5 Telephones With The Greatest Constructed-In Audio system

For die-hard audiophiles, utilizing something lower than a high-quality wi-fi speaker for cell music streaming is difficult to fathom. However for these exterior that demographic, it is greater than attainable to take pleasure in audio from smartphone audio system. We have come a great distance from the tinny, single-driver mono audio system in early smartphones, and trendy cellphone audio system can do the job for all types of general-purpose listening.

Good built-in smartphone audio system assist with speakerphone calls, however they’re additionally useful for streaming media or taking part in cell video games when you do not have headphones or an exterior Bluetooth speaker readily available. Or, maybe extra generally, while you’re exhibiting somebody that one Instagram video that is been dwelling rent-free in your head for every week. Thankfully for our ears, most smartphone fashions now have stereo audio system, and a few even embody particular tuning and added options for improved acoustics — together with subwoofers.

Smartphone speaker audio has graduated to a extra detailed, balanced sound formed by audio-enhancing algorithms. Now we get smartphone audio that does not remind you of Limewire-era downloads. In the event you’re a producer or audio engineer of any form, it is a good suggestion to make use of cellphone audio system to see how your combine interprets to mobile {hardware}.

If high quality smartphone speaker audio is a promoting level for you, a handful of units ship on that entrance higher than others of their class. We included solely telephones from 2025 or 2026, and every needed to be a well-reviewed flagship rated 4 out of 5 stars or greater by respected shops. Each additionally needed to have a loudness items relative to full scale (LUFS) score of “good” or higher, primarily based on testing by GSMArena. For context, LUFS is a relative measurement to evaluate — roughly — how loud one thing sounds to the human ear.

Apple has a demonstrable historical past of investing in speaker design in its cell units. The corporate started implementing stereo sound in its telephones beginning with the iPhone 7, and the following iPhone 8 featured newly balanced audio system that have been reportedly 25% louder than earlier than. Apple additionally designed its telephones with devoted digital-to-analog converters (DACs) separate from the CPU, which contributed to improved audio high quality. For these causes, iPhones have traditionally been a lower above their Android counterparts on the speaker entrance, to the purpose the place even one TechRadar reviewer most well-liked utilizing the built-in audio system on his iPhone 15 to Bluetooth audio system for his or her “mix of simplicity and high quality.” Fairly the shock, however actually telling.

The iPhone 7 got here out in 2016, so stereo sound being bundled into iPhones is pretty outdated information. Nevertheless, practically a decade later in 2025, the iPhone 17 Professional Max distinguished itself as having the “finest [phone] audio system of 2025,” per GSMArena. Even at max quantity, you possibly can count on little to no distortion from the 17 Professional Max’s backside speaker. That mentioned, we do recommend leveraging the helpful iOS characteristic of capping your max speaker quantity, for each your cellphone audio system’ sake and your ears’ sake.

GSMArena clocked the cellphone’s LUFS score at -26.2 for a relative score of “good,” so the cellphone’s audio system aren’t the loudest in the marketplace. Nevertheless, they’re clear and balanced — albeit barely weak on the low finish, which continues to be surprisingly good. With a hybrid stereo speaker setup, each the cellphone’s backside speaker and its earpiece ship extensive, boomy sound, so that you’d discover a distinction in comparison with the iPhone Air from late 2025, whose type issue might solely deal with a lonesome mono speaker.

Just like the iPhone 17 Professional Max, the flagship Xiaomi 17 Extremely has a hybrid stereo speaker setup with a backside speaker and an earpiece to supply one of many nicest speaker programs you may get in a smartphone. And, just like the 17 Professional Max, the Xiaomi 17 Extremely’s built-in speaker efficiency is noteworthy for its consistency. It’s, actually, “extra constant than the Galaxy S26 Extremely,” per Notebookcheck. The cellphone in the end took the highest spot for smartphone speaker efficiency within the publication’s 2026 evaluation roundup.

As anticipated of most smartphone audio system, the 17 Extremely is gentle on bass, but it surely has clear mids and highs. Even so, MakeUseOf described the bass on these humble stereo audio system as “a characteristic, not an afterthought;”; its supply is genuinely good regardless of being on the quieter facet, and its frequency response encompasses a little bit of the sub-bass vary, too, which is much more than the flagship Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely might handle. 

By way of loudness, the Xiaomi 17 Extremely is up there for smartphone audio system, coming in at -24.1 LUFS primarily based on GSMArena’s testing — a “superb” loudness rating. On high of all that, AndroidAuthority additionally purported that this cellphone “has a reliable declare to being the very best Android digicam cellphone,” making it the digicam champion of non-Apple units, on high of being a speaker powerhouse.

Samsung’s flagship S-series telephones have a observe document of sturdy audio system; SoundGuys not solely mentioned the S24 Extremely had 2024’s finest smartphone audio system, but additionally acknowledged point-blank that the cellphone was “probably the greatest” in the marketplace round its launch. This foreshadowed the success of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Extremely that might finally observe, particularly by way of speaker efficiency, despite the fact that Samsung had beforehand fallen quick in that regard. It is simple to enhance the audio in your Samsung gadget with the cellphone’s pre-loaded EQ utility, however no quantity of software program tweaking can overcome poor {hardware}. 

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Extremely boasts a loud and punchy sound with what PhoneArena has outlined as “noticeably higher bass” than what its predecessors had. The hybrid stereo speaker setup we have seen within the aforementioned fashions seems once more on this Samsung smartphone, and the gap between these loudspeakers “ends in sense of stereo separation,” in keeping with What Hello-Fi?, which gave the cellphone an ideal five-out-of-five-star score.

The dynamic vary you get with the S26’s audio system makes the gadget completely appropriate for media playback, and whilst you cannot precisely benefit from the cellphone’s hi-res audio help to its fullest extent on the loudspeakers alone, you might actually get it to sound fairly loud, particularly in the event you have been to disable the media quantity restrict in your Android quantity settings. In its formal speaker testing, GSMArena pinned down a LUFS score of -25.9 for this gadget, which earned it a “superb” score. GSMArena additionally discovered the Galaxy S26 Extremely’s smartphone speaker efficiency was practically equivalent to the Xiaomi 17 Extremely — it scored simply 0.2% decrease total. Good.

You may’ve observed a pattern that bass is seldom emphasised as a promoting level in smartphone audio system. That is frankly as a result of it tends to be unhealthy, which is particularly true of older fashions from the 2010s. However instances are, as they are saying, altering. Bassheads, rejoice — there is a cellphone by one Chinese language producer that truly makes a honest effort to ship on bass in its audio system, though it is one you have probably not paid a lot thoughts to.

As a flagship cellphone, the Honor Magic8 Professional has stereo audio system which are punchier and louder than most alternate options in the marketplace. That is partly as a result of it options loudspeakers which are uncharacteristically massive for a smartphone. In its evaluation, TechRadar famous an “spectacular stage of bass” on this gadget, even for “music that you just blast.” That is fairly the declare, sure, but it surely’s shared by reviewers at Android Headlines and Tech Reviewer, who (respectively) appreciated the “appreciable loudness of the audio system [and] how clear the sound is” and the truth that the “speaker reaches a excessive quantity with none disagreeable distortion.”

These observations aren’t simply anecdotal, both. Now we have the info to show it. In its testing, GSMArena clocked the Magic8 Professional’s LUFS score at -22 flat, a minor enchancment from the -22.8 LUFS output measured on the cellphone’s predecessor, the Honor Magic7 Professional (which was additionally hailed as having best-in-class speaker high quality amongst 2025 choices). Each scores are thought-about “glorious,” higher than each different gadget we have inspected to date, making this gadget a compelling alternative for individuals who like their audio loud and low.

In the event you thought the Honor Magic8 Professional smartphone was nice for bass — and it is, after all — there’s one other cellphone that manages to outperform it within the sub-250Hz frequency vary. Spoiler alert: it is one other Xiaomi cellphone. The Poco F8 Extremely is a somewhat low-key “finances” flagship, however its sound system was tuned by none aside from Bose. Which means that, relating to speaker perks, you are getting your cash’s price with this unit.

The Poco F8 Extremely includes a devoted 16x20mm subwoofer positioned proper on the again of the gadget that cements the unit as a bona fide three-channel 2.1 audio system. That is the cellphone’s actual promoting level and, in a rating, would put it above even the Magic8 Professional. Moreover, Notebookcheck explicitly cited the Xiaomi Poco F8 Extremely as a substitute for the 2025 Xiaomi 17 Extremely, partly as a result of it “can ship noticeably extra bass because of its rear-mounted subwoofer.” It is not fairly as loud, although, with an built-in “superb” LUFS score of -26, per GSMArena (in comparison with -24.1 on the 17 Extremely).

The cellphone’s 2.1 configuration nonetheless will not offer you something near the chest-vibrating sensations you’d get from an costly, multi-channel front room setup, after all — and it might not maintain a candle to a highly effective exterior speaker, both. However the Poco F8 Extremely’s audio choices are nonetheless high-quality sufficient to offer “a stable, weighty low finish that offers music, movies, and video games extra bodily presence than most telephones in its class,” as Yanko Design put it in a evaluation. Maybe much more spectacular is the truth that Xiaomi managed to suit 2.1 {hardware} into the Poco F8 Extremely’s modest type issue with out including pointless bulk.

As a result of producers not often launch public information on smartphone audio system, these picks have been primarily based on a particular set of predefined standards unrelated to DACs, amps, or different sound-related parts. Moreover, regardless of enhancements through the years, smartphone audio system nonetheless aren’t geared up to faithfully reproduce high-resolution audio, so we did not account for particular codec help or hi-res audio in our selections.

Every mannequin we highlighted for its speaker high quality needed to be a flagship cellphone from both 2025 or 2026 to mirror the top-shelf smartphone speaker tech in the marketplace on the time of writing. The telephones’ normal reception additionally needed to exceed 4 out of 5 stars or larger in evaluations carried out by respected publications, akin to TechRadar, SoundGuys, and What Hello-Fi?. Every cellphone needed to have a LUFS measurement rated “good” or greater on GSMArena, and every mannequin needed to have appeared on a number of roundups of telephones with the very best smartphone audio system, together with these printed by GSMArena, PhoneArena, and MakeUseOf.