As we approach the end of the year, we turned our attention to the devices that made the biggest impression in 2023. Frequent readers may be quick to point out which smartphones have the best cameras, the best display or the best battery life. But we've been thoroughly testing and recording an often underlooked aspect of smartphones - the speaker quality - and you may be surprised to see which phones had the best-sounding speakers in 2023.
This roundup is based on the exhaustive reviews of more than 110 phones which we've conducted throughout the year. We went through our notes, we listened to them all dozens of times more and we present you our shortlist of the best-sounding smartphones.
The size and cost of a device significantly influence the manufacturer's choice of speaker drivers, so we have organized our shortlisted devices into several categories. These categories are detailed on the subsequent pages.
Table of Contents:
You won't find all reviewed phones on these pages because we've already shortlisted the best ones. Choosing the absolute best ones is a bit subjective, so we've left a handful of shortlisted devices in each category rather than outright singling the top ones. This also adds some context, which is good to have when choosing your favorite.
An important note when listening to these recordings - do bring your best headphones and make sure you have them at max volume.
The top speakers among foldables
Seeing how we have two categories of foldables - one much larger than the other, it's only fair that we judge them separately.
Among the larger, fold-style devices, the top spot is shared by the Oppo Find N3/OnePlus Open. Even though these are identical devices made by sister companies, we did like the Find N3's output in the highs a bit better. The second spot in this foldable category goes to the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5.
Some of us did enjoy the vivo X Fold 2 more than the rest, so we'll add that as an honorable mention too.
As for the compact flip-style devices, the Galaxy Z Flip5 did trade blows with the Oppo Find N3 Flip, depending on which track you are listening to and depending on who you ask. Still, if we had to pick the best sound device of the two, that would be the Galaxy Z Flip5. Nonetheless, the Oppo Find N3 Flip still did quite well, overtaking the five other flip-style phones we reviewed in 2023.
Join us on the next page where we discuss the best speakers in the midrange - a much more contested category.
The top speakers among midrangers
Picking out our favorites among what we loosely defined as midrange smartphones was a tough one. We had to sift through many more devices until we arrived at the shortlist below.
The top device must be the Xiaomi 13T. It has an output identical to that of the more expensive sibling - the Xiaomi 13T Pro - but we thought that one was way too expensive to be mentioned in the midrange category. Especially since you get virtually the same audio output for less with the non-Pro model.
The Samsung Galaxy A34 and A54 have quite identical outputs, so they share the second spot in this category.
Finally, the third spot is also shared between two devices - the OnePlus Nord 3 and the Poco X5 Pro. The two would trade blows depending on which test track you are listening to.
It was surprising to see or rather, hear, how good of speakers something like the OnePlus Nord N30 gets. We guess it helps that it's not really priced that cheap despite being essentially a budget device (on the North American market). The lack of competition is rarely a good thing, but in this case, OnePlus has delivered a nice-sounding smartphone, so it gets an honorable mention.
Join us on the next page, where we discuss the best speakers among the compact flagships - the shortlist there is much shorter to begin with, but there are some great entries nonetheless.
The top speakers among compact flagships
Compact flagships get a category of their own because even though these are high-end devices, manufacturers have to work with much tighter space constraints for the speaker drivers.
There are not that many devices in the list below but the Samsung Galaxy S23 has emerged as the frontrunner. However, the competition was intense, and the iPhone 15 Pro was a close contender, nearly clinching the top spot.
You will find our shortlist of the best speakers among the most expensive flagships on the next page - the list is longer and picking out a favorite there is much harder.
The top speakers among flagships
Moving on to the fiercely competitive 'Flagship' category, the stakes are higher and the competition more intense. This segment is where manufacturers pull out all the stops, showcasing their most advanced technology. In 2023, this category was particularly contested, with several standout models vying for the top position.
In this top segment, the Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max has emerged as the undisputed leader in terms of speaker quality.
The battle for the second spot was a tie between the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and the Xiaomi 13 Ultra.
On the next page, we have rounded up all the tablets we reviewed in 2023. There are not that many devices, but it's an interesting crowd anyway.
The top speakers among (Android) tablets
Below we have rounded up all the tablets we reviewed in 2023. There is no shortlist because it's a short list of devices anyway. We have not reviewed any iPads, so the choice is limited to Android tablets.
Both Samsung and Huawei have followed Apple in creating large-screen tablets in 2023 (13 inches and up), and these two devices undoubtedly have the largest speaker drivers. The Huawei MatePad Pro 13.2 is our top pick in this category.
Among the more reasonably sized devices, the OnePlus Pad certainly stands out with the Xiaomi Pad 6 trailing not much behind. These, however, are not cheap tablets, so if we had to pick our budget pick of the year in terms of sound output, this would be the Redmi Pad SE.
Wrap up
We sure hope you've enjoyed revisiting all these devices all in one place as much as we did. If your top picks differ, let us know in the comments which ones you liked best. Again, make sure you listen to these recordings on your best set of headphones and have them at max volume.
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