Chinese Smartphone Makers Driving Push to Higher Audio Quality in Handsets, Says ABI

Chinese smartphone makers are leading a push to include higher quality audio in smartphones, and handset makers are customizing solutions to provide it, ABI Research reported Friday. Many top- and mid-tier phone makers are breaking away from standard chipsets to include custom technologies that improve the audio quality on both sides of calls, said ABI. It cited Korean smartphone maker Samsung and its Galaxy C9 Pro that uses a Cirrus Logic low-power audio codec combined with an NXP audio amplifier to create an always-on, low-noise, hi-fi audio system. "Handset manufacturers are notorious for removing every penny of extra cost from the mobile phone, but in this case, they are spending a few extra dollars to customize the audio system to satisfy consumer demand for higher quality audio," said analyst Jim Mielke. The trend to improve audio quality is most prevalent in China, “infiltrating lower and lower product tiers every quarter,” said Mielke.