When Samsung decided to acquire Harman International, the parent company of popular audio companies like Harman Kardon and AKG, back in late 2016, we were excited for the kind of changes the newly onboarded talent would bring to the Korean giant's smartphones. Samsung first brought us the AKG-tuned earphones with the Galaxy S8, before its acquisition of Harman was completed, and this year, with the Galaxy S9, Samsung has pulled out all the stops by finally bringing stereo speakers to its mainstream flagship lineup.
Two is better than one
The speakers are tuned by AKG as well, and the Galaxy S9 and S9+ even come with Dolby Atmos support. While the true benefit of Dolby Atmos comes over a pair of earphones, it does provide a noticeable improvement to the audio outputted by the stereo speakers. Samsung's taken its time to do something other manufacturers – including its biggest competitor, Apple – have been doing for a few years, but the company's implementation of stereo speakers on the Galaxy S9 is more than good enough for us to stop complaining about the long wait.
Yes, we love the Galaxy S9's stereo speakers, but we want to know what you think of them. Are they everything you had hoped they would be, or do you think Samsung should have done more? Whatever your opinion, let us know by voting in the poll below and sharing your thoughts with us in the comments.
Results: Well, the consensus is in. 46 percent of voters think the Galaxy S9's stereo speakers are great, while 32 percent believe they're good but there's room for improvement (something we support as well, after having used the S9 for a few weeks). Not everyone's impressed, though, and while the percentage of such voters might be small, they're a good base to go by for Samsung as it works on improving the stereo speakers with either the Galaxy Note 9 or the Galaxy S10 next year.
