G550 audio - mic position

I've been testing an Acer 5536 low-ish end laptop. Apart from the major problem I've been looking for answers to, I also was surprised by the placing of the internal microphone for simple Skype-type use. Because it was mounted just above the keyboard and directly over the HD, it came set up with all the noise cancelling and compression options set full on This made the audio distorted to the point of undecipherability. Removing all the effects left the voice understandable, but buried in the noise.

I've just got a low-end Lenovo G550 for audio testing and blow me , the mic is in the same place on this.
Recording a few "Hello, Hellos" shows that it, too is set to full compression, noise gating and all the rest and what comes out is totally unlistenable.

Older laptops from Lenovo and Acer have the mic either at the front of the case well away from the rattly bits or by the camera at the top of the lid.

Is it me or have both these companies replaced their designers with accountants?

 

Why don't you just buy a microphone off of Newegg or similar like site? There about $10 and will be just as good or better then most laptops mics.


I don't know if this helps or not, but the y460 and y560 have two microphones at the top of the screen.

 

Yes, I know I can buy a mic or use a headset, but both these machines I refer to come with a camera in the lid, so are presumably sold as machines to do video link-ups.
It just seems very odd that neither machine has a usable inbuilt microphone, whereas on older machines it was just a fire up and go situation that worked very adequately. Maybe I'm just unlucky and both machines have some sort of microphone fault, but it does seem strange to design in a mic position close to the HD and not that far from the fan.
I think the y460 and y560 might come under the category of "older machines".