Elgato hopes to branch out of the gaming market with its new range of Neo products, and it's off to a pretty good start, in my opinion, with five fresh and useful peripherals. My favorite of the lot so far is, surprisingly, the Wave Neo microphone, and it quickly became a key part of my gaming setup. It's very easy to set up and use, and it records great audio out of the box with little to no tuning.

The Wave Neo mic also looks great and is compact enough to fit into most setups without any issues. It's not flawless by any means, though, and it still lacks the finesse of premium microphones that run circles around it. But it leaves very little room for complaints, especially for its $90 asking price, and it's my new favorite microphone for under $100.

There are plenty of things I like about this microphone that make me want to use it as my main mic over the tried-and-tested Blue Yeti, and I truly believe it has the potential to serve as a solid starting point for most gaming and streaming setups.

About this review: Elgato shipped XDA a sample for this review but had no input to its contents.

Price, specs, and availability

The Wave Neo microphone is a part of Elgato's new Neo family of products that debuted on 18th April 2024. It's readily available to purchase now from various retailers like Amazon, and you can buy it for just $90. That makes it more affordable than the likes of, say, the Razer Seiren V3 Chroma, which costs $130.

The Wave Neo is a great microphone for both casual and hardcore gamers, and even streamers who are just getting started with a basic setup. Just like the other products in Elgato's Neo family, the Wave Neo is only available in white color, but you can swap out the included foam pop filter with different colored ones like Green, Grey, Lavender, and Pink. The Wave Neo also has great specifications for the price, which you can check out below.

What I like

Looks and feels like a more expensive mic

The Elgato Wave Neo has a very minimal design, and I absolutely love how it looks on my desk. It's a cute-looking mic that perfectly matches the white aesthetics of my setup, which already has a white PC case, and it doesn't take too much space, either. I totally see this mic becoming a part of a lot of setups, as it will go well with both a neutral setup with minimal aesthetics, or a flashy one with lots of RGB.

The Wave Neo may not have buttons or knobs to let you adjust settings on the fly, but that doesn't mean it looks or feels like a cheap microphone that's made to match its price tag. If anything, I'd say it's definitely built to resemble microphones that cost way more than that. I even prefer its design and appearance over the Logitech Yeti GX mic that my colleague Rich reviewed recently, even though it has RGB lights.

Design is entirely subjective, though, so what I will say is that the Elgato Wave Neo is a compact, minimal-looking mic that's well-built and is very easy to set up and use. You can install this microphone without any tools, and it also comes with an easy-to-remove foam pop filter attachment. The one that's included with the mic comes in black, but you can get different colored ones from Elgato. The company has also included a riser attachment to increase the mic's height as it sits on the desk, but I'm not a huge fan of it for the reason I'll discuss in one of the following sections.

Excellent mic quality for the price

Recording quality is the chief in importance for a microphone, so how does its audio sound? Well, I'm happy to report that the audio coming out of the Wave Neo sounds excellent, that too without any manual tweaking. It truly is a plug-and-record USB microphone, in the sense that it doesn't demand any additional tuning or drivers to sound as good as it does. It may not be perfect for professional workloads as it lacks studio-grade recording quality for things like podcasting, or voice-overs, but it's perfectly usable out of the box for gaming and even streaming.

One of the main reasons why I say it's not as good as some other high-end offerings on the market, or even comparable to Elgato's own Wave 3 mic, is because of its noise cancelation. It's simply not nearly as good as it is on some premium microphones, and you'll definitely need some tuning there, if not on the audio output. It's nothing that utilities like Nvidia Broadcast can't take care of, but it's still something to keep in mind, as you may have to play around with some settings if you happen to be in a particularly noisy environment.

What I don't like

The Wave Neo microphone, as I previously mentioned, doesn't leave a lot of room for complaints. That being said, there are a couple of things about the microphone which I'm not really a huge fan of.

Tap to mute is a little too sensitive

One thing I immediately noticed about the Wave Neo is that its tap-to-mute function is a little too sensitive. I say that because the capacitive touch button, at least on my unit, is triggered even when I tap around the designated mute button. It's not necessarily a bad thing as the mic will indicate your mute status with a bright red light so you can instantly unmute after an accidental tap, but it's something to keep in mind. Having a touch-sensitive button is more convenient to quickly mute/unmute in a jiffy, but it's issues like these that make me want clickable physical buttons.

The riser rattles a bit

Another issue, which I believe could be specific to my unit is that the riser on which the microphone is mounted doesn't fit or screw-in tightly, and it rattles quite evidently. It's not loose enough to constantly move and add a rattling noise to my audio, but it's definitely not as tight as it should be, and I can feel it physically move when I hold to adjust the microphone's angle or its position. It doesn't seem like it's supposed to do that, which is why I mentioned it could just be specific to my unit. I've reached out to Elgato for confirmation on this, and will update this review if/when I hear from them.

Should you buy the Elgato Wave Neo?

You should buy the Elgato Wave Neo if:

• You want a reliable microphone that records great audio.
• You are a gamer or a beginner streamer looking for a budget-friendly microphone for your setup.
• You want a minimal and cute-looking microphone for your setup.

You should not buy the Elgato Wave Neo if:

• You want a high-end microphone with all the bells and whistles.
• You don't like or can't fit white-colored accessories in your setup.
• You want a high-quality microphone with great noise canceling out of the box.

There is a lot to like about the Elgato Wave Neo, and it's easily one of the best microphones I've used in this price range. From its minimal and cute-looking design and great build quality (minus the raiser rattling issue I highlighted above), to excellent recording quality and its plug-and-record nature, it gets a lot of things right to cater to a wide subset of users. Not only is it great for casual users who are looking for something basic for their everyday/work setup, but it's also capable of serving well to seasoned veterans in the gaming and streaming space.

I also love the fact that it works with Elgato's Wave Link software, letting me fine-tune the audio settings and make the most out of it. Not to mention, you can also hop-in into the Elgato marketplace and get effects to remove background noise, add warmth, bass, and more, if you don't like fiddling too much with technical settings. It's very easy to set up and use overall, and that makes it very easy to recommend, especially for $90.