The best-sounding smartphones and tablets of 2024
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- Tee
- D70
- 02 Jan 2025
I've owned the S24 Ultra for 6 months and from day one I noticed the sound quality was subpar compared to my previous Samsung M51, which was a mid ranger with great battery.
I'm using sound booster apps to get around the issue, but disappointed that a flagship that cost me top dollars would have average sound quality, not loudness, but overall bass and balance. iPhones have great sound quality and I've owned older Androids with better sound.
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- Cpt.Power
- n$n
- 02 Jan 2025
Just one question.
Since when a 16 plus Iphone is a flagship.
Apart the CPU it have low end midranger specs or high end entry level specs. ňCalling a phone with slow US port useless slow charging speeds, 60 HZ display and many else cons a flagship is like negotiate horse its not horse but a camel.
Even Kia sells far more cars compared to Rolls Royce but that does not make a better car from Kia Motors.
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- PetrovBG
- 0BG
- 02 Jan 2025
Anonymous, 02 Jan 2025Meanwhile speakers continue to get worse every year as the ... moreYou chose your phones poorly or you just buy flagships. In the mid segment, speakers are improving.
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- Anonymous
- vGJ
- 02 Jan 2025
How is asus not in this list? They always have top quality speakers
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- Anonymous
- atq
- 02 Jan 2025
Meanwhile speakers continue to get worse every year as the bezels shrink. Now is NOT a good time to buy a new phone. Paying more for less. Devolution is happening in the quality of our products. Camera bumps are big and phones are too top heavy. Don't worry slim phones are making a return for a premium of course. Foldables are not fit for purpose and anything below upper midrange is garbage. Happy new year snowflakes.
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- David
- 0Fp
- 02 Jan 2025
One thing Apple actually does better than everyone else is speaker sound quality. iPhones, iPads & MacBooks have sound in a totally different league. Bought a new Legion laptop, sounded like speakers from a budget laptop 20 years ago!
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- ZolaIII
- g8$
- 02 Jan 2025
This is worse than even camera quality scams. But at least we used to use phone's to listen to music with headphones trough 3.5 out. And it whose fine with sensitive IEM's and headphones as it never had a straight to drive even average sensitive ones. Performance whose also fine especially taking in consideration output power (300~500 mV). With cheap measured IEM's and Wavelet DSPe you where more than fine but now to get there you need a good BT preferably with good DAC and at least doing LDAC high.
The physics rule in the realm of speakers and obstacles it brings in like room. You need very big one's if you want them to go low and you want tweeters to properly cover highs. You won't get either on phone because they simply can't put them in (nor run them). For casual and when you have to smartphone speakers will work but for anything even remotely serious you can do a lot better (2.5~3 bottom octaves more). Same goes regarding camera buy a photo camera with appropriate lens and flash as you won't and can't get that on smartphone.
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- Hemedans
- XKx
- 02 Jan 2025
Miracle King, 01 Jan 2025Third wheel spotted. 💀During sd 810 era, when Exynos was better, Meizu Released phone with same Soc as Galaxy S6, Exynos 7410, it was Called Meizu Pro 5, it blow Away everything including LG G4, Samsung and IPhones of that time when it come to Audio Quality.
You can check review here
https://m.gsmarena.com/meizu_pro_5-review-1336p6.php
Or just Google That phone with keyword like HI-FI, Audio quality etc to see how best it performed compare to competition.
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- Hoosm
- xkR
- 02 Jan 2025
There is a big difference between loudness and sound quality.... My ears prefer midrangers sound than iPhone s
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- NiKKo DArK
- BMH
- 02 Jan 2025
Siny Xperia 5 V - sounds amazing! Very impressive stereo sound.
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- Anonymous
- 0p}
- 02 Jan 2025
Nameless, 02 Jan 2025These guys doesn't know what sound quality is. They ca... moreBut imagine if it was an audiophile review:
Highs: Sibilance nicely controlled. Highs are detailed and sharp but not harsh to the ears. Realistic hi-hats and snare drums.
Mids: Smooth and textured. Female voices stand out more than male ones. Lower mids could do with more boost.
Lows: Lows boosted. Powerful bass but lacks control. Bassheads will rejoice.
The soundstage is less wide than it is deep. PRaT is surprisingly good but there is room for improvement. Overall, excellent for the price.
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- Nameless
- 0xQ
- 02 Jan 2025
These guys doesn't know what sound quality is. They can't separate it from loudness. I remember they were reviewing Sony headphones without evaluating sound quality. It's like to review a car without a drive test.
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- Sam N8 808 owner
- rKT
- 02 Jan 2025
PetrovBG, 02 Jan 2025No, but i woudn't buy a phone with abysmal speaker qua... moreCorrect. But don't you think the software tweak is more relevant for a vast majority of users?
Most users won't ever touch the software or tuning. Which means, for them the stock settings are all the more relevant even if there's potential for more.
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- PetrovBG
- 0BG
- 02 Jan 2025
Yuri84, 01 Jan 2025Would you pick a phone based solely on sound quality of the... moreNo, but i woudn't buy a phone with abysmal speaker quality either.
I got the Note 13 pro and although natively it sounds quet and flat, amp and speakers are actually very solid and both loudness and quality can be made amazing with some software tweaks. My phone is vibrating from the bass even at very low volumes and doesn't distort even at higher volumes.
Same goes for the sound from the headphone jack. It's crippled software-wise, but once you tweak it with an EQ app, it gets pretty loud without any problems in quality.
As someone said earlier, hardware quality can't be determined with stock sound settings. It mostly shows which manufacturer has the best/worst settings applied.
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- Anonymous
- X%Q
- 02 Jan 2025
The best budget device that has great sound quality is the infinix note 30 even though its from 2023. It offers relatively balanced and bass heavy sound that is best suited for music listening, especially if you trigger the bass and music option from the jbl sound setting, its successor note 40 however sounds thin, ideal for gaming and video playback but not for music. Although both have low speaker loudness
3rd best is Redmi note 13. It has cleaner less distorted sound than note 30 but lacks bass.
4th best is Tecno Spark series, apparently they all sound very similar.
The best from entry level series is tecno spark go 1. Nothing fancy but sterero, so it helps.
While Xiaomi's entry level A series has some of the worst sounding phones i have ever listened to (for example Redmi a3). Not only they lack in loudness but all of them sound horrible
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- Strawinsky
- prj
- 01 Jan 2025
Miracle King, 01 Jan 2025That's the LOUDNESS rating, not the sound QUALITY rating.Exactly, I miss a sound quality test, but it's always a loudness test.
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- Dazza
- AbH
- 01 Jan 2025
I'd be far more interested in the headphones sound quality of those smartphones and tablets that still have a headphone jack.
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- Anonymous
- 7v0
- 01 Jan 2025
So bias summary. They didn't even test the quality. Just loudness rating. It's no way ipad 11m4 can match ipad 11m3, lenovo tab plus or huawei matepad pro 12 interm of sound.
- Eyaddy
- fmn
- 01 Jan 2025
That list is very unique but why did they choose to test the loudness of a phone's speakers and not it's sound quality because if you get high loudness and low quality the sound won't be clear and it won't be pleasent to hear it so I see that it's better to test both loudness and quality of a phone's speakers