Nokia 5800 Cell Phone Review - Audio Quality
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Marianne Schultz Published on May 08, 2009 Comment on this |
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| The audio received by the Nokia 5800 will be artificially amplified or dampened across a short portion of the frequency range. Comparatively, audio sent by the 5800 is better, though its side tone – the amount of your own voice piped back to you to help you gauge how loudly you're speaking – is quite low and will cause you to speak more loudly than need to in response to this inaccurate audio clue. | |
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General Audio
Cell phones these days can do anything from giving you full access to multiple email accounts to helping you learn a new language via an audio book or application, 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 side tone, 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 (8.08)
The sound received by the 5800 shows no significant issues, presenting only a short portion of the frequency range where sounds will be heard at a lower or higher volume than they should.
Our sound receive frequency response 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 5800's sound received frequency response chart
As you can see from the 5800's sound received frequency response chart, you can see that it generally stays in the middle of the area prescribed by the limits in red, then dips toward and touches the lower limit above 1,000 Hz. It's in this area that sounds will be received at a lower volume than they should. Next, the performance curve rises steeply to hit the upper limit – here, sounds will be amplified so that you hear them more loudly than they should be. Overall, this isn't bad performance, but our comparison devices are tough competition and the Nokia 5800 earns the second-lowest score in this area, ahead of only the Samsung Memoir.
| Cell Phone | Nokia 5800 | Blackberry Storm (on Verizon) | T-Mobile G1 (on T-Mobile) |
| Score | 8.08 | 8.38 | 8.98 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph |  |
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| Cell Phone | HTC Touch Diamond (on Sprint) | Apple iPhone 3G (on AT&T) | Samsung Memoir (on T-Mobile) |
| Score | 8.24 | 8.13 | 6.73 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph |  |
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Sound Send Frequency Response (8.45)
The 5800 bounces back here relative to its sound received frequency response performance, staying well within the prescribed limits to avoid sending sounds that are artificially amplified, dampened, or cut off.
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 5800's sound sent frequency response chart
As you can see in the 5800's sound sent frequency response chart, its performance curve stays within the limits, coming close to hitting the upper limit for a short time just above 1,000 Hz. The person on the other end of the line on calls should have no problems with the audio sent by the 5800.
| Cell Phone | Nokia 5800 | Blackberry Storm (on Verizon) | T-Mobile G1 (on T-Mobile) |
| Score | 8.45 | 7.79 | 8.42 |
| Sound Sent Frequency Response Graph |  |
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| Cell Phone | HTC Touch Diamond (on Sprint) | Apple iPhone 3G (on AT&T) | Samsung Memoir (on T-Mobile) |
| Score | 7.01 | 8.34 | 8.42 |
| Sound Sent Frequency Response Graph |  |
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Handset Side Tone (5.87)
Side tone is the amount of your own voice intentionally routed 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 5800's side tone is -22.13 dB, meaning that it's piping back less of your own voice to you than the ideal, leading you to believe that you're not speaking loudly enough, for which you may compensate by speaking more loudly.
Looking at our comparison phones, many of which also performed poorly in this area, the 5800 doesn't stand out too much, though it is outshined by the iPhone 3G, which has near-perfect side tone, by a good margin.
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