Thinkpads Forum

I have tried using the VOIP speakerphone feature on the T410 three times now and every time the person on the other end of the line has had a hard time hearing me. I can hear them fine over the speaker but there definitely seems to be an issue with them hearing me clearly. Has anyone else experienced this? It's not a huge deal because i can just use my headset but it would be nice in case i wanted to do a call on speakerphone.

I've found all webcam microphones to be crap for speakerphone-style voip. Although I haven't tested the T410 in particular, I'm not surprised that the echo cancellation is sub-par. The effect is that you can hear great, but software echo cancellation then struggles do distinguish your voice from the played-back voice and the other side can't hear you well. For this to really work you need circuitry that subtracts what the speakers put out from what the microphone receives, and I've never seen such a thing in a laptop. The "VoIP-ready" microphone in the thinkpads only refers to some dual-input microphone which helps with ambient noise, but cannot do proper echo cancellation as it does not have direct access to the speaker output.

I am really happy with the Duet, see https://evo.caltech.edu/evoGate/FAQ/hardware.html. This is a usb speaker/microphone combo that has the necessary circuitry to turn any computer into a perfect speakerphone.

Yeah we've noticed the same thing. I wonder if you can turn off the noise cancellation features.