I’m obsessed with music, but I wouldn’t even consider buying a Bluetooth speaker since I got my iPhone – the speakers are that good

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I recently started using one iPhone 15 after five years away from Apple smartphones, and as my previous pieces on the iPhone bland 60Hz screen And satisfyingly nostalgic form factor It may have been clear that the return to iOS was a bit of a rollercoaster.

However, there is one thing about the iPhone that I am unreservedly happy with, a feature that I like to call the best in its class.

It’s not the Dynamic island with its useful notifications, nor the 48MP main camera with its excellent low-light performance, nor the USB-C port with all its interconnectivity – in fact, my favorite thing about the iPhone 15 is something that’s part of the iPhone range since the very beginning.

I’m talking about the simple speaker, located on the bottom of the iPhone 15 and combined with the speaker grille at the top of the screen for stereo sound. I’m constantly amazed at how fantastic this little two-channel system sounds, especially compared to the other handsets in my rotating smartphone gear.

Sounds great

As an enthusiast of both music technology and consumer technology, I’m honestly confused as to how Apple has managed to wring so much bass and presence out of such a physically small speaker, but at full volume I find myself able to hear songs clearly from every room in the house.

I can distinctly remember a time when phone speakers were an afterthought, an absolutely suboptimal way to listen to music on a phone. My very first smartphone, an early HTC One, had a speaker grille about an inch wide that sounded predictably awful.

However, this didn’t stop me from listening to music on it – I’ve continued to use phone speakers ever since, usually just to put something on while doing chores or getting ready to go out.

That said, the iPhone 15 is the first phone I’ve used that I think offers a good listening experience, rather than just a way to make something play.

Lately I’ve noticed that I have the Amazon echo smart speaker and Presonus Eris 3.5 monitors that I have around the house for iPhone convenience – it’s physically impossible to replicate the rich sound of a 3-inch speaker with a smartphone, but the iPhone 15 will come soon close that I rarely feel like I’m missing background listening.

It’s not that I don’t care about sound quality either – I regularly buy music online to get the best sound quality and even produce my own music. The mix of simplicity and quality that the iPhone offers is simply very hard to beat.

Now that there’s the possibility of good speakers already installed and portability solved by the iPhone, I find myself not even tempted the best Bluetooth speakers – a necessity in my music listening arsenal in recent years.

Overall, the iPhone 15 is a reminder of Apple’s engineering prowess and how far the phone speaker has come. Audio is rarely the reason a phone makes our list the best phonesbut music lovers shouldn’t ignore this underrated aspect of the iPhone experience.

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