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The iPhone 16 Pro Max's Hidden Talent

By Victor Hristov

Published: Jan 17, 2025, 7:57 AM

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This article may contain personal views and opinion from the author.

iPhone 16 Pro Max in front of OnePlus 13, S24 Ultra and Pixel 9 Pro XL

While we were all busy discussing the actual merits of having a dedicated camera button on the iPhone 16 series and the slow trickle of Apple Intelligence features, one incredibly impressive talent of the latest high-end iPhone remains often unmentioned and forgotten.

It's a feature you use so often that you might forget just how well Apple got it with the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

But recently, while testing new rival OnePlus 13 and a bunch of other phones, I accidentally stumbled upon it and when you have a direct comparison like that, it's even more impressive.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max's Hidden Talent

This mysterious iPhone 16 Pro Max hidden talent is... the loudspeaker quality!

This is not some slight advantage that only audiophiles can hear. Just yesterday, I was streaming Narcos Mexico's theme song (Rodrigo Amarante - Tuyo) on Netflix on a few phones in the office. It was all flagship devices, playing one after the other. The moment the iPhone started playing all heads turned.

"What is that phone?!", people who were just doing their work were suddenly intrigued by the sound.

It's that impressive, not just because how loud it is, but how the loudness is controlled.

You cannot just trust one single anecdote to declare the iPhone 16 Pro Max the greatest loudspeaker on a modern phone though.

I played a bunch of songs in different genres.

Rock'n'roll

First, our favorite office track for testing loudspeakers: "So far away" by Avenged Sevenfold. You have melody, you have power, you have it all.

On the Galaxy S24 Ultra this track sounds surprisingly flat and monotone. The drums lack their thump completely. You cannot fully articulate the emotional contrast of the vocals and the other instruments.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL gets louder, but at max volume it is unpleasant. The highs are screeching high to the point that you want to turn it down.

The OnePlus 13 is more pleasant than both the Galaxy and Pixel. Unlike the other two phones that prioritize the highs and elevate them to unpleasant highs, here the sound is more balanced between highs, mids and lows.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max sounds distinctly different from the very first note. It is even better than the OnePlus 13, controlling the highs as well, but also adding a lot more depth to the lows and mids, so you have a full, juicy, incredibly real sound on a phone. Since nothing is exaggerated, you can enjoy this track WHILE blasting it on full volume on the iPhone.

"In the end" by Linkin Park

Linkin Park's"In the end" is an absolute classic but because of the heavy involvement of the drums it is a challenge to play on a smartphone.

The Pixel 9 Pro XL simply cannot deal with that challenge. At full volume, this is pure ear torture and you need to turn the volume down, with the lows completely falling apart.

The OnePlus 13 is boomier than the Galaxy S24 Ultra, but the sound here is less controlled and the vocals are slightly muffled, while the Galaxy S24 Ultra - not least because it's slightly quieter - is able to achieve a somewhat better balance and you can hear the vocals cleaner, but there is a lot of hiss to the sound. However, forget about feeling anything when the "One day, I don't know why, it doesn't even matter how hard you try..." line kicks in. Both phones fail to deliver that emotional punch.

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is far from perfect, but it is better than the other phones. A bit cleaner, with slightly more depth and control. It is not always the loudest, but it is easily the best balanced phone.

Here is why Apple's iPhone sounds different

Apple just recently opened its Audio Lab for the first time to the media. I wasn't there, but I read the report very carefully. The lab equipment is not much different from what I have seen when touring other phone makers. You have your silent room (fun fact: did you know that you can go crazy if you stay there for too long?), you have your typical equipment.

The difference is Apple does not just use automated testing, it has real people listening to the way its gadgets sound and making changes based on that.

Sounds surprisingly simple, but this type of "human" tuning is not common in phone makers.

The results from my improvized audio tests certainly attest to that.

It's one thing to try and have the loudest phone on the market. It's a different thing to have a phone that pleases the human ear.

I miss really good sounding phones

The JBL Moto Mod was a god-send for audio lovers

Just a few years back, we had some truly amazing sounding smartphone.

The Asus ROG Phone 7 Ultimate blew us all away with its dual speakers, achieving a level of clarity we have not seen matched on another phone so far.

Even further back, we had the JBL Sound Boost Moto Mod, which you could slap on the back of the Moto Z phone to get what was essentially the equivalent of a tiny Bluetooth speaker.

Those were the good old days, as they say, but sound quality remains an incredibly important aspect of a phone that you only truly appreciate when you compare it to a different phone. The realization can be a shocking one.

Here is to hoping 2025 brings us another incredibly well sounding phone (the S25 Ultra is right around the corner!), but at the moment, the iPhone 16 Pro Max remains in a league of its own when it comes to smartphone speakers.

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Victor, a seasoned mobile technology expert, has spent over a decade at PhoneArena, exploring the depths of mobile photography and reviewing hundreds of smartphones across Android and iOS ecosystems. His passion for technology, coupled with his extensive knowledge of smartphone cameras and battery life, has positioned him as a leading voice in the mobile tech industry.