Cell phones with great audio fidelity?

[20kHz]

Let's face it. Almost, if not all, cell phones have bad speakers. I currently have a Motorola Q9C that has just doesn't stack up in terms of audio quality, and I'm ready to buy a new phone that will put this one to shame. I realize that cell phones can only offer so much in terms of audio quality due to size constraints, battery life, and costs, but I would at least like something with a much greater waveband.

I'm currently with Sprint (CDMA) and prefer phones with a tactile qwerty keyboard. Given my circumstances, what would you guys recommend I buy?

 

[fightinkraut]

I don't know of any good source that compares CDMA phones, but if you ever consider switching you can use www.gsmarena.com for comparison...they do an excellent job covering the audio quality of different phones. Here is a review of an E72 (which is awesome btw) where they compare the quality, info is at the bottom of the page.

 

[20kHz]

Thanks for the link, I'm going to check it out and see what I can find.

 

[3db]

Believe it or not, the Blackberry Bold has the most decent speaker I've ever heard on a cell/smart phone. It put everything else I owned to shame but its still not HIFI

 

[jayg84]

Has anybody heard the envy touch? Just wondering if the speakers are any good.

 

[Hi Ho]

The phone system is very lo-fi to begin with. Couple that with a cell phone and you will get ANYTHING but hi-fi sound. The landline telephone system hits 3.5khz at best. Cell phones only use an 8kHz sampling rate. You can have the nicest most accurate speaker on a cell phone and it will still sound like a phone.

http://www.expresscomputeronline.com/20040712/opinion02.shtml

I have an HTC EVO 4G right now and I am happy with the call quality. The earpeice speaker is perfectly fine. It doesn't sound any different when I hold it up to my ear as opposed to piping it through my car stereo. It sounds like a phone either way. My old phone was a Blackberry Storm (which I hated) and the call quality on that was fine as well.

The EVO 4G doesn't have a physical keyboard. I would stay away from LG phones. I know multiple people that have multiple issues with several LG models. Their phones miss calls, don't receive or send texts, freeze up, shut off randomly, etc. I wouldn't buy an LG phone.

 

[mikehummel]

Blackberry has the best speaker...

 

[skizzerflake]

If you're going to listen to the speakers in the phone, forget it. There's a basic physical limitation in speakers that are as small as mosquitos. Good sound will never happen. As for good potential sound, the iPhone/iTunes combination is as good as compressed sound gets. You can plug it into a larger system and not feel dirty for listening.

 

[vikebrian84]

You might as well just try and find something you can bring with you, my iphone 4 cant play anything even close to resonable.