The Blue Snowflake USB microphone is a great sounding, inexpensive microphone that's great for podcasting, audio or video chatting, or recording. As a bonus, it also happens to be quite small, ultra-portable, and intelligently designed.

Here's what it looks like folded up and ready to travel.

Its USB cable is stowed conveniently inside the molded case.

Here's how it looks set up as a desktop mic:

And finally, here's how it looks attached to the top of your laptop display:

You have to admit, it's pretty cute and smartly designed, isn't it? But that wouldn't matter if it didn't also sound great, but it does.

I do a couple of podcasts regularly, both recorded over Skype. My usual podcasting setup relies on the Snowflake's bigger and more expensive sibling, the Blue Snowball. For my most recent appearances I substituted the Snowflake for my usual Snowball without telling the hosts in advance. Both of them -- Gene Steinberg of the Tech Night Owl LIVE and Chuck Joiner of MacNotables -- said I sounded as good as usual when I informed them I was using the smaller, less expensive Snowflake.

You can listen to the Tech Night Owl session recorded with the Snowflake here, and the MacNotables session recorded with it here.

I only have a couple of very minor gripes. The first is that I wish I could tighten the bearing that allows the microphone to tilt and swivel. It's not really a problem but I'd prefer it to be just a little bit stiffer.

The other thing that could be better is the clip-on portion of the enclosure, which you can see in the picture with the MacBook Pro above. It could have been a little wider. While you can hang it on a MacBook or MacBook Pro display as shown, it's not quite wide enough to sit that way on the 24-inch Westinghouse LCD display I use with my MacBook Pro at home.

But both of those things are mere quibbles. Overall, I find the Snowflake to be a great mic, especially at the price I saw at Amazon.com while researching this review. Although the Snowflake's SRP is $79, Amazon.com has it for a mere $59 with free shipping [click here]. If you need a good portable USB microphone, or even if you just need a good USB mic regardless of size, that's a good deal.

P.S. If you're wondering, no, that's not an affiliate link, nor do I make a cent if you take advantage of this deal. I'm merely a satisfied Snowflake user sharing an excellent price with a few million of my closest friends.

The Bottom Line

The Blue Snowflake sounds great, packs small, and won't break the bank. I don't know of another USB microphone priced like the Snowflake that offers such excellent sound quality, superb portability, and an intelligent, stylish design.

What's not to love?