The best-sounding smartphones and tablets of 2024

The top speakers among flagships

The iPhones reign in the flagship category of our best speaker round-up. The iPhone 16 Pro Max has by far the best speakers in its class, with clean and full-sounding tracks and virtually no distortion at higher volumes. It's also a lot louder than its smaller sibling, the 16 Pro.

The iPhone 16 Plus has similar tuning, but ultimately, the 16 Pro Max came out on top with a slightly cleaner sound. You can hear the difference mostly in the vocals and mids.

The third place is shared by the Xiaomi 14 Ultra and the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. We couldn't decide which one sounds better. On the one hand, Xiaomi's Ultra has a more balanced output and perhaps nicer vocals, but on the other, the S24 Ultra's output is slightly "warmer" with more pronounced bass.

The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra gets an honorable mention with its clean and balanced sound, despite not being very loud. The Sony Xperia 1 VI is among the best-sounding flagship smartphones of the year and impresses with loud and full bass.