Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra Audio test

We put the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra through 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 analyze how it performed in a variety of tests and several common use cases.

Overview

Key audio specs include:

• Two speakers (1 front top below screen, 1 side bottom)
• No audio jack output
• Dolby Atmos technology

Reproduction

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With a SBMARK audio score of 139, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra performed very well in our tests and is a marked improvement over last year’s Galaxy S22 series. The built-in speakers delivered good overall audio quality with a nice timbre and deep, powerful bass, making the Samsung a great option for listening to music, watching movies, or playing games alike.

Recording results were better with the main camera, but the S23 Ultra also did a decent job with the selfie camera. Recordings with the memo app were limited by the default memo setting. Overall, however, the built-in microphones delivered good results. The audio zoom function was able to reduce background noise and bring the main subject into focus. The wind noise reduction also worked effectively.

Trial 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 evaluation under controlled laboratory conditions.
(For more details on our playback protocol, click here; for more details on our recording protocol, click here.)
The following section compiles the key elements of our extensive testing and analysis performed in the SBMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations in the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.

Hear about the playback performance of the smartphone tested in this comparison with some of its competitors:

Here’s how the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra fares in playback use cases compared to its competitors:

The Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra goes all-in with bass power and brings a nice warm timbre to the table. In our tests, the treble delivery lacked some treble extension, but was overall natural and pleasant. The midrange was fine but sounded slightly resonant. In particular, the low-mid/upper bass sounded a bit muddy.

The bass, as mentioned, was very powerful. Low-end extension was good enough, but could have reached even deeper. That said, upper bass mud/boxing will be the main issue for most users. As for volume dependency, the S23 Ultra may have sounded a little harsh at max volume, but it managed to maintain excellent bass delivery at low volumes.

The Galaxy S23 Ultra offered good dynamic performance, with sharp attack, great bass precision, and an accurate envelope. Punch was also excellent, despite the slightly muddy low-midrange. The sharpness of the attack was reduced slightly at low volume, but the precision of the punch and bass remained mostly unchanged. At maximum volume, the distortion resulted in a more noticeable drop in sharpness of the attack. The bass sounded rather compressed and also less accurate. The punch remained excellent, though.

The Samsung has also done very well for the spatial attribute. The stereo scene sounded quite broad, allowing for nice immersion in movie, gaming, and music use cases. However, given the large size of the S23 Ultra, the soundstage could have been even larger. Our testers also found localizability to be pretty good, despite occasional difficulties pinpointing certain sound sources in the scene. The rendering of distance and the sensation of depth in the rendered soundstage was very good.

The S23 Ultra delivered good volume performance. We found the maximum volume setting to be quite loud, as well as improved over previous generation Galaxy devices. The minimum volume was understandable and fairly quiet. However, the texture of the volume could have been better. The Samsung’s volume curve wasn’t too smooth, especially at higher volume levels.

Here are some sound pressure levels (SPL) measured while playing our sample recordings of hip-hop and classical music at maximum volume:

The following graph shows the gradual changes in volume from minimum to maximum. We expect these changes to be consistent across the range, so that all volume steps match user expectations:

Unwanted audio artifacts were overall well under control on the S23 Ultra, but testers observed some distortion and compression at maximum volume and found the built-in speakers to occlude easily when holding the phone. That said, the effects of the occlusion were pretty negligible.

Here’s how the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra fares in recording use cases compared to its competitors:

When recording audio, the S23 Ultra performed well overall for the tonal attribute, which was pretty close to what we’ve seen previously on the S22 series of devices. The highs were a little dark but overall good. However, some more high-end extensions could have brought in some extra air and brightness. When recording the memos, the lower treble was slightly inconsistent, resulting in a rather metallic and thin sound. This was especially noticeable with louder background noise, such as when recording in urban environments.

The midrange was overall rendered quite well, despite the resonance in the lower midrange and the lack of clarity in the upper midrange. When recording video with the front-facing camera, our measurements showed a greater lack of low-mid range, but this wasn’t a big deal when recording in urban or home environments. Our testers found bass delivery to be very good, with overall delivery being fairly consistent and good low-end extension. However, at high SPLs, bass was slightly intrusive, negatively impacting tonal balance. In such scenarios, we also noticed a lack of brightness and clarity, as well as slightly more prominent low-mid resonance. Overall, however, the tonal balance remained good when recording loud sounds.

The device offered overall very good performance in terms of dynamics. The signal-to-noise ratio was good, which contributed to voice intelligibility. Envelope rendering was accurate and realistic, which also contributed to intelligibility, especially in scenarios with a noisier background, such as urban environments. Transient rendition remained sharp at high sound pressure levels. On the downside, bass accuracy was compromised by overly prominent and intrusive bass frequencies.

The S23 Ultra did well for the space attribute as well. When recording video with the main camera, the device offered good breadth, with a large and immersive soundstage. Locability was good, making it easy to locate individual sound sources. Our testers also found the distance rendering to be realistic. Amplitude was also decent when recording selfie videos, but not as immersive as with the main camera. Trackability wasn’t exactly on the same level either, but directivity was excellent. Sound sources positioned to the side or behind the camera have been well reduced, improving the intelligibility of the selfie subject. This was especially true in scenes with a noisy background, such as urban areas or other outdoor environments.

However, things didn’t look quite as good when recording voice notes. When using the memo app, spatial performance was severely limited by the device recording in mono.

Recording volume performance was good overall, with good volume in all use cases. Our measurements showed a peak in the upper spectrum. However, this was not a cause for concern in real life recording scenarios and the impact on the final score was negligible.

Here are the sound levels recorded in the audio and video files, measured in LUFS (Loudness Unit Full Scale); for reference, we expect volume levels to be above -24 LUFS for recorded content:

Audio recordings from the S23 Ultra were nearly free of unwanted artifacts, even when recording at high sound pressure levels, such as concerts. However, our testers did notice some slight compression and distortion when recording screaming vocals. Mic occlusion was no problem, and even with the mics completely covered, recording quality remained pretty much the same. Noises caused by the user’s fingers touching the device may be quite loud, however, degrading the quality of the recording and causing voice gating and volume drops.

In this audio comparison, you can hear how this smartphone handles wind noise compared to its competitors:

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[“Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra”]=> string(82) “resources/Samsung/GalaxyS23UltraV2.1/SamsungGalaxyS23Ultra_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a”
[“Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra (Exynos)”]=> string(90) “resources/Samsung/GalaxyS23UltraV2.1/SamsungGalaxyS22Ultra(Exynos)_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a”
[“Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max”]=> string(80) “resources/Samsung/GalaxyS23UltraV2.1/AppleiPhone14ProMax_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a” }

Background performance was good overall, thanks to a well-rendered, natural and realistic sounding background. Only when recording selfie videos is the background sound slightly muffled and lacks clarity.