Dual speakers are no longer a selling point to brag about

Another new phone is coming with dual speakers.

The accurate blogger Digital Chat Station said that the Redmi K40 series dual speakers are pretty good, much better than the previous generation. This is obviously hinting that the upcoming Redmi K40 will be equipped with dual speakers. Most of the comments expressed their approval of this product form. Equipping a mobile phone with dual speakers has become the "right" thing in online public opinion.

However, just one or two years ago, dual speakers were not common in the Chinese mobile phone market. Many mobile phone products only had a single speaker that was acceptable to listen to, and only the top flagships were equipped with dual speakers that supported stereo effects. Dual speakers are becoming more and more popular now, which is actually a microcosm of the increasingly fierce competition in the mobile phone market.

Dual-speaker phones are becoming more common

First of all, we need to confirm one thing: are dual speakers really adopted by more mobile phones? We searched for smartphones launched in the Chinese market from the second half of 2020 to now, and found that the answer is yes.

Xiaomi 11, Redmi K30 Ultra, Redmi Note 9 series, iQOO 5 series, iQOO 7, OnePlus 8T, realme X7 Pro, Huawei Mate 40 series, Galaxy Note 20 series, iPhone 12 series… These mobile phones all have dual speakers, and more and more products support this capability.

The number of dual-speaker phones available for purchase has increased significantly, though most are still in the "more work to do" stage.

The bottom speaker of this type of mobile phone usually has an independent sound cavity, but the top speaker cannot find such a large space and can only produce sound by increasing the volume. Therefore, you will find that when using the mobile phone horizontally, the volume on both sides is not the same, and the feeling of using it is different.

Some products have tried to add an extra sound hole on the top of the phone, but this cannot fundamentally change the hardware difference between the receiver and the regular speaker. In addition to requiring users to adjust the volume balance themselves, manufacturers will also use software optimization, tuning settings and other pre-processing to alleviate the volume and sound effect inconsistency of such asymmetric dual speakers.

Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 10 Pro can be said to be the highlight of the recent dual-speaker mobile phones. The top and bottom use symmetrical dual speakers with the same sound unit and sound cavity volume, so when listening to music, watching videos or playing games, you will have a very good experience. However, due to the size limit of the mobile phone, most mobile phones still have asymmetrical dual speakers, and only relatively spacious gaming phones can reproduce such "luxury".

Although there are still many shortcomings, the decision of using dual speakers is more beneficial than harmful for mobile phone manufacturers. New screen forms such as the hole-punch screen leave enough space on the top of the phone to fit a larger receiver to enhance the selling point. At the same time, consumer feedback also recognizes the improvement in audio and video experience brought by dual speakers and stereo sound effects, which is invisible and intangible but still valuable.

What's more, compared with conventional speakers, mainstream earpiece speakers can give users a three-dimensional and realistic sound experience without much extra cost. Since there is a profit here, why not do it? Therefore, we see more and more dual-speaker mobile phones.

Dual speakers are good, but need work

Among all human perceptions, hearing is not as high in priority as vision and touch, but it is still important.

After mobile phone manufacturers use high-refresh-rate, high-resolution, and high-color-accuracy high-quality screens to meet visual needs, and use linear motors and corresponding vibration experiences to meet tactile needs, it is not surprising that they use hardware upgrades such as dual speakers that can change the sound effects to meet auditory needs.

Back to the case we mentioned in the introduction, the Redmi K30 Pro has advantages such as high cost performance, true full screen, and long battery life, but it also has many "regrets", including a single speaker. It stands to reason that the 1216 ultra-linear speaker of this phone should have good sound quality, but the experience of only one side making sound when turned sideways still made many users complain, which eventually became an improvement point for the K40.

When smart devices were just emerging, many devices were only equipped with a single speaker. First, the device was small and could not hold too many things. Second, users did not realize the value of dual speakers on small devices. At that time, the practice of using software to simulate stereo was already popular. A single speaker simulated the different volumes of different channels to express the spatial sense of dual speakers or even multiple speakers.

We have all seen what happened later. Although it can simulate stereo effects, the performance of a single speaker can never break through the upper limit of the hardware itself. As people spend more and more time on mobile devices, the requirements for sound quality and sound effects are also increasing along with the requirements for pictures and touch, and mobile phone manufacturers have also begun to add dual speakers.

The dual speakers are effective immediately. You don't need to wear headphones and can get a very realistic stereo effect when playing outside. Not only in audio and video scenes, the spatial sound effects commonly seen in computer games have also come to the 3D mobile games that have emerged on the mobile side, which just provides a place for the dual speakers of mobile phones. When playing shooting games, you can hear the sound and determine the position without turning around.

From another perspective, dual speakers actually provide convenience for mobile phones to go hole-free. Since iPhone 7, more and more mobile phones have removed the headphone jack. You either have to plug in the headphones through the charging port or use wireless headphones. Unless you are in a noisy environment or want to take care of the feelings of others, wearing headphones is never as comfortable as listening to music with external speakers. The upgraded dual speakers just solve this problem by "encircling Wei to save Zhao".

Having said so many advantages, the dual speakers that can be seen on mobile phones at this stage still have a lot of room for improvement. For example, the sound holes set at the top and bottom may be intended by the manufacturer to create a spatial sound effect without occupying the screen area of ​​the full-screen mobile phone. However, if you hold the phone with both hands to play games, it is easy to block the sound holes directly, which eliminates the meaning of the dual speakers.

Another example is the "hand shaking" that many users complain about online. When the volume is adjusted to a higher level, the back cover of the phone will resonate with the vibration of the speaker cavity, which will make the palm feel disturbed. This is a dilemma for manufacturers. Although glass and other back cover materials will resonate, they can ensure the visual effect and signal quality. Reducing the volume of the sound cavity cannot make the sound quality performance impressive. After all, in the field of acoustics, "bigger is right".

Dual speakers are the result of full competition

In general, the increasing number of dual speakers is a reflection of the gradual progress of the mobile phone market, which combines technological improvement with taking care of consumer needs.

As mobile phones get bigger and bigger, the shortcomings of a single speaker become more obvious. A single sound source can no longer meet people's requirements for sound quality, but at the same time, it also gives mobile phones more space to place dual speakers. The full screen priority makes it impossible for HTC's once proud Boomsound to be reproduced on today's mobile phones, but it also provides inspiration for symmetrical dual speakers.

Consumers’ tastes have been “spoiled” by the upgrades of each generation of mobile phones. The shift to the stock market is reminding manufacturers that only by pursuing a more refined experience based on user needs can they try their best to retain their basic user base and spare the remaining energy to try to acquire new users. The visual and tactile needs are all met, and using dual speakers to please the ears is also an inevitable result.

For users, this era is certainly a good era. In addition to dual speakers, more and more changes that are more closely related to actual experience have come to mobile phones, but the price of buying a mobile phone is not much more expensive than the previous year. After sorting out your own needs for a mobile phone, you can buy a mobile phone with confidence to get a better daily use and gaming and audio-visual experience.