Speaker Volume Test: iPhone 7 vs. iPhone 6s [Video]

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Posted October 10, 2016 at 6:39pm by Shalom Levytam

Apple has added a second speaker to the iPhone 7 for stereo sound, two times the audio output of the iPhone 6s, and increased dynamic range.

In the video below we use a sound meter to compare the speaker volume of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 6s.

We take the reading in three different ways. First, by placing the sound level meter directly under the Lightning port. Second, by placing the meter midway along the side of the device and third by placing the meter and iPhone in a glass enclosure. Getting an accurate sound level on the iPhone 7 is a little tricky as one speaker is positioned at the bottom of the device and the other is in the earpiece.

A reading 10 dBA higher is about 2x as loud. We managed to read an 8.3 dBA increase when in the glass enclosure.

Take a look at the video below! You may also want to check out this speaker volume comparison of the iPhone 2G through 6 Plus.

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Julian_EU - January 5, 2017 at 5:08pm

Do we know if both speakers (I am talking about the i7 ones) have the same output power? Seems that the front one is not as louder as the bottom one. Anyone confirms?

Acoustics Engineer - October 15, 2016 at 6:42am

This isnt the ideal positioning of a mic to perform these tests. you would want to have sound measurements 1 foot and 3 feet away for the following positions: above, and around each of the 4 sides.

Acoustics Engineer - October 15, 2016 at 6:45am

Additionally, it would be nice to have measurements of a stereo track and hearing the difference in dBA between the right and left channels (i.e., earpiece and bottom of phone)

Guest - October 12, 2016 at 5:33am

This test is upsurd it is non controlled environment.

234 - October 11, 2016 at 2:28pm

This test is totally biased, the background music throughout the video was much louder than the iPhones so it messed with the results!!!

Eduardo Pszczol - October 10, 2016 at 10:06pm

This is amazing, specially since every 3dB we double the power, so 8dB on the final test is a remarkable difference!

Bay huy - October 10, 2016 at 8:07pm

First the second speaker is atleast 4time smaller than the right speaker. Second apple show at the ads that the sound is coming from bottom and top of the phone which is not true.

zetaprime - October 11, 2016 at 1:39am

In practice the sound appears to come from the center of the phone and even though the speakers are only a few inches apart there is a noticeable stereo effect so long as you hold the phone in landscape mode.

gamerscul9870 - October 11, 2016 at 2:43am

Just because sound comes from both sides doesn't mean it's bad. It does make the sound spread more making it like a portable concert except for a few watching the same device.

zetaprime - October 10, 2016 at 7:24pm

As someone who has a 7 plus I can say that the sound is much louder and fuller than the previous model because it uses 2 speakers.

joshWUa - October 10, 2016 at 7:04pm

If they only did this from the begging back when the 5/5s were popular.

gamerscul9870 - October 11, 2016 at 2:41am

They didn't because we weren't ready to remove the jack yet and how little of space there is to cram a speaker and a mic in that area without the jack.

joshWUa - October 11, 2016 at 4:35am

The headphone jack was just an excuse, there was plenty of space to put another speaker hahahaha

gamerscul9870 - October 11, 2016 at 5:46am

And removal of the jack is what solved this. If the jack did stay, Apple would have to make a bigger sacrifice to include another speaker, like a smaller sized battery to fit it on, or reducing a piece of the logic board, etc.!

The Doctor - October 10, 2016 at 6:42pm

3db is actually considered twice as loud

Butterspider - October 10, 2016 at 7:03pm

Isn't it relative to the initial reading?