I recently started using an iPhone 15 after five years without Apple smartphones, and as my previous pieces about the iPhone’s matte 60Hz display and satisfyingly nostalgic form factor may have indicated, the return to iOS has been a bit a roller coaster.
However, there is one thing about the iPhone that I am unreservedly happy with, a feature that I like to call the best in its class.
It’s not the Dynamic Island with its useful notifications, nor the 48MP main camera with its excellent low-light performance, nor the USB-C port with all its interconnectivity – in fact, my favorite thing about the iPhone 15 is something that part has been part of the iPhone series since the very beginning.
I’m talking about the simple speaker, located on the bottom of the iPhone 15 and combined with the speaker grille at the top of the screen for stereo sound. I’m constantly amazed at how fantastic this little two-channel system sounds, especially compared to the other handsets in my rotating smartphone rig.
Sounds great
As an enthusiast of both music technology and consumer technology, I’m honestly confused as to how Apple has managed to wring so much bass and presence out of such a physically small speaker, but at full volume I find myself able to hear songs clearly from every room in the house.
I can distinctly remember a time when phone speakers were an afterthought, an absolutely suboptimal way to listen to music on a phone. My very first smartphone, an early HTC One, had a speaker grille about an inch wide that sounded predictably awful.
This didn’t stop me from listening to music on it though – I’ve continued to use phone speakers since then, usually just to put something on while I’m doing chores or getting ready to go out.
That said, the iPhone 15 is the first phone I’ve used that I think offers a good listening experience, rather than just a way to make something play.
Lately I’ve found myself eschewing the Amazon Echo smart speaker and Presonus Eris 3.5 monitors I have around the house for the convenience of the iPhone – it’s physically impossible to get the rich sound of a 3-inch speaker. replicate with a smartphone, but the iPhone 15 comes so close that I rarely feel like I’m missing out on background listening.
It’s not that I don’t care about audio quality either – I regularly buy music online to get the best sound quality and even produce my own music. The mix of simplicity and quality that the iPhone offers is simply very hard to beat.
Now that there are good speakers already available and portability is solved by the iPhone, I find myself not being tempted by even the best Bluetooth speakers – a necessity in my music listening arsenal in recent years.
Overall, the iPhone 15 is a reminder of Apple’s engineering prowess and how far the phone speaker has come. Audio is rarely the reason a phone makes our list of the best phones, but music lovers shouldn’t ignore this underrated aspect of the iPhone experience.