iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus speaker sound challenge!

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are here and while we've heard a lot about their new 4.7- and 5.5-inch Retina HD displays, we haven't heard as much about their speakers. Are they louder? Are they clearer?

We measured them all with the usual iOS decibel app but couldn't see much a difference. Listening to them all, however, the iPhone 6 did seem both louder and clearer than the iPhone 5s, and the iPhone 6 Plus even more so. (Yes, insert 5.5 is 5 by 5 here.) The biggest surprise, however, wasn't the speaker but the vibration motor in the iPhone 6 plus. Hit play on the video above and listen for yourself!

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

11 Comments
  • Agreed. My 6+ sounds much clearer and louder. Definitely an improvement. Sent from the iMore App
  • Thx for the video, The article text was kind of confusing - especially later in the write up.
  • there's a typo..."by" should be "but"
  • Thank you for all of these short video clips of the new iPhones!!
  • With all of the extra top and bottom bezel going to waste, I would have liked to see some speaker vents on the front of the device, similar to how HTC does it. Hopefully Apple with either come up with something to do with those extra areas, or will somehow slim them down as that is a lot of wasted space.
  • I agree
    Plus with them combined with Dr.Dre Beats maby they can take a design idea from them.
  • Hey audiophiles! I put my iPad Air in the medicine cabinet so I could watch a video while cleaning my teeth, which turned out to be like putting the speaker into a different and better cabinet. The difference in perceived audio quality was astounding. You might want to experiment with exactly where you put your mobile device in order to improve and amplify the sound. It would be interesting to take the same device and put it in different sized boxes made up of different materials to see what happens.
  • 6 Plus!!!! Sent from the iMore App
  • Concerning the vibrator, it would have been great if they put that Taptic Engine in the iPhone. I usually can't feel the vibration in my pocket if I'm standing or walking around. Might not make a difference. Sent from the iMore App
  • I was actually hoping for an improvement in the 6 speaker, i use a white noise app when i need to sleep during the day and I often found the 5s didn't quite drown out everything, dogs barking, lawnmowers etc. The 6 sounds pretty much identical to me, volume wise. Sent from the iMore App
  • Reading all these articles makes me crave for a 6+ even more!!! They can't come soon enough.