Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra Audio test

We put the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra through our rigorous SBMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance in both recording audio using the built-in microphones and playing audio through speakers.
In this review, we’ll break down how it performed in a variety of tests and several common use cases.

Overview

Key audio specifications include:

• Bottom side and top front
• No jack audio output

Playback

Registration

With a SBMARK Audio score of 139, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra performed very well in our tests, and changed very little from the audio performance of the S23 Ultra. The built-in speakers offer good overall sound quality with a nice timbre and deep, powerful bass, making the Samsung a great option for listening to music, watching movies or playing games.

Recording results were better with the main camera, but the S24 Ultra did a decent job with the selfie camera as well. Recordings with the memo app were limited by the default memo setting. Overall, the built-in microphones performed well. The audio zoom function was able to reduce background noise and focus on the main subject. Wind noise reduction also worked effectively.

Test summary

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 brings together key elements of our comprehensive testing and analysis performed in SBMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations in the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.

The Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra goes all-in with bass power and brings a warm and pleasant tone to the table. In our tests, treble performance could have benefited from more treble extension, but overall it came across as natural and pleasant. The midrange was fine but sounded slightly resonant especially in the low-mid/high-bass range, which tended to sound muddy. While the low-end bass extension was quite good, it could have gone further. That said, the dullness/boxiness of the upper bass will be the main issue for most users. Regarding volume dependence, the S24 Ultra, like the S23 Ultra, sounded harsh at maximum volume, but managed to maintain excellent bass performance at low volume.

The Galaxy S24 Ultra delivered good dynamic performance, with a firm attack, excellent bass accuracy, and an accurate envelope. At maximum volume, the distortion resulted in a more noticeable drop in attack clarity. The bass sounded rather compressed and also less precise. However, the punch remained excellent.

The Samsung also performed very well when it came to spatial features. The stereo soundstage seemed quite wide, allowing for nice immersion in movie, gaming, and music use cases. Given the large size of the S24 Ultra, the soundstage could have been even larger. Our testers found localizability to be pretty good too, despite occasional difficulties locating certain sound sources in the scene. Distance rendering and the feeling of depth in the rendered soundstage were very good.

The S24 Ultra delivered good volume performance. We found the maximum volume setting to be quite high, as with the Galaxy S23 series. The minimum volume was understandable and quite quiet, but the volume consistency could have been better.

Unwanted audio artifacts were overall well under control on the S24 Ultra, although our testers observed some distortion and compression at maximum volume. The built-in speakers can still be easily occluded when holding the phone, but the effects of occlusion are rather negligible.

Listen to the playback performance of the tested smartphone in this comparison with some of its competitors:

Here’s how the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra fares in playback use cases compared to its competitors:

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

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

When recording audio, the S24 Ultra offered an overall good performance when it came to tonal attribute, which was quite close to what we had previously seen on the S23 series devices. The treble performance was good overall, despite being slightly dark. When recording memos, the lower treble was slightly inconsistent, inducing a tinny and thin sound delivery, especially when recording in urban environments.

The midrange was overall rendered quite well, despite the low-midrange resonance and lack of clarity in the upper-midrange. When recording video with the front camera, our measurements showed a greater lack of low-mid range, but this wasn’t much of an issue when recording in urban or home environments. Our testers found bass performance to be very good, with fairly consistent overall performance and good low-end extension. However, at high sound pressure levels, the bass was slightly intrusive, negatively affecting the tonal balance.

The device offered very good overall performance in terms of dynamics. The signal-to-noise ratio was good, which helped the intelligibility of voices. The rendering of the envelopes was accurate and realistic, which also contributed to understandability, especially in scenarios with a stronger background, such as urban environments.

The S24 Ultra also performed well when it came to spatial characteristics. When recording video with the main camera, the good width offered a wide and immersive sound stage. The audio recordings facilitated the identification of individual sound sources and provided a realistic rendering of the distance. When using the front camera to record selfies, the range is decent but not as immersive as with the main camera. However, directivity was excellent. Sound sources located to the side or behind the camera have been significantly reduced, improving the comprehensibility of the selfie subject. This was especially true in scenes with a noisy background, such as urban areas or other outdoor environments.

Spatial performance was drastically limited when using the memos app because the device records memos in mono.

Recording volume performance was good overall, with good volume in all use cases.

Like the S23 Ultra, the S24 Ultra’s audio recordings were nearly free of unwanted artifacts, even when recording at high sound pressure levels, such as during concerts. Microphone occlusion was not an issue and even with the microphones completely covered, the recording quality remained virtually unchanged. The noise caused by the user’s fingers touching the device may be loud, affecting the recording quality and causing stutter in voices and drops in volume.

The backgrounds were overall well rendered, natural and realistic. But in videos with the front camera, the background sometimes lacked clarity and sounded slightly muffled.

Here’s how the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra fares in recording use cases compared to its competitors:

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:

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

matrix(3) {
[“Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra”]=> string(78) “resources/Samsung/GalaxyS24Ultra/SamsungGalaxyS24Ultra_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a”
[“Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max”]=> string(79) “resources/Samsung/GalaxyS24Ultra/AppleiPhone15ProMaxV22_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a”
[“Huawei Mate 60 Pro +”]=> string(76) “resources/Samsung/GalaxyS24Ultra/HuaweiMate60Pro+V22_MicrophoneArtifacts.m4a” }