We subjected the Nothing Phone (1) to our rigorous SBMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance both when recording sound using its built-in microphones, and when playing audio through its speakers.
In this review, we’ll break down how it fared across a variety of tests and several common use cases.
Overview
Key audio specs include:
- Two speakers (front upper and lower firing)
- No audio output Jack
Reproduction
Pros
- Not much distortion at maximum volume
Registration
Pros
- Excellent audio zoom performance
- Excellent wind noise performance
- Excellent SNR
- Excellent resilience at high SPL, distortion is usually not too noticeable
versus
- Overall dark tonal balance
- Excessive noise cancellation algorithm in use cases causes a lot of artifacts
- Poor management of hand occlusions
The Nothing Phone (1) is far from the top of our Audio chart. Overall it performs poorly, but benefits from having an acceptable amount of distortion at maximum volume. It’s not really a great choice for any playback use case, but it’s better suited for watching movies. Music lovers and gamers should probably keep an eye on the alternatives.
The phone performs slightly better in recording than in playback, but there is some difference between the use cases. The sound quality is better when recording with the main camera, followed by office applications. The quality drops considerably when using the front camera for selfie videos. On recording, our testers enjoyed the Nothing Phone’s audio zoom performance and found it to be quite effective at eliminating unwanted wind noises. It also offers excellent signal-to-noise ratio and good resilience at high sound pressure levels, where distortion has remained well under control. This makes it an option for registering for concerts and similar events.
On the downside, the tonal balance recording is dark overall, and overly enthusiastic noise cancellation algorithms cause a variety of artifacts. The phone is also quite prone to microphone occlusion with the hands. If you’re not careful where you put your hands, the recordings could be practically useless.
Test summary
Learn about SBMARK audio tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone audio reviews, SBMARK engineers perform a series of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual assessment under controlled laboratory conditions.
(For more details on our reproduction protocol, click here; for more details on our registration protocol, click here.)
The following section collects the key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyzes performed in SBMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations in the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.
How the audio playback score is composed
SBMARK engineers test playback through smartphone speakers, whose performance is evaluated in our labs and under real-life conditions, using apps and default settings.
As an audio playback device, Nothing Phone’s performance is below average in almost all test attributes. In terms of timbre, it focuses on the high-mids and lower highs, resulting in a thin and nasal sound, with almost no bass and mid-bass. Dynamics also leave room for improvement, due to suboptimal sound processing. Attack is very weak and bass accuracy is compromised by out-of-control volume fluctuations at nominal volume and compression at maximum volume. Punch is fine but, like bass accuracy, it is negatively affected by compression and gating.
Spatial performance is below average overall, and although the volume is decent at maximum volume, at minimum volume, almost nothing is heard. Also, the volume levels are inconsistent. Our testers also found a variety of sonic artifacts on the Nothing Phone, including numerous temporal artifacts that behave unpredictably, some form of gating at all volume levels, multi-band processing and compression. It’s too easy to accidentally occlude the right speaker if your hand is also positioned too high or low, and our testers found it frustrating for music to resume playing when the user returns to the app from sleep or a other application.
Hear about the playback performance of the smartphone tested in this comparison with some of its competitors:
Recordings of smartphones that play some of our music at 60 LAeq in an anechoic environment from 2 microphones in AB configuration, at 30 cm
Here’s how Nothing Phone (1) fares in playback use cases compared to its competitors:
Playback of use case scores
The Timbre score represents how well a phone reproduces sound across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble, tonal balance and volume dependence. It is the most important attribute for reproduction.
Music playback frequency response
A 1/12 octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency emitted by the smartphone when playing a pure sine wave in an anechoic environment.
The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, such as the precision with which a bass note or the impact sound of drums is played.
Secondary attributes for spatial tests include identifying the position of a specific sound, its positional balance, distance and amplitude.
The volume score represents the overall volume of a smartphone and how the volume gradually increases and decreases based on user input.
Here are some sound pressure levels (SPLs) measured when playing our sample recordings of hip-hop and classical music at maximum volume:
| Hip-Hop | Classic | |
| No Phone (1) | 74.2 dB | 74 dBA |
| Oppo Reno8 5G | 70.4 dBA | 72 dBA |
| Google Pixel 6 | 74.9 dB | 69.6 dB |
The graph below shows the gradual changes in volume from minimum to maximum. We expect these changes to be consistent across the range, so that all volume levels match user expectations:
Music volume texture
This line graph shows the relative playback volume versus the user-selected volume step, measured at different volume levels with correlated pink noise in an anechoic box recorded on axis at 0.20 meters.
The Artifacts score measures the extent to which sound is affected by various types of distortion. The higher the score, the less noise you notice. Distortion can occur due to the sound processing in the device and the quality of the speakers.
Total harmonic distortion reproduction (maximum volume)
This graph shows the total harmonic distortion and noise in the audible frequency range.
It represents the distortion and noise of the device reproducing our test signal (0 dB Fs, Sweep Sine in an anechoic box at 40 cm) at the maximum volume of the device.
How the score of the audio recording is composed
SBMARK engineers test the recording by evaluating recorded files on reference audio equipment. These recordings are performed in our labs and in real-life conditions, using apps and predefined settings.
The Nothing Phone (1) performs better overall as a recording device than for playback, but it’s still not close to best in class. Tonal performance leaves room for improvement, with weak highs, lack of bass control, and generally a lot of variation between apps and use cases. Our testers also found dynamics to be poor, with a rounded attack and overall inaccurate envelope. Things look slightly better for space, but there are a few things you should keep in mind to get the best results for this attribute. The ability to locate sound sources in the scene is above average when recording with the main camera and sound recorder, but deteriorates when you switch cameras to record a selfie clip. The width is great when you hold the phone in landscape orientation while recording, but it becomes extremely narrow in portrait orientation.
The recording volume is low in most use cases, but our objective measurements show that the phone performs well for recordings at high sound pressure levels, such as concerts, with only slight distortion. As in Playback, artifacts can be problematic when recording. Noise cancellation results in a variety of artifacts, including gating, comb filtering, compression in reminder recordings, and extreme pumping at high sound pressure levels. At high recording volumes, we also observed distortion and clipping. Hand position is critical, as microphone occlusion renders recordings completely useless.
Background performance is poor overall, with dark tonal balance, gating and other artifacts caused by the noise canceling algorithms with the front camera.
Here’s how Nothing Phone (1) fares in registering use cases Cons its competitors:
Record of use case scores
The Timbre score represents how well a phone captures sounds across the audible tonal range and takes into account bass, midrange, treble and tonal balance. It is the most important attribute for registration.
Life video frequency response
A 1 / 12th octave frequency response graph, which measures the volume of each frequency captured by the smartphone when recording a pure sine wave in an anechoic environment.
The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, such as how accurately the explosives of a voice (p, tek, for example) are reproduced. The score also considers the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), such as how loud the main voice is compared to the background noise.
Secondary attributes for spatial tests include locating the position of a specific sound, its positional balance, distance and amplitude on recorded audio files.
Directivity of registration
Smartphone directivity graph when recording test signals using the camera app, with the main camera. It represents the acoustic energy (in dB) on the angle of incidence of the sound source. (Normalized to the 0 ° angle, in front of the device.)
The volume score represents the normalization level of the audio on the recorded files and how the device handles noisy environments, such as electronic concerts, during recording.
Here are the sound levels recorded in the audio and video files, measured in LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale); as a reference, we expect loudness levels to be higher than -24 LUFS for recorded content:
| Match | Life video | Selfie video | Memo | |
| No Phone (1) | -27.6 LUFS | -19.1 LUFS | -18.7 LUFS | -20.5 LUFS |
| Oppo Reno8 5G | -23.4 LUFS | -21.3 LUFS | -19.8 LUFS | -17.8 LUFS |
| Google Pixel 6 | -27.8 LUFS | -17.9 LUFS | -16.3 LUFS | -19.8 LUFS |
The Artifacts Score measures the extent to which recorded sounds are affected by various types of distortions. The higher the score, the less noise you notice. Distortions can occur due to the sound processing in the device and the quality of the microphones, as well as user handling, such as the way the phone is held.
In this audio comparison, you can hear how this smartphone handles wind noise compared to its competitors:
Recordings of a voice sample with light background noise, facing a turbulent wind of 5 m / s
Background evaluates how naturally the various sounds around a voice blend into the video recording file. For example, when recording a speech at an event, the background should not interfere with the main voice, but should provide context for the surrounding environment.
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