Speaker Comparison: iPhone X vs. Samsung's Galaxy S9+

Last year we compared the speakers on the newly launched iPhone X to Samsung's then-current flagship and the iPhone destroyed in loudness, bass, mids, and highs. Will it do the same against the all new Galaxy S9+?

As we detailed in our iPhone X vs. Galaxy Note 8 comparison in November, Apple's use of iPhone's earpiece speaker to output stereo sound gave the handset an edge against Samsung's phablet. With the launch of the Galaxy S9 and 9 Plus, Samsung is punching back with its own dual speaker configuration identical to that of the iPhone X.

Even with a high quality microphone, it's hard to perfectly capture audio as you would hear it holding the phone in your hand.

In our tests, we found the iPhone X reproduced a full range of tones with clear mids that beat out Samsung's S9+. Bass reproduction was similar on both handsets, but the iPhone output sharper high tones, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your preference.

Overall, the S9+ is a bit louder, though it's hard to tell in the video since a good chunk of the extra volume comes from the down-firing loudspeaker as opposed to the earpiece. This arrangement is similar to Apple's iPhone 7 and 8 models, whereas the X uses its speakers more evenly.

This is the closest speaker comparison we have ever run, and both setups sound really great for smartphones.

12 Comments

analogjack 1065 comments · 12 Years

About 6 years ago

Seriously a speaker comparison on 7mm thin one thousand dollar phones? I mean like you could count on the fingers of one hand how many people care.

aegean 164 comments · 14 Years

analogjack said:

Seriously a speaker comparison on 7mm thin one thousand dollar phones? I mean like you could count on the fingers of one hand how many people care.

I am one of them. So count me in as I care a hell lot about it. The quality of sound from my iPhone X speakers is great. Admittedly, I rarely use iPhone's speaker to listen to music like there were 2 occasions so far since I got it on its launch day, that I fired them up to full volume when I was in remote area, didn't have access to any of my headphones, car's speakers, or anything else and I had to listen to the music.

napoleon_phoneapart 550 comments · 17 Years

aegean said:

analogjack said:

Seriously a speaker comparison on 7mm thin one thousand dollar phones? I mean like you could count on the fingers of one hand how many people care.

I am one of them. So count me in as I care a hell lot about it. The quality of sound from my iPhone X speakers is great. Admittedly, I rarely use iPhone's speaker to listen to music like there were 2 occasions so far since I got it on its launch day, that I fired them up to full volume when I was in remote area, didn't have access to any of my headphones, car's speakers, or anything else and I had to listen to the music.

I often listen to my X as I'm going to sleep, so music/movie audio quality is important to a certain extent.

chasm 3581 comments · 10 Years

I don't use the speakers on my iPhone for much of anything apart from phone calls (and even that increasingly rarely), but as part of a series that seeks to comprehensively compare the two flagships, I suppose this video has merit. I do, though, think it was mean of AppleInsider to hold a gun to AnalogJack's head and force him to watch the video, read the article, and leave a comment ...

baconstang 1151 comments · 10 Years

As long as I can listen to baseball games on it, I'm good.