Does Anyone Else Enjoy The Sound From Their Smartphone Speakers?

[RayDunzl]

I shopped on that basis and landed on Samsung S23 Ultra

I'm pretty sure I've never used my phone while brushing my teeth.

 

[MattHooper]

I'm pretty sure I've never used my phone while brushing my teeth.

I do it all the time, usually turning up a podcast on the speakers while I brush my teeth etc...before getting to work.

 

[RayDunzl]

I probably left mine in the car.

 

[Moonhead]

When my kids permit it I use my iPhone 6s speakers, but I wish Apple up their game.

Smartphone Ranking | DXOMARK

The DXOMARK scores in the rankings below reflect the device’s performance and the quality of the user experience.

www.dxomark.com

 

[Deleted member 48726]

My partner's favorite. I walk into the house and she's got music or an audiobook or even a video going on her iPhone 8 while she's working (small batch chocolates in our kitchen) and it drives me nuts - sounds like a distortion box because the volume is all the way up. Adding insult to injury, I have the whole house set up in 3 zones for audio via Airplay including the kitchen. Before we got together 4 years ago she had never been with a "stereo junkie" before so she claims she just forgets she CAN have decent audio.

At least she's very appreciative of my system in my studio and joins me for listening sessions.

That's 1:1 how it is here as well.

The sound actually gets on my nerves. It's like white noise to me. It's so tinny.
She has an iPhone 12 or 13. Can't remember.

I only listen to music or audio from my phone when travelling and staying at a hotel with bothersome TV connection and have forgotten my airpods or they need to charge..
So in fact very rare.

I can still appreciate the improvements that's been made though. But all other options seem better than the iPhone speakers.

 

[boXem]

I was positively surprised by the sound of my Pixel 6a. Clearly (no pun intended) not the distorsion box I was expecting.

 

[Talisman]

No, impossible, I always travel with a Bluetooth speaker, listening to music from the phone speaker is impossible for me
(I work in an operating room... and he is here with me)

 

[JktHifi]

I only use the smartphone speakers while I’m on the toilet throwing something

 

[Penelinfi]

When personally using the phone in your hands, the speakers can be quite decent and full sounding (considering).
If you go further away and/or require higher volumes, it gets compressed and distorted.
I do EQ them using wavelet as most go towards too much treble.
iPhones have great bass but it does sound odd at times, like certain t,K,b sounds make it sound like a plastic box drum. Perhaps there's some odd frame/enclosure resonance there.
Portable speakers and headphones are great, but not as convenient to have a "just works" that you don't have to worry about charging, losing, directivity, cables, size etc

 

[Axo1989]

But I have to say, for me the iphone 13 finally "did it" for me, in terms of sound quality from the speakers. First: stereo! Cool! Even more than that...dolby processing? I was shocked the first time I watched a trailer or something on youtube, turned my phone to landscape and the sound spread out around the phone. I didn't even know it had that feature until then.

Ok, strange but I'd never done that. And you're right, it sounds rather better than I expected, there's even that soupçon of stereo/surround image.

I guess I'm pretty much surrounded by iPads (work thing, they're everywhere) which do the landscape stereo thing half-decently, so trying on the phone never really came up. Even then I'll almost always use AirPods (Max, also Pros before I lost them) if I'm actually planning on watching/listening on those devices. But when I share music with my siblings I always forget that they'll quite likely listen on their phone speaker first. Or regular AirPods if I'm lucky. I'm probably an outlier.

I'm pretty sure I've never used my phone while brushing my teeth.

Haha, that's not an exclusive club. But I also hate podcasts.

 

[Jeromeof]

I used to bring away small bluetooth speakers on business trips (for the hotel) but I found in the past few years (probably since I got an iPhone 12 Pro Max the sound coming from the phone was the equal and better for watching YouTube say or listening to podcast and not terrible even for listening to some music, though I usually have a laptop with me also and the 16inch MacBook Pro has IMO pretty good speakers (they are relatively large) for listening to music while working on a document or whatever.

 

[AM88]

I’m more than happy with 12 pro max if I don’t have anything else. I was surprised but probably shouldn’t have been when I realised they also use the speaker from the earpiece for playback.

 

[Benatalaya]

Yes.Xiaomi and Grado 325.Fantastic.

 

[Zapper]

Let's have a Klippel of the iPhone, please ;-)

I bought my Galaxy S21 Ultra for the 4 cameras, not the sound, as photography outranks audio in my hierarchy of hobbies. While the sound is surprisingly good, I carry my earbuds with me most of the time so I use those when I want to listen.

My wife will also listen to music on her phone instead of the numerous speakers with Bluetooth and WiiM around the house.

 

[RayDunzl]

No, I don't rate the speaker (I don't think it is stereo) in my phone to be more than just "functional" in my cheap Motorola Power thing.

I use it as a speakerphone, and as a flight tracker/computer, let it emit variometer (sine) tones while flying my sailplane to indicate probable areas of lift. I put a USB power port in mine, but if flying a club plane, it will do 5 hours on its battery at full brightness before it gives out.

If web browsing news while someplace "waiting" I read and don't watch videos of anyone talking though some of the action shots are worth the time.

It runs Android Auto on the car's display while I'm out emitting CO2.

The little woman has an IPhone 14 Pro, but I don't feel left out.

 

[BluesDaddy]

I've a 2nd generation iPhone SE and the only time I really listen to the speakers is when my wife and I do our daily walks together. The sound is surprisingly good for what it is, but when I walk alone I wear blue tooth earbuds.

 

[MattHooper]

No, impossible, I always travel with a Bluetooth speaker, listening to music from the phone speaker is impossible for me
(I work in an operating room... and he is here with me)View attachment 279764

I tried many bluetooth speakers and never found one I liked (as well as being another hassle to pack when traveling). That's one reason I'm happy about the upgraded sound on my phone.

I find the iphone speakers particularly suited to the range of the human voice. A well recorded podcast for instance has a crystal clarity and understanding someone is so easy, and especially if placed on a soft surface like a sofa or bed, it slightly softens the edge and sounds quite "human." Whereas every single blue-tooth speaker I ever used tried to do "too much" for it's size or over-promised on quality, and voices and music had a very colored or boxy/resonant character.

 

[tuga]

A smartphone is a great tool to demonstrate how distortion can be perceived as loudness (by playing music at the same level in my stereo system, which sounds comparatively a lot less shouty and much softer at the same SPL).

 

[Antz123]

Gsmarena - does a lot of audio tests on phone's speakers, They aren't in too much depth but it gives a fair idea.

GSMArena feature labs: The tests

When we designed our original speaker loudness test (now discontinued), the goal was to gauge how loud your phone will ring when you get a call or how...

www.gsmarena.com

 

[valerianf]

I have a OnePlus 8T equipped with a 120hz display and stereo speakers.
Quality is good but I do not see any interest for listening music with it.
The only exception is when I am in my car: I am using BT to listen my Amazon HD Playlist coming from my phone.
But it is my car audio system that reproduce the music far better that any phone.