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Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
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Samsung Galaxy S23 FE Audio test

OTHER AVAILABLE TESTS FOR THIS DEVICE

We put the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE through our rigorous DXOMARK Audio test suite to measure its performance both at recording sound using its built-in microphones, and at playing audio back through its speakers.
In this review, we will break down how it fared in a variety of tests and several common use cases.

Overview

Key audio specifications include:

  • Two speakers (Bottom right, top center)
  • No jack audio output

Scoring

Sub-scores and attributes included in the calculations of the global score.

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
138
audio
137
Playback
127

158

132

149

150

162

135

162

105

157

139
Recording
128

147

125

146

103

159

139

170

143

145

147

166

Playback

Pros

  • Excellent dynamics performance
  • Natural sounding timbre, clear yet warm, pleasant

Cons

  • Range of artifacts
  • Lack of high- and low-end extension

Recording

Pros

  • Very good wideness when recording with the main camera
  • Recordings mostly free of artifacts

Cons

  • No audio zoom feature
  • Underwhelming wind noise performance
  • Mono recordings when using the memo app

With an overall score of 138, the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE delivered a very decent performance for its device class in the DXOMARK Audio test, offering a very natural sound experience when playing back audio through the built-in speakers and recording alike. On the downside, the device lacks useful features that you can find on some competitors, such as audio zoom or wind noise reduction, and recordings made with the recorder app are in mono only.

In playback, the test results were consistently high across all use cases — listening to music, watching movies and gaming. In recording, the Samsung did best when shooting with the selfie camera. Main camera recordings’ results were only slightly lower, but performance dropped off for office and memo applications, mainly due to the monophonic recording.

Test summary

About DXOMARK Audio tests: For scoring and analysis in our smartphone audio reviews, DXOMARK engineers perform a variety of objective tests and undertake more than 20 hours of perceptual evaluation under controlled lab conditions.
(For more details about our Playback protocol, click here; for more details about our Recording protocol, click here.)

The following section gathers key elements of our exhaustive tests and analyses performed in DXOMARK laboratories. Detailed performance evaluations under the form of reports are available upon request. Do not hesitate to contact us.

Playback

137

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

163

Black Shark 5 Pro
How Audio Playback score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test playback through the smartphone speakers, whose performance is evaluated in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

In playback, the S23 FE’s timbre was clear and natural, with treble that did not sound very bright but had nice presence. Midrange was pleasant and devoid of resonances and bass rendition was pretty good, too, with nice upper bass presence. Overall, timbre results were good across all test use cases and apps. Dynamics results were very good, thanks to sharp and snappy attack at nominal volume, very satisfying bass precision and very good punch. The built-in speakers provided good stereo wideness and made it easy to pinpoint individual elements in the sound scene. Depth rendition was quite satisfying, providing good separation between different sound elements but distance rendition was only average, some content being perceived too far in the distance.

Perceived loudness at maximum volume was good, and the tuning of the minimum volume level was excellent as well, letting you hear quiet passages in dynamic content, such as classical music, without being too loud. In addition, volume steps were distributed quite consistently across the scale. In terms of unwanted audio artifacts, some subtle distortion could be heard at maximum volume, as well as a moderate amount of dynamic compression at nominal and maximum volume. There was no pumping, though.

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

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE
Xiaomi 13T
Nubia Redmagic 8 Pro
Recordings of the smartphones playing some of our music tracks at 60 LAeq in an anechoic environment by 2 microphones in A-B configuration, at 30 cm
Here is how the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE performs in playback use cases compared to its competitors:
Playback use-cases scores

Timbre

127

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

158

Black Shark 5 Pro

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 dependency. It is the most important attribute for playback.

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.

Dynamics

132

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

149

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a bass note is reproduced or the impact sound from drums.


Spatial

150

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness.


Volume

135

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

162

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents the overall loudness of a smartphone and how smoothly volume increases and decreases based on user input.

Here are a few sound pressure levels (SPL) measured when playing our sample recordings of hip-hop and classical music at maximum volume:
Hip-Hop Classical
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE 74.1 dBA 70.9 dBA
Xiaomi 13T 74.2 dBA 70.4 dBA
Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro 77 dBA 76.6 dBA
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 steps correspond to users’ expectations:
Music volume consistency
This line graph shows the relative loudness of playback relative to the user selected volume step, measured at different volume steps with a correlated pink noise in an anechoic box recorded in axis at 0.20 meter.

Artifacts

105

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

157

Asus ROG Phone 5

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the sound is affected by various types of distortion. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortion can occur because of sound processing in the device and because of the quality of the speakers.

Playback Total Harmonic Distortion (Maximum Volume)
This graph shows the Total Harmonic Distortion and Noise over the hearable frequency range.
It represents the distortion and noise of the device playing our test signal (0 dB Fs, Sweep Sine in an anechoic box at 40 cm) at the device's maximum volume.

Recording

139

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

160

Honor Magic6 Pro
How Audio Recording score is composed

DXOMARK engineers test recording by evaluating the recorded files on reference audio equipment. Those recordings are done in our labs and in real-life conditions, using default apps and settings.

Recording timbre was good overall. When recording with the main camera, treble was clear but slightly lacked brightness. Midrange was natural and provided pleasant warmth. Tonal balance was also good with the selfie camera, but the timbre was quite dark and resonant when recording voices with the memo app. Signal-to-noise ratio was good with the main and selfie cameras, but the background could have been more attenuated when using the memo app, especially in urban scenarios. Recordings offered a wide sound scene with the main camera, but wideness was noticeably more limited with the front camera. The memo app only records in mono by default.

Localizability of individual instruments or other sound elements was consistently precise with both the main and selfie cameras, but much less so in recordings made with the memo app. Distance rendition was overall very good, but voices were perceived slightly too distant with the recorder app. Recording volume was loud enough with both cameras but slightly lower with the memo app. On the plus side, our testers found the microphones to be dealing very well with high sound pressure levels as you find them when recording concerts or other loud events. Recordings were mostly free of artifacts, except for some slight clipping on sudden loud voices. However, the device was quite prone to microphone occlusions, which can strongly muffle the timbre or result in loud finger noises in the recordings. Our testers found the background rendition to be consistently great and natural, without any artifacts.

Here is how the Samsung Galaxy S23 FE performs in recording use cases compared to its competitors:

Recording use-cases scores

Timbre

128

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

147

Honor Magic3 Pro+

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 recording.

Life video frequency response
A 1/12 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.

Dynamics

125

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

146

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Dynamics score measures the accuracy of changes in the energy level of sound sources, for example how precisely a voice's plosives (the p's, t's and k's, for example) are reproduced. The score also considers the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), for example how loud the main voice is compared to the background noise.


Spatial

103

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

159

Vivo X Fold

The sub-attributes for spatial tests include pinpointing a specific sound's location, its positional balance, distance, and wideness on the recorded audio files.

Recording directivity
Directivity graph of the smartphone when recording test signals using the camera app, with the main camera. It represents the acoustic energy (in dB) over the angle of incidence of the sound source. (Normalized to the angle 0°, in front of the device.)

Volume

139

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

170

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Volume score represents how loud audio is normalized on the recorded files and the how the device handles loud environments, such as electronic concerts, when 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 above -24 LUFS for recorded content:
Meeting Life Video Selfie Video Memo
Samsung Galaxy S23 FE -24.2 LUFS -21.1 LUFS -19.6 LUFS -20.7 LUFS
Xiaomi 13T -28.7 LUFS -20.9 LUFS -19.3 LUFS -22.8 LUFS
Nubia RedMagic 8 Pro -33.5 LUFS -24.4 LUFS -19.2 LUFS -28.4 LUFS

Artifacts

143

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

145

Black Shark 5 Pro

The Artifacts score measures the extent to which the recorded sounds are affected by various types of distortions. The higher the score, the less the disturbances in the sound are noticeable. Distortions can occur because of sound processing in the device and the quality of the microphones, as well as user handling, such as how the phone is held.

In this audio comparison, you can listen to the way this smartphone handles wind noise relative to its competitors:

Recordings of a voice sample with light background noise, facing a turbulent wind of 5 m/s

Background

147

Samsung Galaxy S23 FE

166

Black Shark 5 Pro

Background evaluates how natural 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, yet it should provide some context of the surroundings.

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