Why do most new laptops feature headphone/mic combo?

GregI · 21 Jun 2015 at 03:17

I'm in the market for a new laptop. I will be using a headset with both headphone and microphone jacks. Before I pick a laptop, I need to look at the exterior as it seems like manufacturers have combined this port into one.

Can anyone explain why? I'm either forced to ditch the main purpose of my headset (the sound) or use the inbuilt mic which is ofcourse going to pick up way more fan noise than the one near my face, not to mention I'll then have a dangling plug doing nothing the whole time.

Is there any like box or something you can buy that converts a mic and headphone plug into one?

Manwith Noname · 21 Jun 2015 at 05:19

I have not seen this but if you do end up with a laptop that has a combined socket you can indeed get an adaptor that will have 2 x 3.5mm 3 pole sockets to 1 x 3.5mm 4 pole jack. I'm not sure I can post direct links to them so use your preferred search engine to find them.

I just typed "3.5mm 4 pole splitter", which is technically the wrong way round but it still gave the results you'll need.

Edit: Found this...

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=SP-092-SN&groupid=702&catid=1058

GregI · 21 Jun 2015 at 12:49

That looks great and all but is this really going to be fine/same quality as if it was 2 separate jacks? Like won't it half the impedence or something so the signal strength is much lower?

MagicBoy · 21 Jun 2015 at 12:54

GregI said:
Like won't it half the impedence or something so the signal strength is much lower?

No.

OhEsEcks · 21 Jun 2015 at 13:31

I suppose many do it because a lot of people tend to use their phone headphones with their laptop and they tend to have the mic and cans on the same line, so only need the one input. And then they tend to have a mic somewhere else on the laptop too which works with the camera, so a dedicated mic input port isn't a major requirement.

So if you're using pro/studio cans it's not really a problem if there's only one audio port, since there's a mic buried around the laptop somewhere to work with the camera.

I'm pretty sure my Clevo came with dedicated inputs for mic and cans though. I gave that machine to my mum though, so don't have it around to check.