How is the external speaker?

[EMGSM]

To me it sounds better than my S7 edge. In my experience it is also louder.

 

[scott_0]

I never carried an iPhone so although my wife has one her notifications just sound like bells so I never noticed. God knows the iphone and Pixel have huge bezels. If people don't demand decent sound we'll never get it. HTC used to make some really nice sounding phones. I think some had stereo speakers. IMO one good speaker is better than 2 tinny ones though. One of these companies should consult with Bose.

I forgot about the HTC M8 with the boom sound, I actually had one and the sound was amazing, but nothing Samsung has put out, touches the iphone

 

[durandetto]

It's much better than my v20 and better than my note 7. I don't expect to have stereo quality sound out of a single speaker on the bottom of a water resistant phone. If you have realistic expectations you'll be pleased.

 

[dpham00]

Haven't used the s7 edge in a while but it seems louder. Quality isn't great but passable.

 

[Michael Pecikonis]

It's much better than my v20 and better than my note 7. I don't expect to have stereo quality sound out of a single speaker on the bottom of a water resistant phone. If you have realistic expectations you'll be pleased.

Exactly. Complaints are getting ridiculous. My s7 edge speaker is fine. The s8 + will be more then loud. I donr need bass on a phone speaker. Lol.

 

[GaryWW]

Sounds much louder and clearer on my new S8 than my S7 Edge

 

[skipatrol]

I'm coming from the Alcatel idol 4s which may be the best speakers on the market and I'm pleasantly surprised with the s8. It's not stereo or as bassy but it's not bad by any stretch.

 

[skipatrol]

Bump.

Been playing with the Poweramp eq settings and that really seems to help. Honestly I'm pretty happy with this speaker. And that's coming from someone whose last 4 phones had stereo speakers.

 

[bandofbrothers2112]

I know some haven't been overly impressed with the single down firing speaker with also issues with the potential of covering it with a finger when in Landscape Mode, but for me I've had no issues and to try ear is better than my previous phone which was a s7 edge.

 

[jimbo1mcm]

My S8 is nice and loud, almost as loud as my Iphone 7. No complaints. I usually play music through my Bose Sound Touch 10 or my Viotek headphones. Haven't pulled the AKG headphones out of the box.

 

[mlblack16]

It's an improvement over the S7E. That having said, it's still not great. As far as I understand, part of the issue is maintaining the IP68 standard. The S7E utilized some design of wire mesh that had such small spacing, the capillary action of water would prevent it from passing through, but the trade off was a muffled, underperforming speaker.

 

[TFBisquit]

Yeah it's pretty loud but YouTube requires 80% or more. That depends on the uploader also though.
Notifications and calls are very loud on max.

 

[Qc_Anubis]

Sounds bad imo volume wise it's great but don't expect good sound quality out of it, that's why i use a bluetooth speaker or headphones instead and ofc the receiver for phone calls. I personally think my note 4 had better quality out of it's rear mounted speaker.

 

[TFBisquit]

We have a note 4 also

 

[John Swain 696]

Yeah only had s8 for just over a week played music over the loud speaker. It's clearer & actually feels like the speaker is giving out more than just tinny noise.
Played The Black Keys, DNB, Reggae, Euphoric Trance, handles them all very well but as always comes down to the quality of the music files & how they are created. Poor quality gives of reverb & hiss. What's missing is that tweater from earpiece but don't think samsung will incorporate it cause the earspeaker is smaller so not sure how this effects it people reporting that modding your S8 with a root & changing the mixer path but whats the point cause your then altering the phone & invalidating your warranty.

 

[H3aTeRzz]

Not thrilled with it....but I rarely use it on speaker anyway.

 

[arunma]

It's an improvement over the S7E. That having said, it's still not great. As far as I understand, part of the issue is maintaining the IP68 standard. The S7E utilized some design of wire mesh that had such small spacing, the capillary action of water would prevent it from passing through, but the trade off was a muffled, underperforming speaker.

That's what I've heard/read too. But it's still not clear to me why the iPhone 7 manages to have such loud speakers while achieving an IP68 rating. My wife's iPhone speaker knocks the socks off of mine. I understand that they implemented stereo by also using the earpiece speaker for audio. Seems like something Samsung could have implemented as well...

 

[flyingkytez]

It's the same exact quality as the S7. Honestly sounds pretty terrible for a flagship, but then again you can't blame them because it's water resistant. Now the regular S6 had a great speaker because it wasn't waterproof.

 

[flyingkytez]

That's what I've heard/read too. But it's still not clear to me why the iPhone 7 manages to have such loud speakers while achieving an IP68 rating. My wife's iPhone speaker knocks the socks off of mine. I understand that they implemented stereo by also using the earpiece speaker for audio. Seems like something Samsung could have implemented as well...

I agree, iPhones​ have EXCELLENT sounding speakers! Samsung should've upgraded their speaker technology.

 

[Stevenmc8602]

It's the same exact quality as the S7. Honestly sounds pretty terrible for a flagship, but then again you can't blame them because it's water resistant. Now the regular S6 had a great speaker because it wasn't waterproof.

Why can't u blame them? Apple and LG managed to have better sounding speakers and so have HTC and all of them are water resistant too