Mobile devices catch up on sound

Till a couple of years ago, anyone buying a notebook had tospend extra on external speakers. The sound in laptops were so bad that manydealers had started bundling these small speakers with all laptop and netbookpurchases. The only exception was the MacBook series which somehow seemed tohave audio which you could hear over the noise of the air conditioner or thetelevision. But then things changed, and changed drastically. One of thepioneers of good sound in regular laptops was the HP Pavilion series which hadsound good enough to sell as an entertainment device.

"We monitor consumer trends and changes in usage patterns toconstantly improve our products," says Ketan Patel, HP India's Director-Product Marketing. "We understood that young customers needed top quality audioand a better overall experience. So we integrated the technology into ourdevice." To ensure top notch sound, HP now has Beats Audio, Dolby and AltecLansing depending on the product range.

Adds Patel: "Once we have this kind of audio quality theoverall experience goes up; be it listening to music or playing games or doingpresentations." The new HP Pavilion DV6, for instance, has quad speakers-two infront, two behind and a sub-woofer. HP has been able to integrate more speakersin the same space due to technological advancements. "But the Beats Audiobranding means we have integrated the hardware that is compatible with thetechnology making the experience much more superior to other hardware. So inmachines like the dm4 we have the same audio experience with and without theheadset."

Acer, meanwhile, has tied up with Dolby to enhance the audioquality in most of its devices. In fact, the Iconia range of tablets from thecompany has arguably the best sound in the segment. Says Saji Kumar,Director-Product Management, Acer India: "To ensure that consumers receive awholesome experience while watching videos on their notebooks/ tablets, we haveequipped our consumer product range with the latest Dolby features. There is nocompromise being made on audio quality."

Across companies and devices, Dolby has been working toimprove sound quality. "We want to ensure that the sound reproduction is suchthat the artiste's intent is not lost what ever screen you might be listeningthe work on," says Ashim Mathur, Marketing Head at Dolby Laboratories India. Hesays that Dolby has a five-screen strategy, ensuring that the sound qualityremains consistent across screens-from a cinema theatre to a mobile phone.However, Dolby enhances sound at the software level, tuning each device toensure it has "cinematic sound quality". The proverbial 'Dolby Effect' can beexperience on a range of Nokia phones starting with the N8 launched last year.

Mobile phones have had great sound for a few years, eversince Sony-Ericsson launched its Walkman series followed by Nokia XpressMusic.But now these devices have sound quality good enough to rock a party withoutany external help. Plugged into a home theatre or speaker system, phones likethe N8 and new Nokia 808 Pureview will leave you wondering if the sound isactually coming from something that can be held in your palm. "But," says Ashim Mathur of Dolby, "this sound quality does not come easy. A lot of time andenergy has to be spent to get the sound quality right." Meanwhile, HTC has alsoannounced that Beats Audio will be a feature in some of its topend phones.

In mobile phones, good sound is also about the microphonesused. While Motorola phones have made their mark with great audio, especiallythe Rokr series, the company has also improved the voice clarity of itsdevices. "Our range of smartphones have a reputation for excellent voiceclarity," says William Moss, Director of Communications, Asia-Pacific, MotorolaMobility. "We've also made it convenient for people to converse on ourBluetooth headsets by using combinations of up to three microphones in theheadsets, along with our Crystaltalk technology." This, he says, dramaticallyreduces background noise and provides amazing audio on both sides of the call.