So i have this school project where i have to measure some acoustic signals of a room and i need to do a report about it. I know that smartphones used to have Electret microphones. (Don't know if they do anymore)
But i was wondering for the project, in these newest models, what kind of microphones do smartphones use? And how many microphones do they have?
If anyone knows please let me know. Thank you everyone!!!!

 

DXOMARK has launched a new smartphone audio quality benchmark
https://www.dxomark.com/introducing-the-dxomark-audio-test-protocol/

Spoiler: External Smartphone Microphone

external smartphone microphone

- You don't have to spend a huge amount of money to get a good sound on your mobile phone.
- No matter how cheap the model is: an external smartphone microphone delivers much better sound than the built-in microphone.
- Smartphone microphones have a TRSS plug so that they can be recognized as a microphone at the headphone socket.
- Most models have an adapter for use with cameras or computers.

Spoiler: Galaxy S21 Ultra

Galaxy S21 Ultra
The voice quality of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is pleasing with clear, low-noise playback as long as the smartphone is held to the ear. However, the loudspeaker is less successful. The ultra user then sounds very nasal and the range of the microphones is only small, and speech dropouts occur at a distance of an arm's length. However, the S21 Ultra can shine when it comes to suppressing ambient noise.
Even people speaking in the vicinity are reliably filtered out by the smartphone and other background noises are inaudible to the conversation partner. Even in an extremely noisy environment, the speaker remains intelligible, but is then easily reproduced mechanically.

Spoiler: iPhone 12

iPhone 12
Time for better mics?
Two new features announced at WWDC, one for iOS 14 and the other for the AirPods Pro, suggest the iPhone 12 series could have better or at least different microphones than the iPhone 11. The current iPhone uses high quality MEMS microphones. One is on the front of the speaker, another on the bottom edge, and a third in the camera body. Simultaneous translation of conversations was one of the big new iOS 14 features Apple introduced.

This offers a landscape mode that can translate conversations live, whereby the app is designed so that each speaker has half of the screen available. This isn't something the iPhone 11 couldn't do now, in theory, as the microphones at the top and bottom of the screen can differentiate between people speaking on either side of the phone's display. The AirPods Pro will come with spatial audio, which could indicate improved microphones on the iPhone 12 However, this announcement, along with the news that the AirPods Pro will soon support surround sound, i.e. surround sound through psychoacoustic processing, suggests that Apple may change the microphone arrangement on the iPhone 12.

Spoiler: Microphone Basics

The built-in smartphone microphone has long since ceased to just make phone calls, but voice recordings for chat can also be recorded using the microphone as an additional function. Even control commands can be sent to the smartphone through the microphone function. What the microphone does and how it works The microphone on the smartphone can be found as a small point or in the form of a small hole on the upper and also on the lower half of the smartphone housing.

Most smartphones use the microphones on the lower half of the device for the dictation device function of the mobile phone and to record voice messages. The microphone on the upper half of the housing is used for the camera and video function, but is also used for the hands-free function in the car, for example. The microphone is made up of many elastic membranes. These individual membranes are stacked on top of one another and convert the sound waves into an electrical voltage so that they can be passed on to the recording device.

The microphone and the expandable functions If the sound quality is no longer available when using the smartphone microphone, it may be because the microphone hole at the lower end of the device is inadvertently covered by the finger or, very often, by the protective cover of the smartphone . Therefore, when telephoning and speaking voice messages, care should always be taken to keep the microphone free so that clear recordings can be made. Some devices offer an additional dust protection grille to protect the microphone and ensure that the integrated microphone works properly with regular system updates.

Like the loudspeaker function, the integrated microphone can also be expanded by connecting external devices, so that interference-free and professional sound quality is guaranteed. To do this, an adapter is plugged into the headphone jack to connect the external microphone to the smartphone. In order to use an external microphone on the smartphone, appropriate recording software is often required for the mobile phone.

 

Last edited: Apr 30, 2021