The Movo UM700 is a USB microphone that offers excellent value for money. For a mere $80, you get a microphone with great overall sound quality, four polar patterns to choose from, a direct monitoring port, built-in volume and microphone gain dials, and a supplied metal stand and pop filter. Thanks to its unassuming aesthetics and black-on-black color scheme, it seamlessly blends into any surroundings and proves to be equally suitable for business meetings and live streaming.

For podcasters and live streamers who are looking to kick-start their careers with meaningful hardware upgrades which won't break the bank, the Movo UM700 feels like a perfect choice. Performance-wise, it's comparable to microphones costing twice as much, and its plug and play USB connectivity will save such users from having to invest in an external audio interface, which would be the case if they went down the XLR microphone route.

Furthermore, the supplied metal stand places the microphone sufficiently high for comfortable use, so buying a boom arm is entirely optional. Many competing microphones have stands that are simply too low, which renders them fairly pointless. When mounted on such a stand, a microphone is too far away from the mouth to achieve optimal sound quality. No such issues with the Movo UM700. Of course, a boom arm is still a worthwhile investment because it effectively removes any unwanted noise caused by table tapping and will allow you to put the Movo UM700 very close to your mouth. You can then utilize its proximity effect in cardioid mode to get even deeper, broadcast-like voice quality which isn't negatively impacted by room acoustics. The supplied pop filter does a good job of getting rid of plosives, both from a normal sitting distance and when positioned up close to the three-capsule array.

There are some minor quibbles—the volume and microphone gain dials feel cheap, pressing the physical mute button causes knocking noise, and Movo opted for a Micro-USB port on the bottom side of the microphone instead of a more appropriate USB-C one. These are, however, completely overshadowed by how good the Movo UM700 sounds, and just how affordable it actually is. For $80, this is an easy recommendation for anyone looking to seriously up their microphone game on a budget.