Smartphone Audio Quality Testing
by Chris Heinonen on December 8, 2013 5:15 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Audio
- Mobile
- Tablets
- Testing
Right now we have full data on four phones and partial data on a few more. We are working to compile as much data as possible to provide an overall look at the quality of audio from smartphones available today. The largest difference in current models is the power of the headphone output as some are much better equipped to drive more demanding headphones than others. As we compile data on more and more products we hope to see more differences arise.
We also have not seen much difference with different loads applied to the headphones. We will continue to test all three sets of headphones but the data here is for the Apple Earbuds. If different loads provide different results, then we will certainly report those different numbers in the future. It also appears that running Android phones in the automated routine causes the 20 kHz tone to be left out of the frequency response test. Humans usually can't hear this, I certainly can't, and so there isn't a huge amount of real-world ramification to this. It causes the reported THD+N to exclude that tone and provides a better result that phones that play it back. For the future, this will be done manually.
Here are the four phones we currently have, and more phones are being tested and reported on as quickly as possible to be added here.
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lmcd - Sunday, December 8, 2013 - link
Only Anandtech :-)Curious to see how (badly) the S3 fares.
Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer - Sunday, December 8, 2013 - link
Even with the occasional stinker of an article (yay, non-removable batteries...?), I have to say......it's stuff like this that keeps me coming back to the site. Only Anandtech, indeed. :) Keep up the quirky, in-depth work.
althaz - Sunday, December 8, 2013 - link
I don't know about the S3, but the S2 was rated very highly for audio quality.quick brown fox - Sunday, December 8, 2013 - link
I believe it was the opposite; S3 was lauded due to its wolfson dac (as well as the original Galaxy S), while S2 was condemned for not using that same DAC.Hopefully all gets measured so we can have some objectivity involved.
MadMan007 - Sunday, December 8, 2013 - link
Yeah but talking about a specific DAC chip is audio nerds looking at just a piece of the equation and using it as a potential red herring. The analog amplifiers and output, and overall implementation, matter much more than which specific DAC chip is used as long as it's not garbage, meaning basically any modern DAC chip.krazyfrog - Monday, December 9, 2013 - link
AnandTech actually tested the audio of the international Galaxy S II in their review and found it to be quite poor.zShowtimez - Monday, December 9, 2013 - link
After just moving from a S2 to a HTC One, let me tell you how awful the S2 was...Samus - Monday, December 9, 2013 - link
The surface(s) all use a wolfson dac and sound fantastic, too. The implementation means nothing if your base source is some realtek crap.Hemlocke - Sunday, December 8, 2013 - link
The i9100 had the Wolfson DAC, but the U.S. Variants didn't.onslaught86 - Sunday, December 8, 2013 - link
The i9100 did not have a Wolfson DAC. The i9300 did, while its US variants did not. And boy was it night & day coming from the i9100.