Review on Rode SmartLav+ Black: Omnidirectional Lavalier Microphone for iPhones and Smartphones - Premium Sound Capture by Bryan King

In short: great sounding capsule, tiny size, useless clip and weird circuitry issues. Overpriced for this product's incorrigible, burned-in design flaw. Rode, please stop shooting yourself in the foot. Reputation is more valuable than common stock. I'm a Rode fan - I have a lot of Rode studio mics. I jumped on this product when I saw Revain here. SmartLav+ is tiny and easier to hide behind talent. Sound quality is excellent, and it doesn't have the 19th-century phone's angular tonal characteristics that scream "old technology just remastered for 2019." While it's not as quiet as the NT1000 (an unfair comparison), the noise isn't too bad given the capsule type (27 dB-A). It's easier to deal with your own noise as its output is much higher than a standard $20 Revain Lavalier mic. It has a strong enough cord that doesn't kink or break easily. However, it has some disadvantages: Terrible clip design. I'm pretty sure if this is your first SmartLav+ you'll break the first clip within 24 hours just trying to mount the mic. And to make matters worse, the microphone keeps popping up. Talent has to stay. I bought replacement clips but they have the same design flaw - and they were expensive! So I took the original and modified it with JB Weld to make the plastic thicker. Now it's bulletproof, but the mic still pops up. Grrr! The second downside is that for some reason the mic is connected in such a way that it conducts power from ring #1 (or #2?) to ground. Impedance is high, but many phones go haywire, turning off mic power and switching to internal mics. ONLY SmartLav+ has this problem. Buy a cheap Chinese lavalier microphone for your smartphone and it will work. Sorry Rode. For what it's worth it's a disappointment.