Speakerphone loudness test
A loudspeaker that is nice and... well, loud, is a nice asset for your mobile. Whether it's hearing the other person on the speakerphone or your phone ringing from the other room, or even playing music on your get-together's, a loud speaker is definitely something that's nice to have.
And while the quality of the loudspeaker sound is difficult to measure and is for the most part a subjective matter, we can effectively measure how loud it is.
We do our tests in a soundproof studio taking measurements with the handset loudspeaker facing the loudness meter at a distance of exactly 1 m. For each test we make several consecutive measurements - we usually disregard the highest readings and take the lowest of the maximum values, as that's least likely to have been misread. We test three different types of audio samples for three different scenarios:
1) A phone ringing. For the first part of the test we use a ringtone which resembles the ringing of an old rotary phone, because it seems that most phones do well when we use it.
2) Pink noise. Next we try a sample of pink noise. Our readings with it are pretty indicative on how well the handset loudspeaker can play most music.
3) Human voice, male. This is an important test, since if you tend the use the loudspeaker for speakerphone purposes, loudness is really important, regardless of whether you are in the conference room or in your car.
Once we have the results in db for all three sound samples, we sum them up and use a in-house developed formula to produce a qualitative description of the loudness levels: Below Average, Average, Good, Very Good and Excellent.
As many of our results are separated by a difference of only a few decibels, it is important to keep in mind that the decibel is a logarithmic unit, which means that a reading of +3dB represents roughly two times the power.
We'd like to reiterate again that this test is not about the quality of the sound produced by the loudspeaker. A mild, relatively deep-sounding loudspeaker that soothes the ear won't do well in this test. Instead, what we are after is pure peak loudness - it's our hunt for the loudest phone, ever.
Battery life
In gauging battery life, it's hard to perfect a methodology that lets you cover all of the various use scenarios without having to test for weeks on end. Whether it be display, audio quality, or camera, the goal with all of our tests is not only to provide you with the clearest, most comprehensive examination of a particular device, but to also provide it to you in a timely manner. Our battery test is no exception.
With each battery test you'll see four different numbers, each reflecting different types of battery-consuming activities. The test revolves around three basic tasks, which we feel are most commonly performed by smartphone users: making calls, browsing the web and playing video.
The first test is the talk time test, which measures how long it takes to deplete the battery by making voice calls. Bearing in mind that most screens automatically turn off during a call, we've made sure our set up accounts for this. We close all applications which may further strain the battery, too.
The web browsing test is performed using an automated script which reloads a webpage every ten seconds. There are no flash elements on the web pages, so the playing field is even. The brightness of the phones' displays is set to 50% and we use a Wireless N router placed a few meters away to get full connectivity bars.
In our video playback test we measure how long it takes for a device to run its fully charged battery down to 10%, while looping a standard-definition video. We stop at 10% since most devices shut their video players at this point. The display is again set to 50%, and all radios on the device are switched off (Airplane mode).
Finally, our overall longevity rating gives you an idea of how much battery backup you can get on a single charge. A score of 40h means that you'll need to fully charge once every 40 hours if you do one hour of 3G calls, one hour of video playback and one hour of web browsing daily. Essentially, it's an aggregated and normalized score, which factors in the three mentioned tests along with the real-life standby power consumption, which we also measure.
