I’ve tried a bunch of speakerphones over the years—some cheap, some fancy, some that claimed to be “AI-enhanced” but sounded like they were built in 2003. The Yealink SP96? Total game changer. this thing blew me away right outta the box. First off, the build quality is solid. It’s not heavy-heavy, but it’s got enough weight (400g-ish?) to feel premium and not like some plasticky toy. The finish is clean, buttons are responsive, and the LED indicators are actually useful—not just flashy nonsense. Setup was stupid easy. Plugged it in via USB-C, Teams recognized it instantly, and boom—ready to go. Bluetooth pairing was also smooth, no weird hiccups or mystery blinking lights. Now the sound. Holy moly. The 65mm speaker is no joke. Voices come through crisp, full, and natural—not robotic or echoey. Even when someone’s calling from a noisy café or their car (why do people do that??), the smart AI noise-canceling kicks in and somehow makes it bearable. I had a call with 9 people in a medium-sized room and everyone was picked up clearly. The 6-mic array with a 5m pickup radius is legit. No one had to lean in or shout. It just... worked. Battery life? I haven’t even come close to draining it. They say 26 hours talk time and I believe it. I’ve used it for multiple long meetings, some casual calls, and a few impromptu jam sessions (don’t ask), and it’s still going strong. Also, the daisy-chain feature is super handy if you’ve got a bigger room or need to spread out. I haven’t tested it with two units yet, but I’m already planning to grab a second one. Overall, this speakerphone is a beast. Teams Certified, easy to use, sounds amazing, and actually makes meetings feel less like a chore. If you’re on the fence, just get it. I’ve already recommended it to two coworkers and my kid’s teacher (she does remote tutoring and was blown away by the clarity). 10/10 would buy again. Might even gift one to my brother-in-law who thinks his laptop mic is “fine.” It’s not. Read more
This is a great conference speaker that is ruined by aggressive power saving settings in the firmware (even on USB, even with every power saving setting in Yealink USB Connect software turned off). Echo Cancellation: 9/10 As good as the Microsoft Audio dock and better than some of the older Jabra conference speakers I've used. Functions while playing music and makes my voice come through clear Sound Quality: 7/10 - Voices and notifications come through very clearly, but it suffers for the common power saving issue where a notification will have the first 1s chopped off and the rest of the notification sound will be distorted if the speaker hasn't played sound for awhile (even on USB with all power saving features turned off). Music Quality: 5/10. Music is very low in bass and a little shrill compared to the similarly sized Microsoft Audio Dock. The real issue comes when you are listening to quiet music though, when the track gets too quiet it will start cutting out and will sound very choppy. You can tell this is a power saving issue because if you are playing a 10s segment of very quiet music, you can play something loud and then go to the quiet part and it will play normally for 5s and then get choppy after that, but if you loop that part it will remain choppy and distorted the entire time. If you are only planning to use this for phone calls it will work great. If you want to use it for meetings where there will be periods of silence it will be annoying to hear the cutouts sometimes but be fine. If you want to use this for general PC work or music, find something else or wait for reviews to say that the firmware is fixed. I plan to keep the speaker because I can use it for phone calls instead of PC work, I will update this review if Yealink releases firmware that fixes my complaints Read more
I have a lot of meetings for my work and as a cost cutting measure for in person meetings, they have eliminated IT support when meetings are held at hotel conference rooms. This means that I needed to have everyone in the room dial into the meeting on their computer so people who couldn't attend in person could attend virtually. This normally resulted in a poor connection, half the meeting they couldn't hear the speaker, and other frustrations. I decided to try this as a way to improve the experience for everyone and overall I was surprised at how easy it was to set up and use. When plugged directly into my computer it automatically synced so I could use it immediately with Teams. When I unplugged it and used the battery to put it on a different side of the room, I only needed to connect it via bluetooth on my computer and it worked immediately, no software to download or adjustments needed. Some of the virtual participants did report voices being very soft and difficult to hear at times, but this is more a function of where the speaker is placed than anything. Overall I think this is a great option especially if you don't have a fully integrated phone system in your meeting room. Read more
