Blackberry Storm Cell Phone Review - Audio Quality
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Marianne Schultz Published on December 08, 2008 Comment on this |
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| The Storm does pretty well with the sound received, but a little less so with the sound it sends. Its side tone, how much of your own voice that's piped back to you through the phone's speaker to help you determine how loudly you're speaking, is dismally high and will cause you to think you're speaking far more loudly than you need to. | |
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General Audio
Smartphones these days can do anything from managing your calendar all the way to helping you keep your Facebook page updated, but how well they work as a phone is still an important factor, in which audio quality is a key component. We test performance in three areas - the audio you hear while on a call, the audio sent from the phone, and how much of your own voice is piped back to you, called sidetone, which helps you gauge how loudly you're speaking. We do all of this using guidelines defined by international audio experts and testing equipment and software that cell phone manufacturers use themselves - we use a head and torso simulator (HATS) made by Bruel & Kjaer and the SoundCheck software by Listen, Inc. For more information on how we do our audio testing see this article.
Sound Receive Frequency Response (8.38)
This test focuses on the quality of the sound received by the phone, and our testing equipment examines how well the phone transmits the voice of the person with whom you're speaking and it does this by transmitting a set batch of known sounds at specific frequencies in a test call and analyzing what is heard through the phone's speaker. On the chart, the outside limits that a phone should not surpass are prescribed by the red lines, and ideal performance would manifest as a smooth curve through the middle of the area defined by the outside limits.
The Storm's sound receive frequency response chart
As you can see on the Storm's results graph, it stays fairly close to the upper limit at the lower frequencies and then drops to nearly hit the lower limit and then bounces back close to the upper limit in the higher frequencies. This oscillation means that the volume of sounds sent in these frequencies will fluctuate, but it's not bad overall and the Storm earns a score here better than most of our comparison phones, with the exception of the T-Mobile G1.
| Cell Phone | Blackberry Storm | T-Mobile G1 (on T-Mobile) | HTC Touch Diamond (on Sprint) |
| Score | 8.38 | 8.98 | 8.24 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia E71 (unlocked) | Apple iPhone 3G (on AT&T) | Blackberry Curve 8320 (on T-Mobile) |
| Score | 7.55 | 8.13 | 8.30 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph |  |
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Sound Send Frequency Response (7.79)
This test focuses on how well your voice is sent by the phone through its microphone. Our testing equipment and software evaluates this by transmitting a known range of sounds through the phone's microphone on a test call, and then analyzing how the sounds are actually transmitted by the phone. As with the sound receive frequency response test, the red lines show the outer limits which should not be surpassed, and ideal performance would be a smooth curve through the middle of these limits.
The Storm's sound send frequency response chart
The results graph for the Storm shows that it hits the the limits in a few places in the lower frequencies - sounds in these frequencies will not be transmitted, resulting in choppy speech for the person on the other end of the line. After this, sounds in the higher frequencies are transmitted fairly well, though the lower limit is hit and surpassed at the highest frequencies prescribed by the limits. All in all, this is not terrible performance, and the Storm performs adequately here to put in in the middle of the pack of our comparison phones.
| Cell Phone | Blackberry Storm | T-Mobile G1 (on T-Mobile) | HTC Touch Diamond (on Sprint) |
| Score | 7.79 | 8.42 | 7.01 |
| Sound Sent Frequency Response Graph |  |
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| Cell Phone | Nokia E71 (unlocked) | Apple iPhone 3G (on AT&T) | Blackberry Curve 8320 (on T-Mobile) |
| Score | 8.26 | 8.34 | 7.51 |
| Sound Sent Frequency Response Graph |  |
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Handset Side Tone (4.58)
Side tone is the amount of your own voice piped back to you through the phone's speaker that helps you judge how loudly you're speaking. If a phone's side tone is too high, you may think you're talking too loudly and the person you're speaking with may have a hard time hearing you when you adjust by speaking more quietly. If a phone's side tone is too low, meaning less of your voice is piped back to you than the ideal level, you'll think you're talking too quietly and may end up speaking louder than you need to as a result. The ideal side tone level, as defined by audio experts, is -18dB relative to the volume of your own voice. The Storm has the lowest side tone of all of our comparison phones at -23.42dB, consequently earning it the lowest score comparatively. Storm owners should be mindful of this and work to not speak too loudly despite the sidetone level that will prompt you to do otherwise.
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