Nokia N96 Cell Phone Review - Audio Quality
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Marianne Schultz Published on March 16, 2009 Comment on this |
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| There are some pretty big problems with the audio the N96 receives, though it's just about the opposite for the sound sent by the N96. Side tone, the amount of your own voice piped back to you to help you determine how loudly you're speaking, is a bit too low and may cause you to compensate by speaking more loudly than you really need to. | |
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General Audio
Smartphones these days can do anything from providing you with instant access to your email all the way to helping you update your blog while at a concert, 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 (7.26)
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 N96's Sound Receive Frequence Response results chart
As you can see from the N96's sound receive frequency response chart, it stays within the limits at frequencies below 1,000 Hz, but then drops dramatically below the lower limit after this and then vacillates to the other extreme to exceed the upper limit. Where the line dips below the lower limit, sounds at these frequencies will not transmit and the result will be choppy sound on your end of the line. Where it swings upward to exceed the upper limit, the volume of sounds at these frequencies will be much higher than they should be, so you'll hear artificial fluctuations in the volume levels between lower and higher frequencies.
Relative to our comparison phones, this is not good performance, and the N96 earns the lowest score out of all of them in this area.
| Cell Phone | Nokia N96 | Palm Treo Pro (unlocked) | LG Dare (on Verizon) |
| Score | 7.26 | 9.09 | 7.73 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph |  |
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| Cell Phone | Motorola ZINE (on T-Mobile) | HTC Touch Diamond (on Sprint) | Apple iPhone 3G (on AT&T) |
| Score | 8.44 | 8.24 | 8.13 |
| Received Sound Frequency Response Graph |  |
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Sound Send Frequency Response (8.73)
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 N96's Sound Send Frequence Response results chart
The N96's sound send frequency response chart shows far less fluctuation than its sound receive frequency response chart and it does not surpass the limits anywhere. In general, it stays well between the limits defined by the red lines and show no major problems at all. The person on the other end of the line should have no problems with the sound transmitted by the N96.
| Cell Phone | Nokia N96 |
Palm Treo Pro (unlocked) | LG Dare (on Verizon) |
| Score | 8.73 | 8.26 | 6.74 |
| Sound Sent Frequency Response Graph |  |
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| Cell Phone | Motorola ZINE (on T-Mobile) | HTC Touch Diamond (on Sprint) | Apple iPhone 3G (on AT&T) |
| Score | 8.62 | 7.01 | 8.34 |
| Sound Sent Frequency Response Graph |  |
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Handset Side Tone (7.52)
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 N96's side tone is -20.48dB, 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.
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