Galaxy S9-style stereo speakers are better than front-facing speakers

Although they might not sound quite as good but they’re less intrusive to the phone’s overall design.

We know that built-in audio in smartphones has never been a particularly strong suit. Manufacturers are usually happy to just drill a couple of holes into the bottom of their devices and call it a quite good speaker, but the end result is usually a tinny, thin-sounding speaker that’ll leave you connecting to headphones or Bluetooth speakers.

Although the stereo speakers and front-face speakers have there pros and cons. One boasts superior audio while the other saves room for design. Smartphones like the HTC 10, along with the newer U11 and U11+, forego the dual front-firing speakers and instead they go for the option in which they use the combination of the earpiece speaker and a speaker grill along the bottom edge.

Apple lifted this layout starting with the iPhone 7, and most recently, Samsung has started doing the same with its Galaxy S9 and S9+.

Since this stereo speaker configuration makes a lot of sense from a design perspective and you get good sound quality as well. Nearly every smartphone is built with these two components in mind, so there’s nothing to change as far as the hardware goes. The same can’t be said about the dual front-facing speaker layouts, which are becoming less viable as the market shifts towards bezel-less phones with taller aspect ratio displays.

Opinion: I’m personally a big fan of the newer dual speaker design. I love the utility of a big screen, but I still want a phone that fits comfortably in my hand and pocket, so a phone with minimal bezels is ideal. That’s why I carry phones like Huawei Mate 10 as it utilizes the earpiece/speaker grill combination.

What do you prefer using? The earpiece/speaker grill combination or front-facing speakers? Let us know in the comments below.