and the base is threaded for tripod mounting. I used this on my M1 MacBook Pro, and the instruction booklet guides you through navigating to the system MIDI settings where you can configure the microphone. Selecting the camera can be done from the menu bar of whichever program you’re using. A note in the instructions about how to select the camera from the menu bar of whichever program you are using would be nice too, but was missing. The camera quality compared to the built in MacBook webcam is impressive, though captures a cooler image temperature compared to the built-in camera. Because the Go Mic Video is 1080p vs 720 on my MacBook webcam, the detail in the image quality is without question superior. In my sample pictures you can see the grain on the desk a bit clearer and the string on the guitar in the background with more detail. The microphone is pretty good in my limited time using this unit. In a video conference, or virtual meeting, you are going to sound best in class, full-bodied and clear. I have a small personal home recording studio, and I wouldn’t knock using this thing to record something in Logic quick in a pinch to get an idea down, but not push it much more than that. There are quite a few things I don’t like about the Go Mic Video though. First, I wish that the clamp had more depth so that it would clamp my external monitors, though there are a variety of options for setup. The clamp also has some rubber pads that I hope will protect it from scratching my laptop, but the pads don’t fully go edge to edge and so there’s a slight bit of exposed metal to be cautious of. Also, the clamp is pretty robust, so I hope it’s not applying too much pressure to the screen (for the sake of my AppleCare+). Second, the power cable (a usb-c cable) attaches to the right side of the unit while the usb-c ports on my MacBook Pro (and coincidentally my work Windows laptop) are both on the left side, which can make it a stretch for the included cable. Lastly, I’m not sure who this is really for. I know Samson had a Go Mic previously that included just a microphone, without the webcam/camera. But with webcam quality finally improving, and Continuity Camera and the ability to use your iPhone camera as your Mac’s webcam, I don’t see the camera as a need. Even a year or two ago when everyone was working from home during the pandemic, this thing would have been a great idea, but given the short USB cable and small depth of the clamp preventing it from being monitor mountable (in my experience at least), I just don’t think this thing would have hit the mark. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to a friend, but I might recommend this to an enthusiast, musician, artist, or content creator looking for above average sound and decent camera in a compact package.

Perfect for older laptop users or those with laptops with out a webcam or low quality built in one. One of my main travel laptops i tend to use to game and multi purpose (asus g15 2021) does not come with a webcam. This serves more than its fair share for that role to not only make up for that it also has a REALLY good mic on it. In the past i had a samson meteor desk mic and i feel like this is the exact same capsule that was in that mic. What that means is its very high quality studio style mic but being a condensor it does pick up a lot of room noise. A good way to combat that is using something like krisp or nvidia broadcast, asus ai noise removal etc theres many on the market since covid. If you dont want to use those make sure and go into your system settings and turn the gain down because out of the box its fairly hot. As long as you have noise reduction or turned down gain your in business. Far as the clip on deal i dont truly feel comfortable claming my laptop screen with it for fear of damage but luckily it also has feet on the base to set it up on your desk or elsewhere which works great. (tip mine came in stereo mic mode not cardioid "the heart shape" switch on the side make sure only use that heart shape if you are recording just yourself and nothing else in the room or youll get echo. The mic has two polar patterns you can one, basically one that records only the audio in front of it or the second setting records the sounds behind it as well in the case you are having others in the room you want to also record. The camera itself can do 1080p resolution at 30fps. In good lighting this does extremely well at coloration and auto white balance. In low light it does suffer a fair bit but that is to be expected with something like this. It does not have any sort of auto focus but is infinte focus out of the box so you shouldnt have any issues. I think the saving grace of a piece like this is the fact that you can have both a mic and a 1080p camera thats ACTUALLY high quality in one USB plug (TYPE C). Super nice to have on the go when you need higher quality video and much better audio than comes in any laptop for sure. Works on both my windows and mac machines perfectly. If this was 4k resolution it would be a 5 star rating easily, but 1080 does the job and does it better than almost every built in camera and mic on any laptop.