UPDATE MAR 4, 2020: This review test has been discontinued. You can find the full explanation of the test below but it's no longer carried out on new devices. Our new and improved

Speaker test supercedes it. SPEAKERPHONE LOUDNESS TEST A loudspeaker that is nice and... well, loud, is a nice asset for your mobile. Whether it's hearing the other person on the

speakerphone or your phone ringing from the other room, or even playing music on your get-together's, a loudspeaker is definitely something that's nice to have. And while the

quality of the loudspeaker sound is difficult to measure and is, for the most part, a subjective matter, we can effectively measure how loud it is. For this, we use a digital noise/loudness

as that's least likely to have been misread. We test three different types of audio samples for three different scenarios: 1) A PHONE RINGING. For the first part of the test we use a

ringtone which resembles the ringing of an old rotary phone, because it seems that most phones do well when we use it. 2) PINK NOISE. Next we try a sample of pink noise. Our readings with it

are pretty indicative on how well the handset loudspeaker can play most music. 3) HUMAN VOICE, MALE. This is an important test, since if you tend the use the loudspeaker for speakerphone

purposes, loudness is really important, regardless of whether you are in the conference room or in your car. Once we have the results in _db_ for all three sound samples, we sum them up and

use a in-house developed formula to produce a qualitative description of the loudness levels: Below Average, Average, Good, Very Good and Excellent. As many of our results are separated by a

difference of only a few decibels, it is important to keep in mind that the decibel is a logarithmic unit, which means that a reading of +3dB represents roughly two times the power.

We'd like to reiterate again that this test is not about the quality of the sound produced by the loudspeaker. A mild, relatively deep-sounding loudspeaker that soothes the ear

won't do well in this test. Instead, what we are after is pure peak loudness - it's our hunt for the loudest phone, ever. UPDATE MAR 4, 2020: This review test has been

discontinued. You can find the full description of the test bellow for reference purposes but it's no longer carried out on new devices. AUDIO QUALITY The series of audio quality tests

we perform measure how well a device is able to reproduce sound, based on a scientific approach rather than our own subjective opinion. Keep in mind that these tests do not take into account

any retail headsets that come with the device. We use the same pair of AKG headphones when we test the output with headphones attached to the phone to even up the field. First, we put

special test tracks on the device and play them through the audio output jack to our M-Audio Fast Track Pro external audio interface. This rig has has decent enough capabilities to test even

the highest quality portable music players. You can find its quick Line Input specs here, if you are the audiophile type. Next we run the resulting recordings through the RightMark Audio

Analyzer (RMAA) software, which does all the analyzing for us.. At the beginning of every test, RMAA generates a calibration sound in order to set the correct input levels. Then we play a

special test tone (again, generated by RMAA) which allows the software to evaluate the signal captured real time with the M-Audio Fast Track Pro. We test all handsets we review on how they

perform at the maximum volume level. We disable all available equalizer settings and sound enhancements that the handset music players may be equipped with. All this gives us the opportunity

to create a controlled environment, which should produce accurate and comparable results throughout the tested phones and tablets. The RMAA software produces results on several important

measurable areas of sound quality. These are frequency response, noise (signal-to-noise ratio), dynamic range, harmonic and intermodulation distortion and stereo crosstalk. Typically,

high-quality sound should have high signal to noise, low distortion and cross-channel interference, an accurate frequency response, as well as high dynamic range. TEST FREQUENCY RESPONSE

NOISE LEVEL DYNAMIC RANGE THD IMD + NOISE STEREO CROSSTALK HTC ONE V +0.11, -0.10 -81.7 81.6 0.011 0.047 -90.5 HTC ONE V (HEADPHONES ATTACHED) +0.12, -0.04 -81.8 81.7 0.011 0.090 -52.6 HTC

ONE X +0.02, -0.08 -82.1 82.1 0.137 0.393 -80.7 HTC ONE X (HEADPHONES ATTACHED) +0.10, -0.10 -80.6 80.6 0.174 0.459 -60.8 HTC ONE S +0.13, -0.10 -91.0 90.6 0.0089 0.015 -92.6 HTC ONE S

(HEADPHONES ATTACHED) +0.13, -0.04 -90.7 90.6 0.011 0.065 -74.0 HTC SENSATION XE +3.46, -0.38 -91.7 91.7 0.012 0.026 -90.7 HTC SENSATION XE (HEADPHONES ATTACHED) +3.87, -0.56 -91.5 91.6

0.031 0.632 -63.7 HTC SENSATION XL +3.35, -0.42 -85.2 87.2 0.025 0.084 -75.1 HTC SENSATION XL (HEADPHONES ATTACHED) +3.77, -0.54 -80.2 81.2 0.072 0.569 -64.2 HTC TITAN +0.06, -0.34 -86.9

87.8 0.015 0.244 -75.5 HTC TITAN (HEADPHONES ATTACHED) +0.34, -0.18 -76.8 77.1 0.057 0.581 -56.4 APPLE IPHONE 4S +0.02, -0.11 -91.2 91.2 0.0020 0.012 -93.0 APPLE IPHONE 4S (HEADPHONES

ATTACHED) +0.05, -0.10 -91.3 91.3 0.0068 0.071 -66.7 FREQUENCY RESPONSE is used to indicate the accuracy of amplifiers and speakers in reproducing audio, and is a measurement of how much

sound deviates (in decibels DB) at a given frequency (in Hertz HZ). As an example, a high fidelity amplifier may have a frequency response of 20 Hz - 20,000 Hz ±1 dB. This means that the

system amplifies all bands from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz with a maximum positive or negative deviation of 1 dB. It is this deviation that we look at when evaluating frequency response. In our

tables, you will see two numbers listed under frequency response--the highest positive and negative deviations of the sound produced across all audible frequencies. The closer each of these

numbers is to 0, the better the frequency response of the device. Lower absolute numbers also mean the handset treats all sounds equally; it won't impose its will on the music but will

allow you to hear it as it was recorded, which is what a good piece of audio equipment should do. We also include a graph which shows exactly what sort of sound deviations occur at the

various frequencies. As shown in the graph, the frequency response tests are performed twice. The first time when plugged into an active amplifier--the same as what you'd expect when

plugging it into your car stereo or home audio system--while the second run is done with headphones attached, as the added resistance oftentimes makes the audio quality output slightly

worse. As mentioned above, we use the same pair of AKG headphones with an impedance of 32 ohms for each of these second runs. Good frequency response does not necessarily guarantee a high

level of audio fidelity, but rather how well a piece of equipment meets the basic frequency response requirements. It's important to note that larger deviations below 40 Hz or above 15

kHz should not be counted, being beyond the audible rage of the human ear. NOISE LEVELS of a given device are usually measured in relation to the signal levels, otherwise known as the

signal-to-noise ratio. In less technical terms, the signal-to-noise ratio compares the level of a desired signal (such as music) to the level of background noise ('background'

meaning unwanted interference created by the equipment). So, the higher the signal-to-noise ratio (the further this value is away from 0), the less obtrusive the background noise is, meaning

the audio equipment is of a higher quality. DYNAMIC RANGE is the measure of how well a given device is able to play both loud and quiet sounds simultaneously. The human sense of hearing has

a very high dynamic range; a person is capable of hearing anything from a quiet murmur in a soundproofed room to the sound of the loudest rock concert. A difference like this can be up to

100dB. However, a person cannot perform these feats of perception at both extremes of the scale simultaneously - you cannot hear a whisper in a noisy street, for example. Nevertheless, a

good quality audio reproduction system should be able to reproduce accurately both the quiet and loud sounds at the same time. This dynamic range of an audio device is also sometimes

referred to as the dynamic window. To mathematically determine a dynamic range you must take the difference between the ceiling (the loudest sound) and the noise floor (the quietest sound)

of an audio device. For example, if the ceiling of a device is 10 dB and the floor is 3 dB, then the dynamic range is 7 dB, since 10 - 3 = 7. So, the higher the value in the dynamic range

field, the better the device is at reproducing quiet and loud sounds simultaneously. TOTAL HARMONIC DISTORTION (THD) and the INTERMODULATION DISTORTION (IMD) measure the unwanted altering of

the original audio signal. When an audio signal passes through a non-ideal, non-linear device (such as your smartphone), additional content is added to the original frequencies in the form

of interference, which results in distortion. Distortion is the name given to anything that alters a pure input signal in any way. So, as you might have guessed, the lower the number in

either of these fields, the better the audio output of your device. STEREO CROSSTALK is a measurement of the interference between the two audio channels of a given device. All modern digital

audio players feature two distinct analogue channels for audio (left and right) to match the stereo recordings, but most often a certain degree of inter-channel interference can occur. The

stereo crosstalk measurement determines the amount of signal leaking from one channel to the other. In purely non-technical terms, this rating measures how good the stereo effect is. The

larger this value is (the further away from zero), the better the quality of the sound coming from each channel. CAMERA COMPARE TOOLS Our Photo/Video Compare tools are designed to give you

an idea of how well a given camera performs in real-life conditions, and how it stacks up against its peers. Being able to look at the images produced by up to three devices side-by-side is

immensely helpful in figuring out how good a given cameraphone actually is. While we still take "real-life" outdoor photos with all of the devices we review (which you can check

out in the reviews themselves), those are frequently at the mercy of the weather, and not as easy to reproduce all year round as we would like. That's why we designed this test to be as

objective as possible - all samples are taken in controlled conditions in our studio, at the same time of day under the same lighting. The tools allow you to judge a cameraphone's

performance not only in terms of resolved detail, but also image processing (noise reduction, sharpening) and camera lens distortion. With the Photo Compare Tool, you'll be able to

choose from one of three different charts, and up to three devices to compare. Each device is listed with its native resolution, but you can scale all the sample photos to see how cameras of

different resolutions compare against each other. A good 8MP camera, for instance, will typically be sharper when scaled down to 5MP, but sometimes the lower-res camera will win out when

you equalize the resolution. APPLE IPHONE 4S IN THE PHOTO COMPARE TOOL Our Video Compare Tool allows you to compare still frames taken from videos captured with the phone. We've set up

two test scenarios: one under normal lighting conditions and one under low-light to give you an idea of how the handsets fare in different environments. The motion in the Ferris wheels will

allow you to see how much fine detail survives the post-processing, as well as the compression levels, noise levels and so on. Of course, a still frame doesn't tell the whole story -

there's also framerate, rolling shutter effects and other considerations which the tool doesn't cover, but it's still a good starting point. We also have our resolution chart

shot on video. It shows how much of the available resolution is retained when shooting video. Just like in the Photo Compare Tool, the three charts are accessed by clicking on their names

below the main sample image. Other tested devices are listed alongside their natively supported video recording resolution. NOKIA N9 IN THE VIDEO COMPARE TOOL For both tools, at the bottom

of each device selection field you'll find a list of reference cameras available, which allow you to see how a particular cameraphone compares to a professional DSLR unit, such as our

in-house Canon EOS 5D Mark II. You'd be surprised at how well certain cameraphones stack up against these heavy hitters. Keep in mind that only devices reviewed after November 2010 will

have compare tests available, and only cameras with 720p video recording and higher will have video compare. TEST SCENE UPDATE, NOV 25, 2015 We have updated our Photo and Video quality

comparison tools with a new setup and a bit of extra functionality. Those two were launched five years ago, but given the improvement smartphone cameras have achieved since, we felt it was

about time for an update. For one, over the years our previous color charts had started to fade (they were losing color so we had to retire them). Also, smartphone cameras became so good

they surpassed the limits of the print in those two (they were printed at a certain DPI, it turns out it was too low for a modern high-end camera). So we added a new setup to the testing

procedure, you'll find it in the comparison tools as "Studio setup". It is located in a photo studio, where the sun won't damage it for years, and it's made up of

physical objects with very fine texture. As cameras continue to get better, they will resolve more detail in the objects, but they will never hit an upper limit (there's no DPI here,

just real detail). We've retained the ISO 12233 poster. The first two camera samples (the ISO chart and the Studio setup) are taken with the studio lights at full blast, hence

they're at the lowest ISO for the cameraphone. We hand-pick the best image from many samples, to make sure it shows the maximum resolving power of the camera and how it handles

real-world textures. The third sample is of the same Studio setup but we reduce the light in the room to a controlled value of 28 lux, measured at the poster. We've added the ISO and

shutter speed data from the photo's EXIF as an additional reading of how well the camera performs. Our legacy Gray and Color posters remain available next to the new images and they let

you compare older phones, which weren't around when we created the Studio setup. SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 ULTRA 5G AGAINST THE IPHONE 11 PRO MAX AND THE NOTE10+ IN OUR PHOTO COMPARE TOOL We

have also retired the Ferris wheel setup for our video quality comparison tool. Instead, we've switched to shooting the same scenes as in stills. As before, we're picking a still

frame from the video to represent the phone's ability to capture detail and to give an idea of the colors and processing. SAMSUNG GALAXY S20 ULTRA 5G AGAINST THE IPHONE 11 PRO MAX AND

THE NOTE10+ IN OUR VIDEO COMPARE TOOL THIS BATTERY TEST ROUTINE HAS BEEN RETIRED AFTER THE INTRODUCTION OF OUR NEW BATTERY LIFE TEST AT THE END OF 2023. THIS ARTICLE WILL REMAIN LIVE FOR

ARCHIVE PURPOSES, BUT PLEASE REFER TO OUR NEW BATTERY TEST METHODOLOGY FOR UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION. BATTERY LIFE In gauging battery life, it's hard to perfect a methodology that lets you

cover all of the various use scenarios without having to test for weeks on end. Whether it be display, audio quality, or camera, the goal with all of our tests is not only to provide you

with the clearest, most comprehensive examination of a particular device but also to provide it to you promptly. Our battery test is no exception. With each battery test you'll see four

different numbers, each reflecting a different type of battery-consuming activities. The test revolves around three tasks, performed commonly by smartphone users: making calls, browsing the

web, and playing a video. Our Endurance rating is the result of combining the power draw from these activities in a formula, which at its most basic level assumes a daily usage scenario

including an hour of VOICE CALLS, an hour of OFFLINE VIDEO PLAYBACK, and an hour of WI-FI BROWSING per day, with the rest of the 24 hours taken up by STANDBY POWER CONSUMPTION. We also give

you an option to adjust the formula - clicking on the image above will take you to our battery chart where you can adjust the share of these activities in a 24h day. But even then, our

endurance rating may still not match _your_ real-life usage scenario, but remember - this is just an even base for comparing battery performance across devices. If you are more into eBook

reading or social media browsing, for instance, you can give more weight to the web browsing test. If you prefer watching YouTube videos, the offline video playback would also be a good

indication of how the phone will perform in this task. If you are into gaming - average the results in the two on-screen tasks and divide it by half or so. Don't be afraid to work the

numbers as you please. No measure is perfect - and the number of apps you have installed, your ambient temperature, and also the available ambient light are also important variables. So do

not look at our numbers as a promised runtimes. The Endurance rating is just an indication of overall battery life. The individual scores are merely indicative of how the phone will perform

in any similar category of tasks. The numbers should only be used to compare whether Phone A is better than Phone B and you can't expect to match the same runtimes in your own usage.

BREAKING DOWN THE TESTS The first test is the talk time test, which measures how long it takes to deplete the battery by making voice calls. Bearing in mind that most screens automatically

turn off during a call, we've made sure our set up accounts for this. We close all applications which may further strain the battery, too. The web browsing test is performed using an

automated script that reloads a webpage every ten seconds. There are no flash elements on the web pages, so the playing field is even. We use an 802.11n access point placed a few meters away

to get full connectivity bars. In our video playback test we measure how long it takes for a device to run its fully charged battery down to 10%, while looping a standard-definition H.264

video. We stop at 10% since most devices shut their video players at this point or lower their brightness substantially. All radios on the device are switched off (Airplane mode). Since the

beginning of 2016 we also have a fixed brightness level of 200nits of the screen for all of our battery tests. The level of 200nits has become somewhat of an industry standard for indoor day

use. But more importantly, it's both the median and average value of the brightness levels at which we've tested all reviewed devices so far. This means that our earlier pre-2016

battery life test results will remain comparable and equally relevant as before. SPEAKER TEST 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 well the phone is geared towards use in speakerphone mode. That's why we simply measured the peak loudness of the phone’s

speakers in decibel while playing three different audio samples (a classic phone ringing, some pink noise, and then human speech). It was great if you wanted to know how loud this particular

phone was but it didn't give you any indication of how well it sounded. With the advance of smartphones, nowadays phone usage leans more and more towards multimedia consumption -

people gaming, listening to music and watching movies on their phones' speakers, so we decided that measuring the sound quality was equally important too. Also, we figured out how to

measure the average loudness instead of the peak one, making the loudness score more indicative of the experience you will get with multimedia rather than when your phone's merely

blasting high-pitched tones. Our test includes playing back a few select tracks in an environment with controlled acoustic properties and recording that playback with an audio recorder. The

first benefit of our new test is that you can now listen to the recordings by all tested phones. This way you don't have to rely solely on our subjective commentary about what they

sound like (we recommend using headphones for playback). But you don't have to trust _just_ your hearing on this. Our audio sample set also includes a specialized audio track that

sweeps the whole frequency range. We analyze the recording of this track by specialized software that tells us how well the phone's speaker(s) reproduces the different frequencies. A

look on the frequency response chart will easily tell you whether one phone reproduced the bass, treble, and mid frequencies better than another phone. (Tip: The closer to the flat line of

0db, the better.) And finally, based on the recordings we've made, we can analyze the average loudness of the speaker output, which gets us a loudness score. And since we now measure

the weighted average loudness of a phone and not the peak one, this loudness score is not affected by peak bursts of high tones which are irrelevant for multimedia consumption. LUFS stands

for "Loudness Units relative to Full Scale" - it's an industry-standard unit used in audio normalization for broadcast TV as well as streaming music and video. You should keep

in mind two things when reading those. The LUFS unit represents a relative measurement - the number is derived when compared to a particular baseline. So unlike decibels, you can't

compare them to the sound of a TV or the roar of an airplane. The number here will only serve the purpose of comparing one phone to the other in our particular test. Note that higher is

better and the numbers are negative, meaning that the closer the LUFS reading is to zero, the louder the sound. To make it easier for you, we’ve also assigned ratings to each phone, ranging

from Poor to Excellent. These are not directly comparable to the ratings from our old loudness test since, as we already explained, they measure average rather than peak loudness. Finally,

you can use our new tool to compare any number of phones we've subjected to the new test. We've already retested a bunch of phones we had available, but going forward the new test

will become a part of our regular review routine so there will be plenty to choose from. HOW TO USE THE NEW WIDGET You will find our new Speakerphone test widget embedded in its

corresponding section in our reviews. It offers key info of how loud the phone is (measured in LUFS plus our rating) and it shows the frequency response chart, allowing you to instantly spot

phones that have weak bass or whose output in the high frequencies is too strong, making the audio harsh. The widget becomes even more useful when you add one or more phones to compare (tap

Add to comparison and use the search). You can compare the frequency response graphs to get a feel for the audio. The chart goes from +30dB to -30dB, but keep in mind that -30dB means 1,000

times quieter (and +30dB is 1,000 times louder). An ideal speaker would produce a flat line at 0, any deviations above or below the zero line are flaws. When comparing two phones, what you

need to look at is how close the lines are to zero and also how flat they are - any peaks or valleys are audible distortions of the sound. Better yet, you can hit the Play button and hear

the difference in sound yourself. We recommend that you use headphones for this unless you have good quality speakers hooked up to your PC (if you’re reading the results on your phone,

definitely use headphones). We’ve preselected the first phone in the example below. The Asus ROG Phone II in Outdoor mode is currently the loudest phone in our database (and we think it will

keep that title for quite a while). However, add the iPhone 11 Pro to the comparison, and you’ll instantly see and hear the difference in bass and that the ROG scarifies bass frequency

reproduction in the pursuit of loudness. In fact, that was another issue with our old test – our ringtone sample leaned heavily on high-frequency sound. Some phones had speakers that

produced a tinny sound that were better suited to produce these high-pitched sounds. This accounted for a higher decibel rating in our old peak loudness test but subjectively, the sound was

harsh and sometimes unpleasant even. Our new test shows more nuanced results, separating the practical (hearing a notification) from the entertainment side of things. __Use the Playback

controls to listen to the phone sample recordings (best use headphones). We measure the average loudness of the speakers in LUFS. A lower absolute value means a louder sound. A look at the

frequency response chart will tell you how far off the ideal "0db" flat line is the reproduction of the bass, treble, and mid frequencies. You can add more phones to compare how

they differ. The scores and ratings are not comparable with our older loudspeaker test. Learn more about how we test here.