Verizon SMT5800 Cell Phone Review - Audio Quality

Mark Brezinski
Published on March 17, 2008 Comment on this

General Audio
Since a cell phone is primarily used to make calls, it's important that it has good audio quality. A great calendar application and web browsing can't compensate for the inability to carry on a coherent conversation because of poor audio. Since this is an important test, we invested in HATS, a head and torso simulator that doesn't do a bad job of simulating the human ear either. Once HATS uses its perfect ears to hear the sounds output by the phone, we run the result through an electro-acoustic analysis program, SoundCheck. This, in the end, lets us know how well the phone performed according to industry standards. If this interests you and you'd like to learn more, feel free to peruse this article.

Summary
We didn't have any problems with the SMT5800 in terms of audio quality. Its imperfections are very minor, to the point where they wouldn't be noticeable.

Sound Receive Frequency Response (7.92)

The SMT5800 does a good job handling received sounds. There are a few points on the graph where it crosses the limits a bit, but these strays are minimal at most. The worst you'll get from this phone is slightly overemphasized mid-range sounds, or slightly muted higher-frequency sounds.

Cell Phone	HTC SMT5800	HTC Tilt (on AT&T)	Pantech Duo (on AT&T)
Score	7.92	7.44	7.62
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	Nokia N82 (Unlocked)	Motorola Q 9m (on Verizon)	Palm Centro (on Sprint)
Score	7.60	7.90	6.24
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Sound Send Frequency Response (8.00)

It initially appears that, like many phones before it, the SMT5800 is a bit more careless with your voice than it is with an incoming caller's. Its frequency performance starts out scraping the bottom of the limit, then jumps up and hits its head on the upper limit. Despite what looks like more fluctuation, the SMT5800's performance here is actually slightly better than in the prior test. Though not as consistent as the received frequency response, the amount it strayed from dead center was less overall.

Cell Phone	HTC SMT5800	HTC Tilt (on AT&T)	Pantech Duo (on AT&T)
Score	8.00	6.56	4.94
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Cell Phone	Nokia N82 (Unlocked)	Motorola Q 9m (on Verizon)	Palm Centro (on Sprint)
Score	6.50	8.73	7.82
Received Sound Frequency Response Graph (click to view)

Handset Side Tone (9.45)

Side tone is the amount of your own voice the phone plays back, or how loud your own voice sounds over the speaker. Side tone helps us regulate the volume of our voice; if we can't hear ourselves talking on the line, we raise our voices, etc. The ideal measurement is -18 decibels. The SMT5800 clocked in at -17.45 decibels, which is just a hair louder than ideal. This could cause you to talk slightly lower than you normally would, but not to any extent that you or your conversation partner would notice.

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