Buyer's Guide | Mobile Microphones
- Joel Edelblute
- Mar 12
- 2 min read
Updated March 1st, 2025
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The category of mobile microphones is a bit messy. The mics are defined more by their phone/tablet functionality than their actual microphone design. You can see this in the variety of form factors like the USB-C directional mics (RODE ME-C+) and USB-C wireless lavalier systems (DJI Mic II). We’ve even seen a USB-C “podcast mic”. That said, a quick Amazon search reveals that the USB-C wireless lavalier systems are dominating the mobile mic market. So we’ve decided to limit our recommendations to these lavalier systems and ignore the other form factors. As we discussed in the lesson, the audio processing of your phone’s built-in microphone is good enough that purchasing a directional mic just isn’t warranted.As a sidenote, we’re just focusing on USB-C connection types as the iOS Lightning connection is being phased out. If you still have an older iOS device look for Lightning compatibility.
Pricing Tier Key
The Hobbyist: Entry-level gear for video shooters to improve their skills without a large investment.
The Independent: Prosumer gear designed for serious creators that balance performance and real-world budgets.
The Industry Pro: High-end gear for professionals that meets the demands of industry-tier production environments.
The Hobbyist
A USB-C wireless lavalier system with 2x transmitter mics. The receiver looks like it accommodates most phone cases but if you have a particularly thick case, keep that in mind, and determine for yourself if the hassle of taking the case off and on is worth it. There is no charging case, and each device will have to be charged separately. That’s a hassle but it explains the low price.
Note: We normally don’t recommend products from companies we’ve never heard of (and of which there are four or five identical products from different(?) companies in the Amazon search results?) But the quantity and quality of reviews in conjunction with the super low price makes this recommendation feel like not an unacceptable risk. Just know what you’re getting yourself into with unknown companies on Amazon like these.
The Independent
Hollyland Lark M2 | $139
A budget wireless microphone system that offers decent audio quality. These transmitters do not give the option to connect your own lavalier microphone so you are stuck with seeing the transmitter on your subject, however the transmitters are quite small (about the size of a quarter) so it’s not a terrible tradeoff for the price. A convenient charging case is included.
The Industry Pro
DJI Mic 2 | $349
A high-quality wireless system that offers excellent audio capture and is perfect for professional mobile content creation. Includes a 3.5mm connection for lavalier microphones (which we recommend to hide the distracting transmitter.) The touch screen and tactile dial is intuitive and easy to use for tweaking settings. This is a great option for mobile shooting and can grow with you if you move up to shooting with a “real” camera.
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