AnkerPowerConf S500 Speakerphone with Zoom Rooms and Google Meet Certifications, USB-C Speaker, Bluetooth Speakerphone for Conference Room, Conference Microphone with Premium Voice Pickup

This is a great addition to not only my travel bag but also my day to day desk. I've used it traveling in conference rooms and it works just as good as most of the fixed conference devices, in my hotel room (when my headset dies) with the volume down and it's still clear. At my desk, my monitor does not have speakers, so I use this in place of them. While it's not surround sound, it is just as good or better than most 2 speaker desk setups. Very high quality sound. Would suggest to anyone.

Fantastic sound quality. Works well for everyone in the room. Much better than using a smartphone speaker function.

Worked like a charm on my computer. It was plug and play. Way better than my Jabra Speak2 75. Connects to Microsoft Teams every time.

Meh, I guess 3 stars, just because the bar is so low for these things though. Don't get me wrong, this is probably the best sub-$300 speakerphone on the market, and I'm not aware of much that's above $300 except Ankerwork's SR500. But the market is so saturated with garbage devices that literally all this thing does to make it the best is let other people hear me fairly well, not great, but good enough. Like that's all it takes to be the best. The speaker on this thing is not good, it sounds tinny and it's it's unpleasant to my ear. But other people can hear me ok, and that's the most important thing. Another little nit for me is that you really need to hold the power button for a while to turn the thing on or off. Like come on, I don't have all day. It's an annoyance in general but when I'm busy and pressed for time and want to make a call it's pretty aggravating.

The S500 speaker delivers great sound, and together with the mics in the S500 there has been a very noticeable improvement in the sound on both sides of Teams and Zoom meetings in comparison to the laptop mic and speakers. Setup is as easy as connecting the S500 to the laptop and ensuring the audio and mic Settings on the laptop are set to use the S500 device. The S500 is well made and looks great. Having the volume/mute controls in a row in the front of the device with the light indicator across the device above the touchpad controls make it a perfect setup for easy everyday home office / remote work use.

I purchased the Anker S500 to use at work, and it paired up almost automatically and the sound quality and build quality is very solid. A little disclaimer about me: I typically like name brands (Jabra, Bose, etc.), and I have always thought of Anker as an "Amazon"-type brand, but - I decided to go with this one because a team member has the same one and he swears buy it. Other people within my team have various portable conference room speaker/mic devices (Jabra, etc.) and hands-down, the S500 is a superior product. 80% of the time, my laptop is glued to my desk with dual 24" monitors and I use a bluetooth headset, but 20% of the time - I need to work remote and have TEAMS meetings with other people where we need conference room mic/speaker capabilities and up to this point, I have been using the built-in technology of my Dell Latitude (standard corporate issued) setup .. but, the new Anker S500 is loud and the microphone picks up voices while cutting out unwanted background noises (like dogs barking, overhead announcements, etc.). There are many other cheaper choices (and they may be equally as good), but if your budget can afford it, I would recommend the Anker S500. You will not be disappointed at the overall quality (you get what you pay for with this device.)

I use this to communicate with my team.It's nearly impossible to distinguish what is being said when more than one person is talking.The biggest problem I had with this device is that anyone in the office could connect to the device via bluetooth _automatically_. It apparently _only_ happens when you first start the device. Someone simply put their bluetooth headphones on and it _automatically_ connected to them. No one knew what was going on. There MUST be a pairing mode. This BS about making it "user friendly on first try" completely backfired. Almost every bluetooth device I have requires some confirmation, even if it is tapping on the device before connecting to it. Better yet, allow me to _disable bluetooth entirely_. But they don't allow that either. Wow!I'm keeping it because there's nothing better that doesn't cost more than $1000.

Made hybrid in-person/zoom so much easier. I used this in a large room with 20+ people and it worked great. It amplified the voices clearly.