Sunday, February 16, 2025

Tremendous-loud $150 boombox cellphone provides my $1,500 Galaxy S24 Extremely a precious (music) lesson


The 2024 Cell World Congress has now wrapped up, and like yearly, we’ve seen some attention-grabbing new bulletins.

One which got here throughout my feed is named the “Nubia Music”, and even when it doesn’t sound just like the title of a smartphone, it’s certainly a €150 price range cellphone Europeans will be capable of purchase beginning this April.

The Nubia Music comes with two necessary options, which may be the one two causes it exists – the primary one is definitely not one however two headphone jacks for listening to music via wired headphones, and sharing your expertise with a good friend.

The $150 Nubia Music has a “loud” design and a speaker “6x louder” than that of your iPhone/Galaxy

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Regardless of the shortage of “Professional”, “Max”, or “Extremely” within the title, the Nubia Music’s second notable characteristic is a literal “celebration trick” I want my Galaxy S24 Extremely, Pixel 8 Professional, and iPhone 15 Professional Max knew methods to carry out – a “6x louder (in comparison with your common smartphone) speaker”.

In case you’re questioning, those that’ve had an opportunity to listen to how the speaker sounds in a loud setting (at MWC), say it does certainly sound a lot louder than a standard set of smartphone audio system.

Now, let’s be trustworthy… The Nubia Music will most actually be forgotten quickly after you’re achieved studying this text, but it surely’s an incredible dialog starter for a narrative I’ve been wanting to write down for some time now – one about how mediocre smartphone audio system are…

After they don’t must be!

Listening to music on my Galaxy S24 Extremely, iPhone 15 Professional Max, and Pixel 8 Professional: Apple wins however the progress in smartphone sound high quality ought to be far better

I’ve been usually “joyful however unimpressed” with how my flagship telephones sound for some time now however for the needs of this story, I needed to put my impressions to the take a look at.

And after enjoying a bunch of music on my Galaxy S24 Extremely, Pixel 8 Professional and iPhone 15 Professional Max again to again (you are able to do that by switching the output machine in your Spotify participant), together with some unique tracks I produced, my preliminary impressions have been as follows:

  • The brand new Galaxy S24 Extremely is loud (which is nice), and sounds respectable for a cellphone, but it surely leaves quite a bit to be desired in relation to soundstage, bass, and general “richness” and instrument separation

  • Surprisingly, the Pixel 8 Professional sounds worse than I bear in mind it sounding a number of months again, and my unit hasn’t suffered any bodily injury; Google’s flagship is quieter, mushier, and general the least spectacular “speaker cellphone” amongst the three

  • Alternatively, the Cellphone 15 Professional Max sounds the perfect to my ear, which isn’t precisely stunning provided that its predecessors already had the lead in sound high quality; the 15 Professional Max sounds fuller, richer, hotter, and simply places out essentially the most bass amongst the three, which is definitely spectacular (for a mainstream flagship cellphone)

$1,000 flagship telephones don’t have to have mediocre audio system, however phone-makers preserve ignoring sound

Ultimately, whereas pivotal components and facets of the smartphone have seen a gradual and indeniable progress over time (design, show, digicam, processing energy, endurance), most cellphone makers appear to disregard placing effort into making their telephones sound good. And this doesn’t sit proper with me.

As somebody who likes listening to music instantly from my cellphone (I don’t personal an exterior Bluetooth speaker, except you rely my Google Nest Mini), I can’t assist however discover this to be just a little bit insulting – particularly when it additionally applies to the a number of $1,000+ flagship telephones sitting on my desk.

Listening to music apart, right this moment, folks eat tons of content material on their telephones, which may gain advantage from an incredible set of audio system simply as a lot – you might have YouTube movies, films, podcasts, and suree… Even TikTok.

What would it not take for Apple, Samsung, and Google to offer us flagship telephones with nice sounding audio system? I feel I’ve the perfect resolution!

So… What would it not take for audio system on mainstream telephones to (lastly) get to the subsequent stage, and is it a practical improve to count on?

For starters, sure, good audio system on costly telephones is 100% a practical expectation to have! That being stated, there are some apparent limitations to how “superb” audio system on telephones may be capable of sound with the present design and tech telephones are working with.

Nonetheless, I can assume of some sensible concepts that don’t require your iPhone or Android to turn out to be a pill to sound higher:

  • Mainstream phone-makers should take an instance from gaming cellphone just like the Asus ROG Cellphone 7 Final, which has a set of spectacular sounding twin audio system with massive drivers and full bass because of massive bass chambers

  • 4 audio system as an alternative of two? The 2 additional audio system will be on the highest and backside, and even on the edges of the cellphone for a spatial, encompass sound impact

  • Make extra folding telephones, which have more room to work with to create a fuller sound; enhance present folding cellphone audio system?

  • Final however not least, let’s not overlook the Nubia Music (which is the inspiration behind this text); in fact, having a single rear speaker wouldn’t be an ideal resolution, however what if we now have a big rear speaker along with two “common” stereo audio system? That manner you’ll be able to make the most of all of them relying on what sort of media you’re consuming, and whether or not your cellphone is sitting flat on the desk or not!

Anyway… I’ve a hunch Apple will proceed to be the “chief” in making essentially the most constant progress in how the audio system on non-gaming flagship telephones sound. And that’s not solely as a result of the iPhone has traditionally had comparatively higher sounding audio system than Android flagships.

Apple has one other, distinctive incentive to enhance the multimedia expertise on the iPhone, and that’s the Imaginative and prescient Professional headset, which (similar to the iPhone) is ready to seize Spatial movies. After all, a part of each stellar video is (or least ought to be) stellar sound, and this could possibly be the motivation for Apple to additional enhance the audio system on the iPhone 16 collection (and past).

Tying up properly with the discharge of the Imaginative and prescient Professional headset, we’ve heard rumors about new, considerably upgraded microphones coming to iPhone 16 Professional, which is one other side of audio and multimedia expertise Apple and Android shouldn’t ignore.

Both manner, if cellphone makers can discover the area to suit 3-5 cameras on the again of a cellphone, with humongous digicam bumps, I’m positive they’ll make area for a lot higher audio system!

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