The Microphones

The three spots marked in the picture above are where Toshiba placed the microphones. But why did Toshiba use three microphones, instead of just one? Apparently, they provide the M200 with a pretty cool noise reduction capability!

The Microphones

With noise reduction turned on, the notebook filters out surrounding noise. It allows it to isolate only audio input from a cone-shaped area that spreads out from the screen. It's really very cool because it actually makes self-dictation usable.

For a better understanding of this effect, take a look at this video (1MB) I made. It will show you the marked difference in ambient noise with and without noise reduction.

How does this noise reduction technology work? I'm not too sure about the exact science but Andrea Electronics seems to be the company behind the technology.

According to some discussions I read in the TabletPCBuzz forums, it appears that the sound card filters out sound that isn't detected by any two microphones. In theory, this filters out noise from the side while allowing sound from the front to be recorded.

So noise reduction is really great for dictation or speech recognition. But if you want to record sound from outside of the focused area, like during a lecture or something; you'll need to turn it off.

The Speaker

Toshiba placed the speaker near the center of the panel just below the screen, between two microphones. But luckily, there was no feedback from the speaker, with or without noise reduction.

The Speaker

You can actually use this notebook for VOIP without any external headphones or microphones. But it would be better if they placed the speaker on one side.