RØDE NT-USB Mini review after one year of daily use
If you expect people to listen to you when you speak, the very least you can do is give them the courtesy of good quality audio. There is nothing worse than being distracted by someone who sounds as if they are talking into a yoghurt pot. It’s hard enough as it is to hold people’s attention on a video call, and you definitely don’t want to be less interesting than their inbox.
With that in mind, I decided to upgrade my setup.
I looked at various options, including Bluetooth headsets and dedicated Microsoft Teams products, but after a fair bit of research, mostly on YouTube, the RØDE NT-USB Mini kept standing out. RØDE are a well-respected brand, and this particular mic is keenly priced for what it can do. I’ve embedded a short demo video below so you can judge for yourself, but to my ear it makes my voice sound a lot warmer, more natural and less thin than the alternatives I tried, especially my old Plantronics headset.
I’ve had my RØDE since June 2025, so this review is based on about a year of daily Teams use at the time of writing. I’ve also found that it works very nicely with Final Cut Pro, allowing me to record voiceovers directly onto the timeline of my project. I use it with a dedicated RØDE spring-mounted arm, which was totally worth getting. It elevates the whole experience. I’d say it’s now frictionless when it comes to answering a call, swinging it into position and folding it away tidily when not in use.
I genuinely enjoy using this mic. If you position it fairly close to your mouth, it makes you sound at your best. I definitely now find myself speaking more slowly and with far greater confidence.
The mic itself sits in a metal U-shaped mount. It comes with a detachable magnetic desk stand. The stand is well made and stable enough, but I didn’t really get on with it because it left the mic a bit too low for my setup. That is why I switched to the arm, which suits me much better.
On the front there is a rotary volume control that also lets you switch monitoring on, so you can hear your own voice through headphones without distracting delay. Once you’ve used that properly, it is hard to go back. It makes speaking on calls or recording voiceovers feel much more natural.
Round the back, you get a USB-C connection and a 3.5mm headphone socket. I paired mine with an old set of wired Sony noise-cancelling headphones and that has worked brilliantly. They feed my voice back into my ears for monitoring and also provide the audio for Teams and Zoom calls.
Setup is refreshingly straightforward. It is class-compliant, so on Mac and Windows it is basically plug and play, with no drivers needed. RØDE also says it works with computers or tablets, and can be used with mobile devices using the right adaptor or cable. I installed the software mainly to check for firmware updates, but for everyday use I have hardly needed it at all.
One practical point: this is not the most discreet option. I can usually keep it just out of shot on a video call, but people do sometimes notice it and comment on it. That does not bother me in the slightest, and it can actually be a useful ice-breaker, but if you want something almost invisible, a headset may still suit you better.
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