Poco F1’s Dual Speakers: Pretty Loud But Secondary Speaker Unwanted

Pocophone’s debut smartphone is a bombshell and we’ve been seeing its consistent performance in nearly all areas with features that do not belong in this price range. Besides commendable performance, the Poco F1 also offers great cameras. But apart from hoarding the best ingredients for a good performance, and one of the useful features for this palatable experience is the dual speaker setup carried by the smartphone.

Uncommon to most smartphones in the segment, the dual speakers on the Poco F1 are intended to make media consumption delightful. While one of the speakers is placed at the standard, bottom-firing position, which by the way, gets very loud, the smartphone’s earpiece also serves as the second speaker.

At this point, I must clarify the Poco F1 does not really have a stereo sound setup. Instead, the earpiece shares some load off the main speaker’s shoulders. Typically, the primary speaker at the bottom does most of the job while the secondary speaker only produces the treble part, but in a significantly lower volume. This serves in adding a bit of volume and a spatial sense to the audio.

While the dual speaker was a big highlight of the Poco F1 launch, I don’t think the setup is worth the hype. Honestly, I think the Poco boat could have sailed easily even without a secondary speaker, which barely makes any difference. Sorry Poco, but the secondary speaker’s absence would not be felt.

To put this in context, the secondary speaker feels too feeble and is easily veiled by the loudness of the main speaker. The only time when you can feel its presence is when you accidentally – or intentionally – cover the primary one.

I compared the audio output with the Asus Zenfone 5Z, which also features a similar dual speaker setup, and found that the Zenfone 5Z’s speakers are observably louder and marginally clearer. The sound ejecting out of the second speaker on the smartphone – just like the Poco F1 – was shrill and coarse, although a tad bit louder, too.

But the problem lies not with using the earpiece as a backup speaker but with expecting that the earpiece would match up to a much larger driver used in the main speaker. Even much expensive smartphones such as the Huawei P20 Pro suffer from an imbalanced sound – although the quality soars with the price.

If I’ve to gather my final thoughts about the dual speakers on Poco F1, I think it does not enhance the performance in any aspect. Sure, the bottom speaker is pretty loud and clear, but the secondary speaker is just useless, to be honest.

It’s easy to say that the Poco F1 would have still managed to grab much attention even without the additional speaker, especially when the main one is very loud and impactful.

Meanwhile, if you’re curious to try playing music through your phone’s earpiece, you can try out the Stealth Audio Player (free on Google Play Store), which is developed by a senior XDA member.