Godox WES2 microphone review: plug-and-play recording for your smartphone

The best thing that you can do to improve the production values of your YouTube content is to buy a wireless mic kit. Your DSLR or smartphone will capture good-quality audio from a foot or two away from your mouth, but that quality drops rapidly with each extra foot you step away from your camera. Built-in mics are also very prone to wind noise at any distance. By clipping one of the best lavalier mics to your lapel (and plugging a receiver into your recording device)  you can keep your mouth close to the mic at all times and capture clean clear sound from a distance from your camera  - up to 200 meters in the case of the Godox WES Kit.

Godox produces a wide range of quality mics -  from the double-barrelled shoe-mounted IVM-S3 to the wireless Virso M2 kit. The Godox WES is primarily targeted at YouTube bloggers and social media content creators who prefer to use their smartphones to record footage. Indeed the Godox WES comes in two different incarnations - a Lighting version for iPhones older than the iPhone 15 range (WES1) and a USB-C version for Android users and iPhone 15 owners (WES2). Make sure that you buy the version that you need or you won’t be able to plug the receiver into your smartphone. To clarify - Godox WES1 has a lighting connector for attaching its transmitter to an iPhone and the Godox WES2 has a USB-C adaptor for Android phones (and iPhone 15).  Sorry to repeat ourselves but it will be an easy mistake to order the wrong version.

I tested the Godox WES1 Kit 2, which has two transmitters. If you don’t need to interview people then you can save cash by buying the Godox WES1 Kit 1, which only has one transmitter mic.

Godox WES2: Specifications

Godox WES2: Price

You can pick up the WES2 in the US for $99, or for £99 in the UK. At the time of writing the WES2 is showing as available on Amazon, with other stores having it for preorder, so check back again for your favorite retailer.

Godox WES2: Design & Handling

As with most of the wireless mic kits on the market, the Godox WES kit consists of a plastic carry case that contains two transmitter mics and a receiver. You can charge the two mics and the receiver inside the case simultaneously via the case’s USB-C socket. The carry case also doubles up as a charger on location thanks to its built-in battery, so you can extend the working life of the mics during a shoot by popping them back inside the case. A little digital display on the case indicates the amount of charging power that remains.

Talking of charging via the case, I made the mistake of not peeling off the tiny plastic stickers that protect the two transmitters when I first used the kit. This meant that when I shot my review of the kit I presumed that the carry case was charging the transmitters when it wasn’t! As a result, I ran out of power towards the end of my test (and the mics began flashing a ‘low battery’ red!) Now that the stickers have been removed the case charges the mics just fine. I’ve fallen foul of this sticker problem before - I really should know by now to check! When the transmitter mics are operating as normal a green light appears on them. This light changes to orange when you tap the orange button to activate the software noise reduction feature built into a transmitter. 

The plastic charging case fits into a zipped padded bag which offers more protection for the WES. The bag also has a compartment that stores two ‘dead cat’ windshields that are essential in reducing take-ruining wind rumble.  The bag and its contents fit nicely in my hand and the kit takes up very little space in my camera backpack.

Because I was using an iPhone 14 Pro Max for my test I brought the Lighting version of the Godox WES - the WES1. This meant I could plug the small receiver straight into my iPhone, fire up the Camera app, and start recording great-quality sound from the kit’s wireless transmitter mic. 

In the past, my iPhone has mistaken a plugged-in wireless receiver for headphones and as a result, I couldn’t record audio from the wireless mic! There’s no danger of that with the Godox WES because the kit conforms to Apple’s MFi (Made for iPhone/iPad/iPod) manufacturer certification - so it’s just ‘plug and play’ to use it. This is a big plus point for me as an iPhone user.

Godox WES2: Performance

To test the Godox WES I took it and my iPhone 14 Pro Max down to the local park. As usual, the wind was very blustery in the park’s wide open location so I popped the supplied windshield over the transmitter. Some wireless mics (such as the Saramoninc BlinkMe have fiddly windshields that you need to push and twist to attach to the transmitter.  

The Godox WES transmitter mic’s windshield just slides straight on. As you’ll see (and hear) from our supporting video the wind noise was kept down to negligible levels (though you can hear a hint of bass rumble if you listen to it while wearing headphones). If I’d recorded my sound with the iPhone’s built-in mic the sound would have been unusable due to wind noise, so the Godox WES is an essential accessory for my video work. While testing the WES in the park I also used it to record audio for my on-location test reviews of the JOBY SeaPal and the Shimoda Urban Explore backpack.

The biggest danger when using wireless mics is signal drop out, especially when the mic loses line of sight with the receiver thanks to your body blocking the signal when you turn your back on the camera. Thanks to signal hopping technology dropout is kept to a minimum, which is just as well as there’s no onboard recording feature. Onboard recording enables you to replace any drop-out in your subject’s voice with a clean recording captured on the transmitter. If you need the additional security of onboard recording you’ll need to pay more for a mic such as the DJI Mic - though this costs more than three times the price of the Godox WES.

I was impressed with the quality of the audio transmitted by the WES and would be hard-pressed to differentiate it from audio captured from a more expensive kit. However, as with some other kits, the built-in noise reduction feature does reduce background traffic noises but at the cost of making your voice sound flat and ‘tinny’ (though you can use the Godox Mic app to make a transmitter change Strong noise reduction to Weak to make the voice sound less ‘thin’.

Godox WES2: Verdict

The Godox WES is a ‘must have’ mic kit if you don’t already own a wireless mic set. It will certainly improve the sound of your smartphone’s video footage and at under $100/£100 it won't blow your budget. Thanks to a 48kHz/16-bit sampling rate the audio quality is as good as mics that cost twice the price. It’s pretty effective at transmitting your voice over a distance and dropout is kept to a minimum thanks to the kit’s 2.4GHz Frequency Hopping System. All in all the Godox WES kit is great value for money - just make sure that you order one that’s compatible with your smartphone.

Alternatives

Godox WEC
Released in 2023, the Godox WEC looks and behaves like the newer Godox WES2, with similar-looking transmitters and a plastic charging case. The mics also have built-in noise reduction. The main difference is that the transmitters require a cable to connect them to your smartphone and if you use an iPhone 14 or older model you’ll need to buy a third-party 3.5mm to lightning cable adaptor. 

Boyamic
Also released in early 2024, the Boyamic is another iPhone/smartphone-friendly wireless mic kit. Unlike the Godox WES the Boyamic ships with two adaptors that enable you to plug its transmitter into any smartphone to iPhone model (though at the time of writing the Boyamic is harder to hunt down as it is a very fresh release.) It also has the bonus of onboard recording (but you do have to pay more for this feature).