Many believe that smartphones these days have become merely "DSLR cameras that can also make phone calls, send an email, and allow users to browse the internet and watch videos."
This "misconception" can be attributed to the fact that smartphone photography has become one of the key deciding factors for customers while choosing to buy a new smartphone. And while smartphones have come a long way in terms of camera hardware (from VGA resolution sensors to upto 108MP shooters recently), one cannot write off another big aspect of a smartphone that makes them oh so desirable.
Indeed, a good high-resolution, display could be another top priority for many. But that 'all-screen, bezel-less, 6-inch plus Super AMOLED glory' does require a nice sounding pair of speakers to go along with it - at least, for those of us who love to carry their entertainment with them.
Huawei seems to know this
Huawei, as many of us would already know, is not new to controversy. The company is in the middle of US ban following allegations from the US government over the Chinese smartphone manufacturer spying for China. Its latest smartphone, the Huawei Mate 30 Pro, which got thousands of early buyers to queue up outside stores when it went on sale in China, still hasn't seen a wide release elsewhere. Then there's the Google ban on Huawei phones which means Huawei smartphones won't come with Google apps installed. Yet Huawei, doesn't fail to impress.
The Mate 30 Pro is currently Huawei's top-dog when it comes to camera performance, managing to score 121 points in DXOMark's recently released camera review which puts it at the top spot alongside Xiaomi Mi CC9 Pro, aka, Xiaomi Mi Note 10.
Now, you may ask what does this have to do with smartphone speakers and the best sound quality in a phone? Well, DXOMark, apart from being known for its camera reviews and ratings, also conducts audio reviews as well. And Huawei has once again surprised the tech community by achieving another remarkable feat - gaining the top score in DXOMark's audio review too.
Not many would know that Huawei launched a variant of the Mate 20 series called the Huawei Mate 20X. The company touted the phone to be a multimedia powerhouse, and DXOMark had nothing but praise for phone. Even going as far as comparing it to the likes of the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
DXOMark's observation
The Huawei Mate 20 X is a huge phone with a 7.2-inch display and it comes with 5G connectivity. But that's not the only thing that makes the phone great. It has beaten every other phone in DXOMark's recently released audio review. In its review DXOMark said: "The Huawei Mate 20 X is the top scored in our audio tests of all the devices we've tested this far."
The Mate 20X scored an overall score of 75, beating Samsung's Galaxy S10 Plus by 10 points and Galaxy Nite 10 Plus by 9. DXOMark also noted that the Mate 20 X is the only Android phone that it had tested so far that scored above Apple's iPhone XS Max, although only by a single point.
Room for improvement?
The review concluded that the Huawei smartphone did particularly well when playing movies and music, achieving a "substantially higher score" for those cases than any other smartphone the company has ever tested. Although, it didn't say the same about its performance when gaming. It fell a little behind of the iPhone XS Max and iPhone 11 Pro Max in that respect.
Huawei still makes some really well-crafted smartphones despite being embroiled in controversies. Although, the Huawei Mate 20 X did not beat the iPhone XS Max and 11 Pro Max by a huge margin, but it did score substantially higher than Samsung's latest flagships which shows that Huawei, although it may be in a soup, can still make high-quality, well-crafted smartphones.
Huawei has a knack of sorts to make smartphones with exceptional quality and performance, especially with regards to camera, displays and now even in the sound department. It will be very interesting to see how things shape up for Huawei, now that it no longer has Google's full support. Meanwhile, Huawei is also rumoured to be working on making its homegrown Hongmeng OS aka Harmony OS better than Google's Android OS.
